Understanding- -like civilization, happiness, music, science and a host of other great endeavors--is not a state of being, but a manner of traveling. This great road has no final destination. The journey itself is the reward.
Interpretation
Understanding is a continuous journey rather than a fixed destination, where the experiences we gain along the way are the true rewards.
In this quote, Alan Kay emphasizes that understanding and many other pursuits in life are not about achieving a final goal, but rather about the ongoing process of exploration and discovery. This perspective encourages us to value the learning and experiences we gather throughout our lives instead of fixating on a specific endpoint, as the journey itself provides the most meaningful rewards.
In practice
In a motivational speech about lifelong learning.
The Internet was done so well that most people think of it as a natural resource like the Pacific Ocean, rather than something that was man-made. When was the last time a technology with a scale like that was so error-free? The Web, in comparison, is a joke. The Web was done by amateurs.
Perspective is worth 80 IQ points.
The greatest single programming language ever designed
By the time I got to school, I had already read a couple hundred books. I knew in the first grade that they were lying to me because I had already been exposed to other points of view. School is basically about one point of view -- the one the teacher has or the textbooks have. They don't like the idea of having different points of view, so it was a battle. Of course I would pipe up with my five-year-old voice.
Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible.
If you're not failing 90% of the time, then you're probably not working on sufficiently challenging problems.
We should reward people, not ridicule them, for thinking the impossible.
Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.
Our task is to listen to the news that is always arriving out of silence.
Most so-called writers keep writing and writing with the hope, some day, to find something to say.
There is no end To what a living world Will demand of you.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.
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