Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves.
Interpretation
This quote compares modern software development to the construction of an Egyptian pyramid, highlighting issues of complexity and lack of foundational planning.
Alan Kay's quote uses the metaphor of an Egyptian pyramid to convey a criticism of contemporary software development practices. He suggests that much of today's software is built without proper structural integrity or thoughtful design, relying instead on a massive accumulation of code akin to the bricks of a pyramid that were laid with brute force. This implies that the effectiveness and longevity of such software is questionable, as it may not stand the test of time without a solid foundation.
In practice
Discussing software architecture at a tech conference.
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.
Instruction tables will have to be made up by mathematicians with computing experience and perhaps a certain puzzle-solving ability. There need be no real danger of it ever becoming a drudge, for any processes that are quite mechanical may be turned over to the machine itself.
People don't want lots and lots of single purpose devices. They do not want to have to learn how to set up something for photos, another thing for music, another thing for video.
The steam-engine I call fire-demon and great; but it is nothing to the invention of fire.
Young people do not watch television; they are on the Internet.
Any competent programmer has an API to cash, payments, escrow, wills, notaries, lotteries, dividends, micropayments, subscriptions, crowdfunding, and more.
Every one of today's smartphones has thousands of times more processing power than the computers that guided astronauts to the moon.
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