This could do with a short summary of the book and why Alan Kay thought it was relevant, for each, on-page, before the link to Amazon.
Alan Kay's reading list
21–30 of 176 posts
Re: Alan Kay's reading list
#22So great to see Neil Postman and Marshal Mcluhan on the top, as well as Joseph Campbell and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the middle
Essential reading for a world that usually promotes taking media for granted.
Re: Alan Kay's reading list
#23The inner game of tennis is an awesome quick read.
Re: Alan Kay's reading list
#24Mindstorms by Papert transformed my understanding of how to program, and how to teach programming. The book discusses how children acquire mental models of computers and logical processes.
And it turns out that the book is growing even more relevant with the rapid growth of Lego Mindstorms -- which is a direct result Papert's projects and related MIT Media Lab projects.
What is most exciting, to me, is the direct links from the Mindstorms book to the rise of hobby micro-controllers such as the Arduino, BeagleBone, Raspberry Pi, and others, as well as the "Internet of Things" meme and similar kinds of home automation projects and home robotics projects.
Re: Alan Kay's reading list
#25It's an interesting selection overall, however I couldn't help but notice that the "Politics & Economy" section looks like neither politics nor economy have ever existed anywhere but in the US : )
Have you read Drucker?
Re: Alan Kay's reading list
#26Note that the only book specific to computer language on there is McCarthy's Lisp manual.
If you plan to get old, invest in fundamentals. They'll be with you long after any specific implementation is dead and buried.
> If you plan to get old, invest in fundamentals.
by that account, shouldn't we all be learning mathematics ?
Re: Alan Kay's reading list
#27Mindstorms by Papert transformed my understanding of how to program, and how to teach programming. The book discusses how children acquire mental models of computers and logical processes. And it turns out that the book is growing even more relevant with the rapid growth of Lego Mindstorms -- which is a direct result Papert's projects and related MIT Media Lab projects. What is most exciting, to me, is the direct lin…
Mindstorms is truly a transformational text.
It's very sad that Papert's brain injury sustained in Hanoi resulted in him needing to use some of the same techniques that he developed in the text to aid in his personal rehabilitation and recovery.
Re: Alan Kay's reading list
#28I love Kay and you should absolutely read any of his recommendations or at least examine them with earnest. That said, I struggle to remember anything he's created or written that's moved the needle (my needle). I'm honestly not hating and I have way too much respect for him to say anything on this list is not worthwhile. But, in my experience, Kay has been one of those brilliant uncles who's (written) work never seems to approach the peripheries of my (self-guided) computer science study (or main stream relevance?). Obviously I've heard of and studied him but if you asked me at a bar "madebylaw is alan kay still relevant in computer science?"
Re: Alan Kay's reading list
#29I love Kay and you should absolutely read any of his recommendations or at least examine them with earnest. That said, I struggle to remember anything he's created or written that's moved the needle (my needle). I'm honestly not hating and I have way too much respect for him to say anything on this list is not worthwhile. But, in my experience, Kay has been one of those brilliant uncles who's (written) work never see…
Ouch, why did I say anything. Feel like a hater :-/
Re: Alan Kay's reading list
#30I'm disappointed not to see Aristotle. On the other hand not totally surprised, either.
Kay is a huge admirer of Socrates. When I interviewed Kay in 2012, he even managed to bring Socrates into the conversation and then discourse on his worthiness in the context of various religions[1]: "You can't go to heaven unless you're baptized. If anyone deserves to go to heaven, it's Socrates, so this is a huge problem."
While the link below goes to the page mentioning Socrates, I highly recommend the entire interview. Kay was in truly excellent form.
[1] http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/interview-wit...