Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Alan Kay's reading list

squeakland.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 176 posts

Re: Alan Kay's reading list

#151

Post by ontouchstart »

alankay wrote: post #140
ontouchstart wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alan, I am rereading http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Machine-Licklider-Revolution-Com... It was published in 2001. What do you think of its relevancy 15 years later in the context of our age of "big data" and "Machine Learning"?

I don't think I understand the question. This is by far the best book about how the major research funding and community happened in the 60s (Parc was one of the outgrowths). I would say that our "age" (or any age) could be enriched by understanding this book. For example, the real issues are not "big data" but "big understanding", not "Machine Learning" but "Machine Thinking". Some of the "Dream Machine" is about ho…

Thank you Alan, your answer is the exact reason that I asked that question.

Re: Alan Kay's reading list

#152

Post by codecamper »

ralfd wrote: post #46
alankay wrote: post #42

This wasn't actually for my students, and dates back to the early 90s. A number of people at Anderson Consulting (now Accenture) asked for my "top ten" books. This is not possible for anyone who reads extensively, so I came out with that list as a bare start. I should mention that reading lots of "poor books" is also part of literacy: they help the understanding and appreciation of "good books" considerably.

Did someone point you here or do you casually surf hacker news? I always find it fascinating who is potentially around here.

He reads 3 or 4 books a week. No time for hacker news!

Re: Alan Kay's reading list

#153

Post by alankay1 »

morbidhawk wrote: post #150
alankay1 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And consider that the Mormons did get Socrates into heaven (via proxy baptism!)

Exmormon here, to get into VIP Heaven (highest kingdom in heaven) he also needs temple endowment and temple sealing done by proxy too (which they've probably done). Don't tell me you converted to mormonism because of this

Nope (I just read a lot)

Re: Alan Kay's reading list

#154

Post by snikeris »

alankay wrote: post #80
justsaysmthng wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. From what I've read, the idea for The Whole Earth Catalog came to Stewart Brand during an acid trip, so I'm going to try my luck with a deeper question on the subject... The counterculture and the "psychedelic revolution" of the '60s has been a subject I've been very interested in, especially its impact on technology and computing. You were there, you saw it with your own eyes, you helped move technology f…

"The 60s" was more than a backdrop, especially in California -- and it was about a variety of things all at once, including: equal rights and race, the Vietnam War, and thoughts less in the same groove. The "counter culture" was all around Palo Alto and the rest of the Bay Area, and provided another set of contexts. And I think it had indirect influence -- kind of a glow -- on other things that were going on, such as…

> A little goes a long way, for many reasons.

Hmm.

Re: Alan Kay's reading list

#156

Post by internaut »

alankay1 wrote: post #142
internaut wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I forgot to ask. It's been circulating in the back of my mind for a while now. What do you think about Urbit? It seems to represent a fresh new start!

They have verve, and that's generally a good thing. In this case there are a lot of details that need to be grokked to make any reasonable comment. The use of combinators (a kind of dual of lambda calculus) harks back to an excellent thesis by Denis Seror at the University of Utah in the 70s that produced a safe, highly scalable and parallel implementation. I haven't looked at it more deeply (and probably should).

I'm sure Yarvin & the team will be delighted to hear it!

Re: Alan Kay's reading list

#157

Post by akkartik »

Scarblac wrote: post #41
signa11 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you plan to get old, invest in fundamentals. by that account, shouldn't we all be learning mathematics ?

Learn ecology, we are organisms that can't live without our ecosystem and we all need to be aware of what ecosystems can and can't do. Doesn't get more fundamental than that.

In that spirit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fates_of_Nations (I pretty much wrote that Wikipedia page.)

Re: Alan Kay's reading list

#158

Post by vmorgulis »

internaut wrote: post #156
alankay1 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have verve, and that's generally a good thing. In this case there are a lot of details that need to be grokked to make any reasonable comment. The use of combinators (a kind of dual of lambda calculus) harks back to an excellent thesis by Denis Seror at the University of Utah in the 70s that produced a safe, highly scalable and parallel implementation. I haven't looked at it more deeply (and probably should).

I'm sure Yarvin & the team will be delighted to hear it!

Sure!

https://twitter.com/urbit_/status/738099830233272321

Re: Alan Kay's reading list

#159

Post by dang »

alankay1 wrote: post #100

There seems to be a depth limit on replies: too bad. Also, I wonder if there is a provision (perhaps in a "preferences" section I don't know about) to have an email sent when someone replies (this is a very limited format for an open-ended exchange ...)

> There seems to be a depth limit on replies: too bad

It's an old pg trick to put a speed bump on flamewars (edit: the 'reply' link does show up after a few minutes), but you can get around it by clicking the timestamp of the comment you want to reply to.

I've relaxed the depth limit a notch, too.

Re: Alan Kay's reading list

#160

Post by alankay1 »

dang wrote: post #159
alankay1 wrote: post #100

There seems to be a depth limit on replies: too bad. Also, I wonder if there is a provision (perhaps in a "preferences" section I don't know about) to have an email sent when someone replies (this is a very limited format for an open-ended exchange ...)

> There seems to be a depth limit on replies: too bad It's an old pg trick to put a speed bump on flamewars (edit: the 'reply' link does show up after a few minutes), but you can get around it by clicking the timestamp of the comment you want to reply to. I've relaxed the depth limit a notch, too.

Thanks!
Post reply on HN