Alan Kay’s reading list
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Alan Kay’s reading list
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Re: Alan Kay’s reading list
#2I prefer this to any of the similar lists I’ve found around the web (e.g. the one discussed at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=663662 ). Nearly everything from this list that I am familiar with is wonderfully insightful.
Re: Alan Kay’s reading list
#3This was posted 18 months ago (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=92007 ). No problem with a repost - this is an absolutely wonderful list of books - just mentioning it because there are a couple of interesting comments on the earlier posting.
Re: Alan Kay’s reading list
#4It's striking how broadly engaged Kay is with the world. He finds ideas, problems and inspiration everywhere. To know how to write a program, all you need to know is APIs, algorithms, and tools. But to design breakthrough software - to know what program to write - it obviously helps to also be broadly engaged with the world.
Re: Alan Kay’s reading list
#5One thing I've been pondering lately, is the more general purpose of reading books.
I used to read quite a lot of books, library books and personal books. Mostly fiction and popular science, I hesitate to admit (not hesitate to read them, just hesitate to admit because they are 'lesser' books). There are a lot of things that I couldn't tell you whether I have read or not, let alone what the main points were. Now I mostly read online and read pages every day that are forgotten within hours.
Every day or two I find somethings really interesting and hold onto those ideas for a while, but they fade. How many great ideas did I read from Kathy Sierra? Lots... I think. As long as you don't ask what they were.
Am I really doing this just to feel good about saying "I've read that!"? Am I reading for the occasional "ooh, I read something interesting about that once... where was it?" feeling of contribution?
Am I missing something fundamental about reading and remembering that other people get - ought I to be studying books instead of skimming them? Ought I to remember more of the content?
Am I really a better person for having read more books? For having been exposed to certain ideas?
Re: Alan Kay’s reading list
#6It's striking how broadly engaged Kay is with the world. He finds ideas, problems and inspiration everywhere. To know how to write a program, all you need to know is APIs, algorithms, and tools. But to design breakthrough software - to know what program to write - it obviously helps to also be broadly engaged with the world.
Some part of this is that Kay is more concerned with cognition and learning, and especially in children, than he is with computer programming as such. Programming happens to be a uniquely exciting way to engage with mathematics, and computers happen to be wonderful tools in many types of learning, so he has devoted of his career to inventing programming environments and interfaces for kids.
Because all programming – even to some extent pure numerical algorithm design/optimization – is an exercise in communication and human-usable abstraction, most programmers should probably spend more time on developmental psychology than they do currently.
Re: Alan Kay’s reading list
#7One thing I've been pondering lately, is the more general purpose of reading books. I used to read quite a lot of books, library books and personal books. Mostly fiction and popular science, I hesitate to admit (not hesitate to read them, just hesitate to admit because they are 'lesser' books). There are a lot of things that I couldn't tell you whether I have read or not, let alone what the main points were. Now I mo…
Personally, I find that I remember much better with a pen in hand. If you've really engaged with a work – scribbled all over the margins, written a review, discussed it with your friends – you're much less likely to forget either its insights or your own reactions.
Re: Alan Kay’s reading list
#8One thing I've been pondering lately, is the more general purpose of reading books. I used to read quite a lot of books, library books and personal books. Mostly fiction and popular science, I hesitate to admit (not hesitate to read them, just hesitate to admit because they are 'lesser' books). There are a lot of things that I couldn't tell you whether I have read or not, let alone what the main points were. Now I mo…
I wrote a little flashcard script that lets me enter and later test myself on facts. If I get the answer to a question right, the delay before a repeat of the question increases. If I get the answer wrong, the delay decreases. When I read something I want to remember, I just enter a bundle of relevant questions into the program. It's helped a lot with retaining knowledge.
Re: Alan Kay’s reading list
#9One thing I've been pondering lately, is the more general purpose of reading books. I used to read quite a lot of books, library books and personal books. Mostly fiction and popular science, I hesitate to admit (not hesitate to read them, just hesitate to admit because they are 'lesser' books). There are a lot of things that I couldn't tell you whether I have read or not, let alone what the main points were. Now I mo…
Reading books is mostly something you do for entertainment, like going to the movies, or eating nice food. There's nothing wrong with that! It's very pleasurable, and occasionally useful. But generally most reading doesn't make you a better person, any more than watching opera or other "high" art does.
Re: Alan Kay’s reading list
#10Has anyone here actually read Piaget? I've heard that he was such a bad writer that even his closest disciples often had no idea what he was talking about. I'm tempted to read these books, but on the other hand I'm worried it will make it even harder to understand his ideas.