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Startup School 12: Alan Kay, Part II [video]

by sama on 5/13/17, 4:29 PM with 51 comments

• by tristanho on 5/14/17, 7:10 PM

  Probably going to send Mr. Kay an email about this, but since it seems he's lurking about in these comments too:

  You mention Outlook being "Gold", while IQ is lead. Outlook seems to be something we can improve, both on a collective level, and also on an individual level. You discuss a lot how to use this Outlook to invent the future, but how can we develop our Outlook at more of a meta-level? If we want to be the people capable of looking 50 years into the future and then bringing our insights back to the present, how can we develop this skill?

  I suspect the answer has something to do with reading good books and learning from people who already have great outlooks.

• by pilingual on 5/13/17, 4:58 PM

  In a world where we 2x our podcasts some of the historical notes can seem slow but are poignant. The latter part of the lecture has some nuggets that are worth the 50 minutes.

  To me, I think the key is to balance the universal with the non-universal to forge progress.

  One interesting connection is that in an earlier lecture Steve Huffman notes they tried categories with Reddit but reverted. Here Kay explains why.

  Incidentally, someone who calls out UX issues like the absence of a map in the side entrance of the Gates building is my kind of person.

• by nicklovescode on 5/15/17, 1:17 AM

  For those who haven't seen Bret Victor's incredible Inventing on Principle - I think you'd like this talk if you enjoyed Alan's: https://vimeo.com/36579366

• by aryehof on 5/15/17, 12:00 PM

  A big thank-you to Alan Kay for both videos. I found them very inspirational and refreshingly... different. My big takeaway is that we need to not accept the norm - but look to new ways to think, view and do things. We need to challenge our limited thinking. Love that Wayne Gretzky method.

• by asrp on 5/14/17, 8:57 PM

  I found that ball animation to paint demo very interesting. But what if instead of an array of frames, the animation was a function from time to images such as

  circle(x=time, y=-time*time, r=10)

  so a render can get the information it needs but there aren't individual frames to edit.

  In general, what happens to interoperability if different programs/projects represent the same things, like images and animations, very differently?

  And how security could be handled in such a system? Either against a malicious or haywire programs/project?

• by bsaul on 5/14/17, 8:33 PM

  Don't mean to be rude, but has alan kay effectively created any successful start up himself ? I've always loved his historical talks about what research was like in the 70s, but i find it surprising to see him giving talks in something called startup school.

• by alexkon on 5/13/17, 4:56 PM

  Okay, let’s wake up and dream away. What kind of distant future would you like to be part of?

• by alishan-l on 5/16/17, 4:27 AM

  Dear Mr. Kay,

  What are some resources to learn more about the 90% of programming ideas created at PARC that did not come out? Which do you think hold the most potential for the future?

  Thank you

• by QuickOne on 5/14/17, 9:58 PM

  Why did biological inspiration for object-oriented programming stop at cell-to-cell communication? What about levels below (organelles) and above (tissues, organs)?

• by justin66 on 5/14/17, 11:07 PM

  Would love to get my hands on the handout from Part I, if nothing else to see the bibliography :)

• by gleb on 5/14/17, 10:53 PM

  Dr. Kay, do you consider Erlang/Elixir object oriented, in your original meaning of OO?

• by da02 on 5/13/17, 10:28 PM

  Did he just tell off the Stanford audience, "No one here reads, except for Sam."?

  He reminded me of this anecdote: In an intro to Anthropology video on Stanford's YouTube channel. The professor passed out a questionnaire that included, "Why are you taking this class?". Someone wrote, "Yes". I expected that kind of response in my biz classes @ CUNY, but not @ Stanford. Especially, in an Anthropology class.