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Alan Kay - Normal Considered Harmful

powerfuloutlet · 59.9K views · 2012-03-25 · 1:07:26

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Overview

Alan Kay's 2009 UIUC talk arguing that computing is more a pop culture than a science and that ignoring history and fundamentals leads to inferior solutions. He touches on the history of interactive environments and what the web should have been.

On Hacker News

A staple on must-watch lists, recommended as a starting point for Kay's thinking and for why software is often poor and ahistorical.

Recommended by 10 HN people across 11 months · HN mentions 2012–2026

Topics

Tech pioneers & interviewsSoftware architecture & designHistory of computing
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alan kaysoftware engineeringcomputing historyweb designpop culture

What people said

morphle · 2022-09 · Strong recommendation

Richard Feynman is the best teacher we know (explaining electricity): [LINK] He also explains seeing, heat, electro magnetism, elasticity and mirrors among other things. His academic lectures are just as good but too long and hard for laymen to follow. - Every time I switch on an electrical device I hear Feynman say 'Zzzzinggg' and I see the copper bars jiggling across town. - Every time I see a cup of hot liquid I hear Feynman say "jiggling atoms" - Watch his hands and fingers telling the more accurate science story, simulating the electrons and atoms. - I would say that this the most important video to see for any human being on the planet. De second most important thing would be half of Alan Kay's lectures [VIDEO] Great video's to watch with your kids! (from 3-4 years and older).

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bluetomcat · 2017-02 · Strong recommendation

"The Mess We're In" by Joe Armstrong: [LINK] "Normal Considered Harmful" by Alan Kay: [VIDEO]

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morphle · 2026-02 · Recommendation

You can't fix a broken wheel. This web link post, the original NEXT webbrowser, tries to celebrate and revive the reinvention of the broken wheel. The World Wide Web, browser and html standards are a very broken wheel. Alan Kay, the inventor of personal computing, explains why: [VIDEO] Some of the comments of youtube are fun too. This lecture Alan aimed at this particular audience, the computer science (programming) students at University of Illinois, where they programmed the second browser, the second broken wheel 20 years after Alan and Dan had showed them how do do it better. Dan Ingalls implemented most of Alan Kay's invention of the personal computer, in the following demo's he shows how to fix the webbrowser's broken wheel a bit. The Lively Kernel would be another way to fix html but retain the web. Two demos says it all: [LINK] [LINK] Their Squeak, Etoys and Croquet fixed it completely: Early Croquet demo: [LINK] Croquet in webbrowser: [LINK] Demo of webbrowser replacement: [LINK] Squeak and all its predecessors: [LINK] Etoys: [LINK]

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Sources

Video by powerfuloutlet, played through YouTube.

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