Java and C++ make you think that the new ideas are like the old ones. Java is the most distressing thing to hit computing since MS-DOS.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes Java and C++ for their similarities to older programming paradigms and expresses frustration with Java's impact on computing.
Alan Kay's quote reflects his dissatisfaction with Java and C++ as languages that perpetuate outdated programming ideas instead of fostering true innovation. He sees Java as particularly troublesome, comparing its influence to that of MS-DOS, which he views as a negative turning point in the evolution of computing. Kay's assertion suggests that technological progress is hindered when new tools are merely repackaged versions of the old, failing to challenge developers to think differently or creatively.
In practice
In a tech conference discussing programming languages, this quote serves as a critique of outdated practices.
The Internet was done so well that most people think of it as a natural resource like the Pacific Ocean, rather than something that was man-made. When was the last time a technology with a scale like that was so error-free? The Web, in comparison, is a joke. The Web was done by amateurs.
Perspective is worth 80 IQ points.
The greatest single programming language ever designed
By the time I got to school, I had already read a couple hundred books. I knew in the first grade that they were lying to me because I had already been exposed to other points of view. School is basically about one point of view -- the one the teacher has or the textbooks have. They don't like the idea of having different points of view, so it was a battle. Of course I would pipe up with my five-year-old voice.
Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible.
If you're not failing 90% of the time, then you're probably not working on sufficiently challenging problems.
When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft over 30 years ago, we had big dreams about software. We had dreams about the impact it could have.
We curate our lives around this perceived sense of perfection, because we get rewarded in these short term signals: Hearts, likes, thumbs up. We conflate that with value, and we conflate it with truth, and instead, what it really is is fake, brittle popularity that's short term and leaves you even more vacant and empty before you did it.
We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain.
No matter what your profession β doctor, lawyer, architect, accountant β if you are an American, you better be good at the touchy-feely service stuff, because anything that can be digitized can be outsourced to either the smartest or the cheapest producer.
The Internet, in general, I find troubling. The anonymity has made us all meaner and dumber. This thing that was supposed to bring us closer together, I see it doing the opposite.
We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.
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