Understanding- -like civilization, happiness, music, science and a host of other great endeavors--is not a state of being, but a manner of traveling. This great road has no final destination. The journey itself is the reward.
Interpretation
Understanding is a continuous journey rather than a fixed destination, where the experiences we gain along the way are the true rewards.
In this quote, Alan Kay emphasizes that understanding and many other pursuits in life are not about achieving a final goal, but rather about the ongoing process of exploration and discovery. This perspective encourages us to value the learning and experiences we gather throughout our lives instead of fixating on a specific endpoint, as the journey itself provides the most meaningful rewards.
In practice
In a motivational speech about lifelong learning.
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.
I compare it with a lie, which like to a snowball, the longer it is rolled the greater it becomes.
Esoteric or inner knowledge is no different from other kinds of human knowledge and ability. It is a mystery for the average person only to the extent that writing is a mystery for those who have not yet learned to write.
The truths that I know best I have learned on my knees. I never know a thing well, till it is burned into my heart by prayer.
A speculator is a man who observes the future, and acts before it occurs.
I'm no fan of Sarkozy, but I support a ban on face veils because they erase women from society and are promoted by an ultra-conservative ideology that equates piety with the disappearance of women.
As charms are nonsense,_x000D_ nonsense is a charm.
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