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Alan Kay - Normal Considered Harmful

powerfuloutlet · talk · Watch on YouTube

Tech pioneers & interviewsSoftware architecture & designHistory of computing

What it is

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.

Why Hacker News recommends it

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

  • 10 people recommended it
  • 11 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2012, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “Normal Considered Harmful" by Alan Kay”

    Listed as a must-watch talk

    bluetomcat, 2017-02 · Strong recommendation · in “Ask HN: What are some 'must watch' talks?”

  2. “De second most important thing would be half of Alan Kay's lectures”

    Second most important thing to see after Feynman

    morphle, 2022-09 · Strong recommendation · in “How Transistors Work [video]”

  3. “You might find this entertaining”

    Kay says computing is more pop-culture than science

    cturner, 2012-06 · Recommendation · in “Meebo discontinued: shutting down on July 11, 2012”

  4. “Alan Kay does a far better job than I can in explaining some of this history”

    Kay explains history of interactive programming environments

    agentultra, 2012-09 · Recommendation · in “Light Table - Embracing Abstraction”

  5. “want to force automotive engineers to watch some Alan Kay talks”

    Ignoring history and basics leads to inferior solutions

    konstruktor, 2013-10 · Recommendation · in “Toyota's firmware: Bad design and its consequences”

  6. “Alan Kay's 'Normal Considered Harmful' is a good place to start”

    Good starting point on computing in general

    MichaelAO, 2018-07 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: Where can one learn about the history of the internet and the protocols?”

  7. “watch the first 20 mins of this talk”

    Kay on computing not being a real field and forgetting pioneers

    skadamat, 2018-10 · Recommendation · in “Dynamicland: The Next Big Thing Is a Room”

  8. “this might be a good philosophical starter”

    Good philosophical starter on Kay's thinking

    j-pb, 2021-11 · Recommendation · in “What memory model should Rust use?”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: alan kay, software engineering, computing history, web design, pop culture

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