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Alan Kay: Doing with Images Makes Symbols (Full Version)

Kenneth Friedman · talk · Watch on YouTube

Tech pioneers & interviewsGUI, HCI & interface historyEducation & learning

What it is

A full upload of Alan Kay's 1987 talk, with demos of several Smalltalk-era software systems and ideas about visual, kinesthetic and symbolic reasoning. It includes a Smalltalk program written by a 12-year-old and footage of the Rand tablet.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it as a favourite tech talk full of good ideas from forgotten 1980s software, worth watching in full.

  • 8 people recommended it
  • 8 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2016, last 2023

What HN commenters said

  1. “It's really a summary of several software systems with good ideas abound.”

    Summary of several 1980s-era software systems with many good ideas

    cconroy, 2016-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Ask HN: What's your favorite tech talk?”

  2. “enjoy this fully”

    Demonstrates how good old forgotten software can be

    agumonkey, 2017-08 · Strong recommendation · in “Concrete-free washing machines are lighter to transport, just as good in a spin”

  3. “The whole talk is well worth watching”

    Complex ideas expressed via visual, kinesthetic and symbolic reasoning

    scroot, 2018-05 · Strong recommendation · in “Media for Thinking the Unthinkable (2013)”

  4. “Dang, Alan Kay's old talks are so amazing.”

    Smalltalk program written in 1975 by a 12-year-old girl

    theodpHN, 2023-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Alan Kay: Doing with Images Makes Symbols [video]”

  5. “So many things I could say about this, but I"ll let Alan Kay speak for me -”

    Kay on how calculus ideas develop from early ages

    skadamat, 2017-12 · Recommendation · in “Communicating Advanced Mathematics to Kids”

  6. “here is Alan Kay's "Doing with Images Makes Symbols"”

    Offered as a favourite tech talk

    jdale27, 2018-04 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: What is your favourite tech talk?”

  7. “Alan Kay "doing with images makes symbols"”

    Listed among classic talks missing from a ranking

    e12e, 2018-09 · Recommendation · in “Show HN: TechYaks – Best of 50k tech talks ranked by confidence intervals”

  8. “I love the demo of one of the Smalltalk programs in this talk by Alan Kay [0], starts at around 40:30”

    Smalltalk demo starting around 40:30

    artem247, 2020-11 · Recommendation · in “Programs are a prison: Rethinking the building blocks of computing interfaces”

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

Topics: alan kay, smalltalk, learning, user interfaces, 1980s computing

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