←back to thread

Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

1401 points alankay | 1 comments | 20 Jun 16 18:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.232s | source

This request originated via recent discussions on HN, and the forming of HARC! at YC Research. I'll be around for most of the day today (though the early evening).
Show context
brebla ◴[20 Jun 16 18:17 UTC] No.11939968[source]▶
What impresses you the most about american free enterprise? What most disappoints you about it?
replies(1): >>11940841 #
1. alankay1 ◴[20 Jun 16 19:49 UTC] No.11940841[source]▶
If there are lots of resources more or less available, then a lot of "hunting and gathering" types can do things with them, and some other types can see about what it takes to make resources rather than just consume them. The former tends to be competitive, and the latter thrives on cooperation.

The biggest problems are that the "enterprisers" very often have no sense that they are living in a system that has many ecological properties and needs to be "tended and gardened".

Not an easy problem because we are genetically hunters and gatherers, we had to invent most of the actual sources of wealth, and these inventions were not done by the most typical human types.

Yet another thing where education with a big "E" should really make a difference (today American education itself has pretty much forgotten the "citizenship" part, which is all about systems and tending them.