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Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

1401 points alankay | 11 comments | 20 Jun 16 18:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom

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).
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dookahku ◴[20 Jun 16 19:11 UTC] No.11940506[source]▶
You invented a lot of what I'm using this very instant to compose this message.

I yearn to do great works of engineering and art, which I consider what you have done.

How do you come up with ideas?

replies(2): >>11940577 #>>11940634 #
alankay ◴[20 Jun 16 19:20 UTC] No.11940577[source]▶
There's coming up with ideas: learn to dream while you are awake, the ideas are there.

There's coming up with a good idea: learn how to not get buried in your ideas (most are mediocre down to bad even for people who have "good idea skills"!)

I write down ideas in notebooks to get rid of them. Every once in a while one will capture a different point of view.

And, there's the Princeton Tea joke of scientists comparing what they did for ideas. One says "I have them in the middle of the night so I have a pad by my bed". Another says "I have them in the shower so I have a grease pencil to write them on the walls". Einstein was listening and they asked him about his ideas. He said "I don't know, I've only had two!"

(Some people are better at filtering than others ...)

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gnaritas ◴[20 Jun 16 20:21 UTC] No.11941211[source]▶
> There's coming up with ideas: learn to dream while you are awake, the ideas are there.

Any advice on how to do that, especially for those of us who are completely non-visual thinkers (aphantasia)?

replies(1): >>11941485 #
1. alankay1 ◴[20 Jun 16 20:54 UTC] No.11941485[source]▶
Dreaming can work without images. What are your sleeping dreams like?
replies(1): >>11941862 #
2. gnaritas ◴[20 Jun 16 21:50 UTC] No.11941862[source]▶
Apparently aphantasia doesn't appear to affect dreams (from research I've read), when sleeping I do have visual dreams, but awake, nothing but black even with eyes closed no matter how hard I try to imagine a picture.
replies(2): >>11942080 #>>11942473 #
3. alankay1 ◴[20 Jun 16 22:25 UTC] No.11942080[source]▶
If you are not blind then you can see pictures. So this would be interesting to follow up ...
replies(1): >>11942188 #
4. gnaritas ◴[20 Jun 16 22:44 UTC] No.11942188{3}[source]▶
Not sure I understand what you're implying, I'm not blind, and only recently realized other people actually see pictures in their mind while awake. But dreaming while awake would be awesome if achievable.
replies(1): >>11942398 #
5. alankay1 ◴[20 Jun 16 23:23 UTC] No.11942398{4}[source]▶
I'm saying that you don't see what is on your retina, but something that is manifested by your brain (and this is why you can see images when you dream).

So I'm guessing that there is a path for you to imagine images. It could be very similar to how most people who think they are tone deaf can be helped to hear pitches quite accurately.

replies(1): >>11942436 #
6. gnaritas ◴[20 Jun 16 23:30 UTC] No.11942436{5}[source]▶
Ah, yes, I'm hoping this is true as well hence my interest in what you said about learning to dream while awake. If you don't have any specific recommendations I'll continue researching on my own.
replies(1): >>11946926 #
7. alankay1 ◴[20 Jun 16 23:36 UTC] No.11942473[source]▶
Try doing some after images and see what happens ...
replies(1): >>11943139 #
8. gnaritas ◴[21 Jun 16 02:45 UTC] No.11943139{3}[source]▶
Will do; thanks.
9. mdahlstrand ◴[21 Jun 16 16:29 UTC] No.11946926{6}[source]▶
My personal experience is it's not as much "seeing" as "feeling" whatever I "see". Like with open eyes staring at but not looking at something, instead mentally focusing on peripheral, where the peripheral is more of an idea than the impression of photons hitting your retina. I often almost feel like I'm drawing the diagrams or interfaces I might think of, with sweeping gestures and so on. I definitely think it's something that gets better with practice.
replies(1): >>11948000 #
10. gnaritas ◴[21 Jun 16 18:13 UTC] No.11948000{7}[source]▶
Sure, but most people have actual visuals when they imagine, most with color. That's where I want to get.
replies(1): >>11963229 #
11. saluk ◴[23 Jun 16 18:21 UTC] No.11963229{8}[source]▶
I mean, I CAN have visuals like that, as I don't have aphantasia. But I don't believe most of my ideas originate from the visual imagining. It usually starts with concepts, is connected through logic, and then along the way images may or may not be generated, depending on what I am ruminating about.