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Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

1401 points alankay | 1 comments | 20 Jun 16 18:04 UTC | HN request time: 0s | 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).
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mathattack ◴[20 Jun 16 19:27 UTC] No.11940653[source]▶
Hi Alan. A lot has been made of the visions that your colleagues and you had that ultimately became the fabric of our industry.

Did you have any ideas, predictions or visions which ultimately didn't play out? (And any ideas on why?)

Thank you very much to your contributions to our industry. Anyone blessed to be working in this field today owes you an enormous debt of gratitude. You have made a dent in the universe.

replies(1): >>11945820 #
alankay1 ◴[21 Jun 16 14:26 UTC] No.11945820[source]▶
Our most unrealistic assumption was that when presented with really good ideas most people will most definitely learn and use them to make progress. In reality, only a tiny percentage can do this, and it is an enormous amount of work to deal with the norms.
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mathattack ◴[22 Jun 16 02:07 UTC] No.11951089[source]▶
Very insightful. There's a large gap between the intellectually curious early adopters and the majority in the middle. I just recall how long people were still auto-paying AOL when better options were available. :-)

Thanks again!

replies(1): >>11953067 #
1. alankay1 ◴[22 Jun 16 11:46 UTC] No.11953067[source]▶
And, early adopters will often adopt poor ideas -- they are mostly just early.