Alan Kay Quotes

Software is a great combination between artistry and engineering.

The computer offers another kind of creativity. You cannot ignore the creativity that computer technology can bring. But you need to be able to move between those two different worlds.

I just think there's a general interest in the world of computers.

It's [programming] the only job I can think of where I get to be both an engineer and an artist. There's an incredible, rigorous, technical element to it, which I like because you have to do very precise thinking. On the other hand, it has a wildly creative side where the boundaries of imagination are the only real limitation.

I am a programmer.

We're losing track of the vastness of the potential for computer science. We really have to revive the beautiful intellectual joy of it, as opposed to the business potential.

'Programming' is a four-letter word.

Software Engineering might be science; but that's not what I do. I'm a hacker, not an engineer.

Hackathons are these things where just all of the Facebook engineers get together and stay up all night building things. And, I mean, usually at these hackathons, I code too, just alongside everyone.

I got my first computer in the 6th grade or so. As soon as I got it, I was interested in finding out how it worked and how the programs worked and then figuring out how to write programs at just deeper and deeper levels within the system.

I'm not a computer girl.

I knew, always, what I wanted to be. Even before I had my first computer, I wanted to be a computer scientist.

As a kid, I was always into art at the same time as computers, and eventually I realised I was making more interesting stuff with my keyboard than with my hands. I really enjoyed modifying computer games more than playing them, so that got me into programming.

Giving the kids a programming environment of any sort, whether it's a tool like Squeak or Scratch or Logo to write programs in a childish way - and I mean that in the most generous sense of the word, that is, playing with and building things - is one of the best ways to learn.

With the evolution of technology, kids really need to be computer-savvy.

At Microsoft, the magic of software is used to take on very interesting challenges.

There was something amazingly enticing about programming.

I seem to get totally wrapped up in teaching and working with students during the school year. During the summer, I try to spend time in the real world, writing code for therapy and perhaps for some useful purpose.

I like writing code. I like building product. I like making things that people like.

When the tech geeks talk, I pay close attention.

The word 'code' turns out to be a really important word for my book, 'The Information.' The genetic code is just one example. We talk now about coders, coding. Computer guys are coders. The stuff they write is code.

Computing technology started out as number-crunching.

When you learn to code, it opens up for you to learn many other things.

I majored in Computer Science at U.C. Berkeley and worked as a software developer for a couple of years. Then I taught high school computer science for over a decade and a half in Oakland, California.

If people want to code, and they want to be entrepreneurs, there's opportunities for them to do that.