THE VIDEO SHELF · computing history and philosophy
Alan Kay - Normal Considered Harmful
Alan Kay's 2009 UIUC talk arguing that computing is more a pop culture than a science and that ignoring history and fundamentals leads to inferior solutions. He touches on the history of interactive environments and what the web should have been.
Why HN readers recommended it
A staple on must-watch lists, recommended as a starting point for Kay's thinking and for why software is often poor and ahistorical.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- powerfuloutlet
- Topic
- computing history and philosophy
- Format
- talk
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 10
- HN mentions in dataset
- 20
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2012–2026
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
"The Mess We're In" by Joe Armstrong: [LINK] "Normal Considered Harmful" by Alan Kay: [VIDEO]
bluetomcat on Hacker News · 2017-02
In Ask HN: What are some 'must watch' talks?Richard Feynman is the best teacher we know (explaining electricity): [LINK] He also explains seeing, heat, electro magnetism, elasticity and mirrors among other things. His academic lectures are just as good but too long and hard for laymen to follow. - Every time I switch …
morphle on Hacker News · 2022-09
In How Transistors Work [video]You might find this entertaining - I'm watching a speech by Alan Kay at the moment where he says that computing is more pop-culture than science: [VIDEO]
cturner on Hacker News · 2012-06
In Meebo discontinued: shutting down on July 11, 2012
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.