Alan Kay's list of recommended reading

Posted by michael_nielsen on Saturday December 22, 2007 @11:55AM
from the squeakland.org dept.

http://www.squeakland.org/sqmedia/books/book_list.html

Something I find fascinating about this list is how diverse it is. Out of 100 or so books, only five relate directly to computers. The others come from a multitude of fields. I suspect such breadth is common amongst most of the greatest software innovators - people like Engelbart, Kay, etc. Knowing how to program is useful, but without breadth (and some depth) in other areas, your innovations are unlikely to have depth of their own.

( 11 comments | 33 points | on HN )

Re:Alan Kay's list of recommended reading by david927 on Saturday December 22, 2007 @04:57PM (#92077)

John Walker, founder of AutoCAD and programming demi-god, has a reading list that will blow your mind: http://www.fourmilab.ch/fourmilog

I've been tipped off to several good books here.

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Re:Alan Kay's list of recommended reading by edw519 on Saturday December 22, 2007 @08:54PM (#92121)

Not to mention this...

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/

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Re:Alan Kay's list of recommended reading by michaelneale on Sunday December 23, 2007 @04:49AM (#92170)

Wow. Just reading the summaries makes my head spin (in a nice way).

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Re:Alan Kay's list of recommended reading by downer on Sunday December 23, 2007 @02:52AM (#92158)

And my mind didn't even buy the list dinner first.

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Re:Alan Kay's list of recommended reading by gibsonf1 on Saturday December 22, 2007 @05:08PM (#92082)

No Aristotle in the philosophy section?

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Re:Alan Kay's list of recommended reading by initself on Sunday December 23, 2007 @12:40AM (#92145)

Wow, I can't believe this is here! I was just thinking that and then I thought "No one is going to care" and there you were, caring. Thank you!

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Re:Alan Kay's list of recommended reading by gibsonf1 on Sunday December 23, 2007 @07:15AM (#92182)

As a programmer I especially care as the epistemology in Aristotle's Organon lies at the core of how our startup models concepts and logical relations between them. Fred Sommer's work on extending that is also extremely helpful, not to mention H. W. B. Joseph's incredible book on logic, the best I've ever read (and I read many) _An Introduction to Logic_.

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Re:Alan Kay's list of recommended reading by icky on Saturday December 22, 2007 @08:58PM (#92123)

"Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle.

Hobbes was fond of his dram,

And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart.

'I drink, therefore I am.'"

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Re:Alan Kay's list of recommended reading by ptn on Saturday December 22, 2007 @04:21PM (#92071)

He's read his share of books...

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Re:Alan Kay's list of recommended reading by imsteve on Saturday December 22, 2007 @10:34PM (#92133)

of highly theoretical books..

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Re:Alan Kay's list of recommended reading by ptn on Sunday December 23, 2007 @07:26AM (#92184)

about a wide variety of topics...

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