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This over the top hero worship is part of the HN culture that I just can't get behind. Alan Kay has an impressive resume but so do a lot of people on here. Po

This over the top hero worship is part of the HN culture that I just can't get behind. Alan Kay has an impressive resume but so do a lot of people on here. Political rallying behind a famous name only leads to the hangers-on getting a free ride to the top and keeps me standing far clear of the corporate world. I'm here to discuss the latest news.

nekopa 10y ago
But actually, according to the guidelines, this is not a news site. Anything intellectually stimulating to hackers is fair game.
- jcoffland 10y ago
  Sorry but Alan Kay's name dropping history does not stimulate me intellectually.
  - dang 10y ago
    It's about the ideas, not the names. Though Alan is meticulous about mention the names of people who did ground-breaking work. That's part of communicating history.
  - teach 10y ago
    Then move on to a different thread. Don't demand that the rest of HN conform to your desires.
    - jcoffland 10y ago
      What's the Internet for if I cannot demand it conform to my desires?
DanBC 10y ago
I'm not sure why you call it over the top hero worship. > I'm here to discuss the latest news. From 2008: https://web.archive.org/web/20080616133301/http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080616133301/http://ycombinato... > On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
nickpsecurity 10y ago
The conversations with Alan Kay led to more pieces of our field's history coming out so people can understand how and why things were related. That's interesting in its own right. It sometimes also helps inform us of how to do the next thing given the situation we're in as history often repeats in new forms. Especially in IT.
macintux 10y ago
The computer industry is in constant danger of losing sight of the early pioneering work in CS, much of which is still relevant and under-applied. Alan Kay and many other titans in the field play a vital role in helping us rediscover what might otherwise be lost.

nekopa 10y ago

But actually, according to the guidelines, this is not a news site. Anything intellectually stimulating to hackers is fair game.

jcoffland 10y ago
Sorry but Alan Kay's name dropping history does not stimulate me intellectually.
- dang 10y ago
  It's about the ideas, not the names. Though Alan is meticulous about mention the names of people who did ground-breaking work. That's part of communicating history.
- teach 10y ago
  Then move on to a different thread. Don't demand that the rest of HN conform to your desires.
  - jcoffland 10y ago
    What's the Internet for if I cannot demand it conform to my desires?

DanBC 10y ago

I'm not sure why you call it over the top hero worship. > I'm here to discuss the latest news. From 2008: https://web.archive.org/web/20080616133301/http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080616133301/http://ycombinato... > On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

nickpsecurity 10y ago

The conversations with Alan Kay led to more pieces of our field's history coming out so people can understand how and why things were related. That's interesting in its own right. It sometimes also helps inform us of how to do the next thing given the situation we're in as history often repeats in new forms. Especially in IT.

macintux 10y ago

The computer industry is in constant danger of losing sight of the early pioneering work in CS, much of which is still relevant and under-applied. Alan Kay and many other titans in the field play a vital role in helping us rediscover what might otherwise be lost.