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I'm 21 years old, the way Alan Kay speaks about Xeroc PARC work, Douglas Engelbart, Burroughs etc intrigues me. Then I try reading for example Engelbart's paper, it's fucking huge! I just get bored so quickly with the way they're written, especially because they're so out of context, many things were very different back then, so a lot of what I know right know either didn't exist yet, or will only confuse me due to my assumptions about how things were done back then.

Then again, I have read a few papers, it's just highly inconvenient. And in what kind of setting would you take the time to really read these anyway? Work setting? No, just get your work done. At home? I don't mind reading a bit during my own time, but I don't want to spend hours upon hours trying to understand something from a very different context. Academic? Yeah sure why not. But I'm not in academia!




If you have the resources, find out what museums are in your area, or plan trips to the museums that contain things you'd be interested in.

For example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MikoF6KZjm0 is in a museum, as is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEbMksxQAgs. You can go and check them out and poke them (to some extent).

While watching videos is really awesome, actually being able to watch these things in action provides a level of context that is impossible to convey digitally.


I do agree that they might be a bit dry and it is hard to understand some of the magic when not having been in touch with it.

As for when to read them. I read them while commuting to clients, train and plane travels.




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