It’s been really nice learning and interacting with all of you. So many interesting perspectives! What are the most influential things that you have read or watched or done and would recommend?

The course nand2tetris is tough but you learn so much.

Did it. Well up to chapter 5. Wasn’t interested in software stack then https://github.com/opethe1st/Nand2Tetris 🙂🙂

Since you include "things that you have [...] done", which is an interestingly open-ended prompt... This might seem to some like a joke (and I don't want to derail the topic — if this is something others here would like to discuss, we should spin up a separate thread), but I'm being sincere. LSD! It's a crying shame that it is so heavily criminalized, and so taboo, and associated with (frankly) very tacky parts of culture. Taking it was a revelatory experience, and offered me a sort of "everything all at once" frame of mind that I can now tap into whenever I need. I'd rank it up there with (say) acting in plays and travel, as experiences which are accessible only to very fortunate people, which can offer profound awareness of life and humanity (though do not guarantee it, of course).

I'm sure many of us have seen many of these but don't know who's seen what so I'm going to recommend the 'usual suspects' here. The most influential things for me are probably Alan Kay's videos and writings (e.g. https://vimeo.com/82301919). They're what really what sparked the search for new perspectives. I also like all of Bret Victor's stuff (e.g. https://vimeo.com/36579366). For other forums I'd recommend looking at LIVE (http://liveprog.org/), PPIG (https://ppig.org/) and the "Salon" track at the <Programming> conference (most recently called Convivial Computing Salon, previously Salon de Refuses: https://2020.programming-conference.org/home/salon-2020, https://www.shift-society.org/salon/)

@Ivan Reese I remember a certain Richard Feynman did some experimenting

@shalabh I really love Alan Kay's talks, but I always finish the talk thinking that he could give some ideas on how to fix the mess we're in (I'm sure he has great ideas on how to fix it), instead of just pointing at all the things that we're doing wrong.

Interesting. I do think he doesn't provide concrete action items but certainly provides direction - both in terms of what kinds of ideas to pursue, what kinds of design attributes to look for, and what kinds of institutions and processes may work. It's true most of this talks are like Kay 101, and mostly intended to 'hook' the audience into 'recognizing the problem'. Some VPRI writings get more into ideas on fixing things - though looks like that part of the site is gone unfortunately.

Kay has mentioned before that he does that on purpose to let people think for themselves. Socratic method and all that

In addition to what's been mentioned (+💯 to Brett Victor's work), I like the writing that comes out of Ink & Switch https://www.inkandswitch.com/ Likewise, Michael Neilson's work is worth checking out.

@Daniel Garcia The actionable version of Kay's position has been visible in various VPRI projects for many years! 🙂

Thanks @Jack Rusher, I guess the actionable version is not on any talk and I should dive into the writings and projects of VPRI

I take some inspiration from Christopher Alexander. The only reason I even heard of Alan Kay and Christopher Alexander though, is through Jim Coplien's assessments of how the software industry has taken their stuff in bad directions: https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Reflection-OOP-Social/ https://www.infoq.com/interviews/coplien-dci-architecture/

If you are looking for something interesting to watch while you eat or commute, Strange Loop talks are the most consistently high quality in my experience.

To add to the already great collection here, Joe Armstrong’s talk is definitely worth checking out (also Strange Loop is a great conference to check out, their YouTube channel has some true gems) I also love Ted Nelson for his passion and refusal to accept the status quo as acceptable or inevitable. I recommend this collection of quotes. He also made quite a fun series called that I think has a lot of value.

Unrelated to FoC, but I was lucky to do this course while it was free and learned a lot: https://learn.particular.net/courses/adsd-online

A few things that may seem out of place on this forum, but are nonetheless within the question's territorial boundaries: • reading fiction -- a distressingly large number of people think non-fiction is how one learns about the world, but (good) fiction is tremendously instructive about what it is to be a person • physical culture -- in addition to health and wellbeing, there are lessons about the value of daily practice, the way imperceptible improvement can become tremendous over time, &c. • meditation -- combines some of the benefits of the two aforementioned things • art -- or really any practice that operates more on intuition than reason (both are human superpowers, best used together)