Anyone could learn Lisp in one day, except that if they already knew Fortran, it would take three days.
Marvin MinskyA computer is like a violin. You can imagine a novice trying ๏ฌrst a phonograph and then a violin. The latter, he says, sounds terrible. That is the argument we have heard from our humanists and most of our computer scientists. Computer programs are good, they say, for particular purposes, but they arenโt ๏ฌexible. Neither is a violin, or a typewriter, until you learn how to use it.
Marvin MinskyIf you understand something in only one way, then you don't really understand it at all. The secret of what anything means to us depends on how we've connected it to all other things we know. Well-connected representations let you turn ideas around in your mind, to envision things from many perspectives until you find one that works for you. And that's what we mean by thinking!
Marvin Minsky