So, that notion of hypertext seemed to me immediately obvious because footnotes were already the ideas wriggling, struggling to get free, like a cat trying to get out of your arms.

Learning to program has no more to do with designing interactive software than learning to touch type has to do with writing poetry

Computers are hierarchical. We have a desktop and hierarchical files which have to mean everything.

The four walls of paper are like a prison because every idea wants to spring out in all directions - everything is connected with everything else, sometimes more than others.

The paperless office is possible, but not by imitating paper. Note that the horseless carriage did not work by imitating horses.

The good news about computers is that they do what you tell them to do. The bad news is that they do what you tell them to do.

I see Professionalism as a spreading disease of the present-day world, a sort of poly-oligarchy by which various groups (subway conductors, social workers, bricklayers) can bring things to a halt if their particular demands are not met. (Meanwhile, the irrelevance of each profession increases, in proportion to its increasing rigidity.) Such lucky groups demand more in each go-round - but meantime, the number who are permanently unemployed grows and grows.