Hello,
there is another quote by Alan Kay which I like:
"The best way of predicting the future is to invent it !"
It captures very clearly that aspect of creativity which we admire so much, breaking some mechanical routine which has been used in the past (= the way we do prediction), by replacing it with a new, interesting system (= the essence of an invention). It might help that someone does not know too much about a certain field to get this effect of discovery, on the other hand, experience teaches us, that it takes a careful, long, vertical approach of study to understand enough interactions and problems of a certain system. In his ACM Turing award, Alan Kays addresses this aspect when imitation of an existing solution is not possible:
"One of the most interesting characteristics of computing in the best universities of the 1960s was that the professors told the students that nothing much of importance was known, and it was the duty of all to try to invent a real computing science and software engineering."
...
"Just as "civilization" is not a place or state, but a process of people who are trying to be more civilized, real computing is the process of people trying to make a better notion of computing. The most progress will be made by young people who have been encouraged to criticize old conceptions and invent new ones with an elevated notion of what constitutes a high threshold for a good idea. "
