Conversation between two people is interactive. Person A talks, person B listens, thinks, and responds. Computer programs are sometimes called interactive. You press a button or select from a menu and the program responds. For almost every program ever written human-computer interaction differs considerably from human-human interaction. What would happen if a computer program can carry on a conversation with you just like a human could?

Paul Graham loves LISP. That shouldn't keep you from reading his thoughts about software startups (he's been there, successfully), programmers (hackers, in the good sense of the word, and nerds), and programming languages (he's currently writing his own). Oh, and you will also learn about LISP, a wonderful programming language that's far from dead! Enjoy!

Have you ever gone through a sequence of steps in a program (typically on a computer but remember that they drive ATMs and other hardware as well) only to encounter an error that forces you to begin again at the first step? Unsure what needs to be done differently? Welcome to the sometimes wacky world of interface design. The people creating the interfaces can be very disconnected from those using them. Alan Cooper invites us to rethink the way humans and machines interface with each other (with a good dose of humor along the way) and what can be done to make it sane.