I always thought that the Alan Kay model is fundamentally misguided, in that it is explicitly inspired by cell biology and distributed computer systems, ie extremely hard problems. Basically all the hardest things to model, predict design, and debug are these kind of bottom up systems where all interesting behavior comes from the emergent runtime interaction of tons of tiny components. This works okay for cells because there is no programmer floating above the system trying to understand it and make specific changes, but until we start programming by natural selection I wouldn't describe it as a good paradigm for organizing behavior.
I much prefer my programs to have a sort of top down structure, more like a military instead of an economy. Obviously late-binding and dynamic behavior is many times necessary, but I would not lean in to it, in the same way I would not say, make all my variables global just because sometimes you need it.
I much prefer my programs to have a sort of top down structure, more like a military instead of an economy. Obviously late-binding and dynamic behavior is many times necessary, but I would not lean in to it, in the same way I would not say, make all my variables global just because sometimes you need it.