The Innovators
by Wojciech Adam Koszek ⋅ Apr 23, 2015 ⋅ Menlo Park, CAHow to innovate and issues during innovation process. Very nice book. Classic at this point.
Probably the most comprehensive study on the history and current state of computing and innovation. From Ada Byron to Bill Gates. From mechanical computers, through tubes to the transistor. Explained is the history of modern computing.
Chapter 3 reminded me that in the early days people building computers didn’t recognize the domain of programming at all. It’s quite fascinating to think that I graduated from a domain which 50 years earlier wasn’t even recognized. In the old days people building computers would write programs, and due to the nature of their programming (low-level programming with 0 abstraction of hardware interfaces) it’s hard to be surprise by that state of things.
I’ve learned about the existence of “As we may think” by Vannevar Bush, but yet have to read it. Seems like this piece had a great impact on many people, including guys like Marc Andreessen.
The “On games” reminded me a lecture from Computer History Museum YouTube channel, in which Bill Joy explained that during his presentation of Ping-Pong game on Sun machine, VCs who didn’t know what it is but felt it was cool, were pulling wallets and giving checks for 6-7 figures in hope computers and computer networks will prove to be important.
