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Founders: #157 The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution

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What I learned from reading The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson. ---- [0:29] This is the story of those pioneers hackers, inventors, and entrepreneurs. Who they were, how their minds worked, and what made them so creative. [8:41] She developed a somewhat outsize opinion of her talents as a genius. In her [Ada Lovelace] letter to Babbage, she wrote, “Do not reckon me conceited but I believe I have the power of going just as far as I like in such pursuits.” [14:10] The reality is that Ada’s contribution was both profound and inspirational. More than any other person of her era, she was able to glimpse a future in which machines would become partners of the human imagination. [16:37] Alan Turing was slow to learn that indistinct line that separated initiative from disobedience. [20:15] If a mentally superhuman race ever develops its members will resemble John Von Neumann. [23:40] His [William Shockley] tenacity was ferocious. In any situation, he simply had to have his way. [28:38] Bob Noyce described his excitement more vividly: “The concept hit me like the atom bomb. It was simply astonishing. Just the whole c

[00:00:00] The computer and the internet are among the most important inventions of our era, but few people know who created them. They were not conjured up in a garage by a solo inventor, suitable to be singled out on a magazine cover, or put into a pantheon with Edison, Bell, or Morse. Instead, most of the innovations of the digital age were done collaboratively. There were a lot of fascinating people involved, some ingenious and a few even geniuses. This is the story of those pioneers, hackers, inventors, and entrepreneurs, who they were, how their minds worked, and what made them so…

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