The Innovators

The Innovators, How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created The Digital Revolution, by Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster 2014

When Isaacson’s book Steve Jobs came out, my book buddy Dick Morley advised me to read the small quote book I, Steve, Steve Jobs in His Own Words, edited by George Beahm, and he was right.  As I jogged between the Isaacson best seller, and the little pocket book filled with Jobs’ speech clips and reflections,  it became clear to me that there is simply no substitute for hearing the voice of the genius – in his own words.  There is no other way, short of living and working with him, to get even close to penetrating the mind of the creator.

I love timelines, and Isaacson’s book reads like an enriched timeline filled with surprises.  He establishes what he believes is the rightful sequence of major inventions that have created our digital age, starting with Lord Byron’s daughter Ada Lovelace, and moves through the milestones of Vannevar Bush, the tragic Alan Turing and John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Grace Hopper, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Nolan Bushnell, Tim Berners-Lee and Larry Page.  You may not completely agree with his choices, but the movement, the evolution is there. 

For instance, the unfortunate quote attributed to Ken Olsen, the founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, and the creator of the PDP 8, the machine that took us out of 5-ton mainframes, is included on page 264, “I can’t see any reason that anyone would want a computer of his own.”   Isaacson includes the source and a counter-source for the quote, but many years later Olsen himself claimed that he was misquoted, and I prefer, having witnessed his ethics approach, to go with Olsen’s disclaimer.

The Olsen issue aside, one must say that this latest Isaacson book is a great ride.  The excitement that we all experienced moving through the colorful puzzle of IT evolution makes more sense now, having seen Isaacson’s timeline.  I’d like to think that the complete story isn’t written yet, however, and there are yet more iconic innovators out there, creating the new equivalent of Basic Assembler Language or dial-in modems.