How Silicon Valley Has Changed

Walter Isaacson in his book The Innovators described the ethos that defined the early Silicon Valley; "At its core were certain principles: authority should be questioned, hierarchies should be circumvented, nonconformity should be admired, and creativity should be nurtured."

My how Silicon Valley has changed.

Interesting Technology Tidbit

"Perfecting the punch cards for computers came about because Herman Hollerith, an employee of the U.S. Census Bureau, was appalled that it took close to eight years to manually tabulate the 1880 census. He resolved to automate the 1890 count." - Walter Isaacson The Innovators

Using Hollerith's "tabulators" the 1890 census was completed in one year rather than eight.

Punch cards were basically the birth of computer programming; which led to hard drives, floppy disks and the what we have today. And to think the US Government actually had an important role in it.

Maybe even more interesting is the fact that Hollerith left government service and founded a company based upon his punch cards, After a series of mergers and acquisitions that company in 1924 became known as International Business Machines (IBM).  

Life Advice from the Industrial Revolution

"The Industrial Revolution was based upon two grand concepts that were profound in their simplicity: Innovators came up with ways to simplify endeavors by breaking them into easy, small tasks that could be accomplished on assembly lines. Then, beginning in the textile industry, inventors found ways to mechanize steps so that they could be performed by machines." - Walter Isaacson The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution

The paragraph struck me because it made me wonder if there's anything in our lives today we could apply those two "grand concepts" to? The second of which is a very good reason for even ordinary folks like ourselves should learn to code.