Book Review: The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
This must possibly be one of the best books I have ever read. Not only that, but I learnt more about computers and how they work than at any place of education.
If you’re into tech and if you’re into innovation, then this book is a must read. Not only does is paint a really good picture of where the idea of computing started, it also displays what is required to truly innovate (hint: it’s not only up to an individual).
The guys that you’d expect to be in the book such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Larry Page are there for obvious reasons. However, it was the people that lead to the really amazing theoretical and engineering advancements that really caught my attention. The way some of the major improvements that lead to the fundamental components of computing sometimes got me totally surprised and in awe of how exactly the just came about.
The book really is a long read so maybe take it chapter by chapter if you’re not a technical person. Also, don’t be too concerned if you’re not technically inclined – the book has its fair share of technical speak but it also has a fair share of both historical information (especially for women) and the ways innovators thought and worked over time. This earns my first 5-star rating for a book so I highly recommend it.
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition
2014
Hard Cover
560
Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, The Innovators is Walter Isaacson's story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and a guide to how innovation really works.
What talents allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their disruptive ideas into realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail?
In his exciting saga, Isaacson begins with Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter, who pioneered computer programming in the 1840s. He then explores the fascinating personalities that created our current digital revolution, such as Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee and Larry Page.
This is the story of how their minds worked and what made them so creative. It's also a narrative of how their ability to collaborate and master the art of teamwork made them even more creative.
For an era that seeks to foster innovation, creativity and teamwork, this book shows how they actually happen.