Study Journal 2

For those interested, all the reflections from this post come from these videos.

9/22/2015

*”Eating, sleeping, having a girlfriend, or even a social life, all that is incidental to coding time” -- I feel like this documentary is very time-locked, meaning that many of the ideas that were expressed in the video are no longer held by the majority of people in the industry. I know, at least with respect to this idea, that many tech companies now highly advocate a good work-life balance. Another idea similar to this was the idea that computers are a “boy thing”, which again is an idea that is seeing great turnaround in this decade

*”We shared our lives...so when someone solved a problem that everyone had been working on it was everyone’s victory” -- I see this still very much present in today’s open source activities. There are tons of people who contribute to projects who look for no recognition, they only work to improve the software used by everyone. It’s cool to see that, even though a lot of the personal experiences and ideas in the documentary are very time-locked, it’s clear that the movement that was barely starting in the documentary would only continue

*I love the idea of “We didn’t know we couldn’t do it.” I feel like too often (and especially as a student) my first thought when confronted with a project is to say the equivalent of “I can’t do that.” But these people were really in a completely new field, and they really had no idea what was or wasn’t possible. And they accomplished amazing things. I’m going to try to put this perspective into place in my own life

9/24/2015

*Just like in the Cuckoo’s egg, all of the intrigue and personal interaction happens in person or over the phone. This is obvious, given the technology of the time, but it’s still fascinating to me, as someone in a digital age, where most interaction happens through computers, through our devices. I guess it’s just interesting to look at the beginning of this industry, but still so rooted in the past

*”As usual in the PC business, the prize didn’t go to the inventor, but the  exploiter of the technology” -- There were many examples of this pattern in the section of the video we watched today. The most vital thing that stood out to me was the fat that in the moment, when these deals were made, the person who ended up being worse off really had no reason to not act as they did. It’s only in retrospect that it’s clear that the exploiter made a good decision, and the original creator didn’t recognize the import of what they had made.

*I love this quote about the Apple 2s: “People who had gotten them became kind of religious fanatics” -- It’s interesting to me to see that Apple started out like that. I’m loving seeing how the modern rivalry between apple and microsoft (and not just corporate rivalry, but also ideological rivalry among the layperson) started and developed.

9/29/2015

*The Xerox PARC research center developed really the first personal computer with a GUI. However, they never were able to get that off the ground because their management had no idea what it had the potential of becoming. I find it interesting that it was Steve Jobs and Apple that took off with this idea, not because they stole it, but because they were set up to succeed with it. We’ve discussed in previous installments about how all these companies form after the same pattern, with one technical genius, and one business/visionary type. This is the pattern that allowed for such dynamic change, having the business married to the technical from the beginning.

*It’s great looking back at this documentary from 20 years later, when the internet is fully established and very different from what anyone could have thought of. I would consider Google the Microsoft of the internet, the company that makes the internet the most accessible

*Many things about Apple have not changed. They way overpriced the Macintosh. Steve Jobs, and Apple, were seen as religious crusaders. They lashed out to people that copied them, suing them for copying look and feel. They may have been innovative and new when they first were organized. However, they seem to have settled into a pattern in their innovation, and they just follow that pattern, even until today.