Recommended Reading (or listening)
Posted on November 15, 2015 • 2 minutes • 311 words
At my current job I have the luxury of a typical Southern California commute. It’s the worst part of my job.
But, being the ever optimist that I am, I have been able to read (via audible) a lot of books I would have never had the chance to read otherwise. I have found that I don’t typically like fiction which means I end up reading a lot of self help, biography, and historical books. I recently finished a book that made me want to recommend a readlist (or playlist) for anyone interested in how technology got to where it is. I read all of these books out of order but I think reading them in the following order would be a great reference for anyone curious how we ended up where we are with computers, technology, and the Internet.
- The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
- The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
- Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet
The Innovators gives a more broad sweep of technology and I like that it starts all the way back with Ada Lovelace . The Idea Factory is a good and somewhat sad story about what a group of scientists and engineers can do with freedom, resources, and time. Where Wizards Stay Up Late tells a story of the birth of the internet which fascinated me because in hindsight it’s easy to understand how the ARPANET would become the Internet. But for the engineers building it, they were just working one problem at a time.
Finally, if you want to know what the future holds. I suggest you read these books in this order.
Have any more books you’d recommend? Let me know