Curious Random Thoughts

http://books.simonandschuster.com/The-Innovators/Walter-Isaacson/9781476708706 This book is a must read for all technologists and I highly recommend it. A great refresher on computing innovations starting from Lord Byron with the mechanical general purpose computer and Ada Lovelace with her work on the analytical engine in the 19th century. Walter Isaacson provides great insight into some not so well known facts of computing history including Vannevar Bush’s Differential Analyzer as well as the great rush to build the first electronic general purpose computer by John Vincent Atanasoff only to be beaten to it by John Mauchly along with J. Presper Eckert. Walter Isaacson also provides inspiring history of women pioneers of programming including Grace Hopper at Harvard on the Mark 1 and Jean Jennings on the ENIAC. There is the obvious description of history of Bell Labs greats William Shockley along with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain who built the semiconductor followed by the comp...

https://misfiteconomy.com/concept.php A good read to understand and borrow ideas; to think out of the box for your own self as well as for your organization from the misfits including early entrepreneurs, pirates & hackers. Learn how the 18th century pirates were more democratic and less brutal to their peers than their counterparts on the merchant ships. Learn how the secret UX (Urban eXperiment) group fixed an old 19th century clock in the Pantheon in France that the French government promised to fix in 1960’s. And yes, learn more about the motivation and the sophisticated organization of Somali pirates. A general premise of the book is how the misfit mindset is needed in an organization to lead change and innovation. The only issue I find in the book is that the content becomes repetitive after a while.