Triumph of the Nerds
November 2, 2009
I’ve been watching Triumph of the Nerds by Robert X Cringley from 1996, and here is my reflection on the documentary.
The documentary is about how personal computers took over the world, and how nerds changed the world with their love of technology and a burning will to be able to impress their friends. The story goes from when the first computer kit 1975 Altair 8800 was released on the market, to the invention of Apple’s Macintosh, and later on to Windows and Internet.
In the film they are talking a lot about the competition between the founders of the big companies. The competition is probably one of the reasons that the technology development has kept moving forvard. The companies have been using eachothers inventions to create even better products and with that, the competition has been a conclusioned part of the technology development.
Despite the competiton, the PC wasn’t something that was supposed to bring money from the beginning. The nerds often started a company just because of the fact that they liked eachother and technology, and from that they made impossible things possible.Young, passionated, engaged persons that did something they loved. Ed Roberts, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, they all did it for fun and ended up as some of the most powerful people in the world. In this documentary, the nerds are the heroes.
November 4, 2009 at 8:10 pm
An interesting thought is definitely that most of these nerds – nowadays rich men – never even finished their college studies, but let their dreams lead them to success and wealth.
November 8, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Apropos of nerds never finishing their college studies, this great speech by Steve Jobs to the graduates of Stanford University in 2005 might be of interest. Steve Jobs: “This is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA