The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal

I'm not sure if these books really are what you're looking for, because each of them is a mix of engineering history, and the description of how a group of people end up doing amazing things. In each of the books, there were nuggets of wisdom that I've tried to bring along with me in my job (as best I can). Like: - Doing things as simply as possible to start off - Keeping iteration time to a minimum, for maximum exploration of ideas - Being willing to think outside the box My takeaways above, hardly do these books justice, but they are as follows: - Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed [0] - Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. [1] - The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal [2] [0]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/101438.Skunk_Works [1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56829.Hackers [2]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/722412.The_Dream_Machine

The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop. Weaves fascinating history of personal computing and internet through J.C.R. “Lick” Licklider biography.

The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal It's an extremely well written book, starting from the very beginning at the time of WWII, tracing people, ideas, struggles, and achievements of great milestones in computer history. It's not your typical dry historical material, but somehow the author made it personal through the eyes of key people that influenced important computer science progresses, and in particular J.C.R. Licklider (Lick), who galvanized a lot efforts across the U.S. in the sixties that resulted in making computing interactive and ultimately personal, rather than batch and business-focused. Many important milestones are discussed, starting with the early days of mechanical computers, vacuum tubes, relays, ENIAC, UNIVAC, through MIT's various efforts during the cold war to help with real-time computing with Whirlwind and the SAGE project; IBM's mainframes dominance in the fifties, and the hacker culture that arose against it at MIT to build interactive computers like the TX-0 and TX-2, to the spin-off of DEC and its minicomputers that changed the game; to building time-sharing systems, and the groundbreaking inventions of…

Top five, summaries easy enough to find via Amazon: - Turings’s Cathedral - The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood - A Mind at Play - The Victorian Internet - Dawn of the New Everything Plus two that I haven’t read but hear amazing things: - Mindstorms - Dream Machine

The Dream Machine is a fantastic and thorough history of the early days of computing, woven together as a partial autobiography of J. C. R. Licklider, though the scope of the book is substantially grander. It’s a long read, and I opted to do the audiobook option, which I found entertaining and captivating. It covers the origins of computing from the WWII days, to the early debates in the computing world, to ARPA and all of its resulting projects, Xerox PARC formation, and finally the emergence of microcomputers.

Two lesser known books that I enjoyed: 1) "Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers", and 2) "The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal". One thing I learned from the "Colossus" book was the contribution of British engineers to early computers (Tommy Flowers in particular). They didn't get the credit they deserved because their work was kept secret for so long.

I second The Dream Machine. Not only is it an entertaining and informative read, but it's also super impressive. I can't imagine all the work that went into putting that book together.

* "the dream machine" is an fascinating, joyful account of jr licklider's work in interactive computing * "hard landing" makes the airline industry seem tumultuous and exciting * "a man for all markets" is the autobiography of ed thorpe, father of card counting and quant hedge funds * "unix: a history and a memoir" is a mischievous first hand account from brian kernighan (of unix / c / awk fame)

The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal.

The Dream Machine is a good read about the vision of J.C.R. Licklider, a man who instigated the work that led to the internet. It's a very well written book and gives great insight into the pre-web era of networking Amazon link (non affiliate): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732265119

The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop

- Paypal Wars. I read this twice -- once back in 2006 or so, before I really knew who any of the people were (Thiel, Musk, etc.). And then once a few years ago. - Chaos Monkeys -- about Facebook circa 2010, touches on YC a few years before that. Somewhat controversial, but a good book. - Weaving the Web by Tim Berners-Lee -- talks about the story from CERN to MIT, etc. Echoing some other posts: - The Idea Factory - The Dream Machine (probably the densest and most informative computer history book I've read) - Masters of Doom - The Supermen (about Seymour Cray) -- I didn't know anything about this side of the industry! Interesting.

'The Dream Machine: J. C. R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal' by M. Mitchell Waldrop was an amazing historical vertical slice from the beginnings of computation, through various military industrial escapades, through the ultimate demo to finally to Xeroc Parc. It answers the question "where did the personal computer come from" and the answer is not some garage in silicon valley, but is far more interesting and complex.

Seconded. Cringely is the only one who doesn't make everything seem ooh-ahh-magical-brains! predetermined. Altho that tell-all on the Segway (Code Name Ginger) was pretty cool for all the flaws it pointed out. Where the Wizards Stay Up Late was a book I did an interactive presentation on in 7th grade, so it always has a special place in my heart. In retrospect, it's not fun to read, but at the time, I devoured it. It's boring and nothing really happens, which really is a good metaphor for the most exciting technical change. Ooh, and "The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal." Especially if you're into UI and unsung heroes.

The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal by M. Mitchell Waldrop. It's a very fun, easy, and interesting read of the origins of modern computing, the people who worked day and night to make their vision a reality, and the passion that carried their dreams to reality (the book, besides mentioning Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider, also names people from Grace Hopper to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates).