You know, one of these things that happened in the '60s and '70s was this confluence of, sort of, a counter-culture with computer culture.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the intersection between counter-culture movements and the rise of computer technology in the 1960s and 70s.
Walter Isaacson reflects on a significant period in history where the counter-culture of the 1960s and 70s intersected with the burgeoning computer culture. This confluence suggests that the technological advancements were influenced by the revolutionary ideas and social movements of the time, demonstrating how societal shifts can shape technological progress and vice versa.
In practice
During a tech conference, quoting this to illustrate the historical roots of today’s tech industry.
I visited Jobs for the last time in his Palo Alto, Calif., home. He had moved to a downstairs bedroom because he was too weak to go up and down stairs. He was curled up in some pain, but his mind was still sharp and his humor vibrant
I've always had an abundance of material about the subjects of my biographies.
Polite and velvety leaders, who take care to avoid bruising others, are generally not as effective at forcing change.
for Steve, less is always more, simpler is always better. Therefore, if you can build a glass box with fewer elements, it’s better, it’s simpler, and it’s at the forefront of technology. That’s where Steve likes to be, in both his products and his stores.
What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.
When there are multiple versions of a story, you really have three ways to go. You can pick the most sensational version. You can try to balance things in your gut to get to what you think is the honest truth. Or you can err on the side of kindness.
An awful lot of successful technology companies ended up being in a slightly different market than they started out in. Microsoft started with programming tools, but came out with an operating system. Oracle started doing contracts for the CIA. AOL started out as an online video gaming network.
The IT organization can't drive or lead a digital transformation. It has to come from the business and the business strategy, because they're fundamental to how a company or an organization evolves.
We're the new power, come to replace the old. Cameras in the head, children with microchips, spin doctors rewriting reality as it happens.
I confess that in 1901 I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years.
The future is already upon us, it is just unevenly distributed.
Right, and you point out something important which is that people who don’t want to pay, people who are pirates, don’t get bothered by the DRM, they go out and buy the cracked books or download the cracked books for free. It’s only people who are foolish enough to pay for them that get locked into these platforms.
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