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.
The Internet treats censorship as a malfunction and routes around it.
The optimism that many felt in the 1960s over labour-saving technology is giving way to a fearful question: 'Will your labour be good for anything in the future? Or will you be replaced by a machine?'
I'm an inventor. I became interested in long-term trends because an invention has to make sense in the world in which it is finished, not the world in which it is started.
Social media's greatest assets - anonymity, 'virality,' interconnectedness - are also its main weaknesses.
What it comes down to for me is this: Will the technologies of communication in our culture, serve to enlighten us and help us to understand one another better, or will they deceive us and keep us apart?
It win be a device that will permit communication without any time interval between two points in space. The device will not transmit messages, of course; simultaneity is identity. But to our perceptions, that simultaneity will function as a transmission, a sending. So we will be able to use it to talk between worlds, without the long waiting for the message to go and the reply to return that electromagnetic impulses require. It is really a very simple matter. Like a kind of telephone.
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