Triumph of the Nerds Part I

This is a very interesting documentary about how the computer era became to be.

It describes us how the first computers were just after World War II, big machines of the size of a room, and how they focused on resolving mathematical issues.

Later on computers became easier to manage, and so a group of people referred in the documentary as "nerds" focused their attention in this 'electrical-technological' trend.

I found this part awesome, I mean, they were just a group of people who thought that something good can come from this new technology. They created discussion groups in which they proposed new uses for the machines.

The video centers in the idea that most of this developments were born with the intention of impressing their friends. Who would find a new use first? Who could add a feature that makes the machine usable? and so many questions that triggered the people to create.

People gathered in their garages to built new machines with more processing capacity or easier to transport and eventually Microsoft and Apple were created. The rest is history.

Most of the new ideas are born like this, a group of friends in a garage building something maybe for a college project or just for fun. The thing is that they all have the vision to see something that wasn't there and somehow change the world. So maybe we should make our goal to approach to this way of thinking, in order to make a contribution to society and why not to make our mark in history.

One thing is certain and this is that the invention of the PC revolutionized the world for good, situation that changed in an enormous way with the invention of the Internet, bringing important ways of living, like interact with the people and the world in real time, ways of living that became essential for many of us. 

Source: 

Documentary video titled “Triumph of the Nerds Part I: Impressing their Friends” produced by PBS, and written and hosted by Robert X. Cringely in the year 1996.