Judging from the front cover of the book, my initial expectation was that it will be a deep dive of the lives of renowned innovators from recent years. I’m embarrassed to say that I had no idea who Ada Lovelace was nor did I see her image at the top of the cover. The Innovators really is about the history of computing, at least in America and a bit in England, where most of the progress arguably took place. It is not a deep dive of the innovators themselves even though their lives are briefly discussed, but it is more of an overview of innovations which provide the groundwork for the next, until we get to where we are today.
When you think about it, we “know” who invented the lightbulb to the point that it becomes a cliché. But when we ask ourselves who invented the personal computer, what are the first names that come into mind? Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? Wozniak? None of these are really accurate even though each of these names laid their fingerprints in this invention. So who gets all the credit? How about all those other guys who came before who worked around the clock to get transistors into the market?
It’s not all that straightforward and this is the point of The Innovators. Modern innovation is driven by collaboration, by yes, sometimes mad geniuses with eccentric ideas, but also by ambitious and disciplined engineers, and also the environment where these ideas can be nurtured and delivered into something tangible. There are many names in this book and it is hard to keep up, but they are names worth remembering.
Idea begets ideas, and new innovations provide the platform for the next improvements. The transistor begets semiconductors, which begets microchips, which begets the personal computer, which begets Windows. But it all started very early on, from Charles Babbage’s Differential Engine, and Ada Lovelace’s borderline obsessive passion for mathematics and art back in the 19th century. She was the first person who managed to program a code into a machine to return an output — the Bernoulli sequence, back when so called computers were highly mechanical. She was also the first to believe (at least in recorded history) of the concept of general computing, that the machine can suit more than just the one purpose, which is such a profound idea. In fact, in some chapters, Isaacson brought to light the essential role women played in the history of computing.
That is another important idea in The Innovators — that technological progress and art go hand in hand. Lovelace was Lord Byron’s daughter, and she had a passion for the arts and music. The personal computer and video game revolution could not have come about without lovers of sci-fi, and to some extent, hippies who preached antiestablishment. Many of the innovators in the book managed to port the love of the arts into the science in their work.
Isaacson is really a master biographer and this book is his most ambitious to date. There are many players here, and a lot of the products described in the book treads on the technical. Engineers may find a deficit of info but it does not disrespect the layman, and it is an easily digestible book. Isaacson, like in his Steve Jobs biography, pushed in some nuances of the innovators which adds so much. For example, Turing’s obsession with Snow White and how he poisoned himself with a cyanide-laced apple to mimic the death of Snow White; Gates and Allen’s feud of how they are supposed to divide their profits; or how the loathsome William Shockley obsessed over to make a better transistor in a hotel room, not wanting to be outshone by his colleagues.
It is an essential book to read if you work in the tech industry. Some of the management concepts in this book is still relevant to this day. Just look at how the triad of Noyce, Moore and Grove brought a balance to Fairchild Semiconductor — one is a brilliant manager, another is a brilliant engineer and another is a brilliant bastard. The common pattern of innovators is that they are product people, a discipline breaking through its embryonic stages today, but nonetheless, a concept that has always existed. The Innovators is a highly relevant book in the world where we take personal computing for granted.
