Excerpt
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): He’s written books about individuals who changed the game, from Benjamin Franklin to Albert Einstein to Steve Jobs.
But in his latest work, “The Innovators,” Walter Isaacson pulls together a story about the group of creative minds who brought us into the digital age, from an English countess to a California hippie. Isaacson weaves the tale of the inventive thinkers who programmed computers and gave us the Internet.
I spoke to Walter Isaacson a few days ago.
Walter Isaacson, thank you for talking with us.
WALTER ISAACSON, Author, “The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution”: It’s great to be back with you, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, congratulations on the book.
You have mainly written about one person at a time. And you have mainly focused on history, politics. Why science and technology and why everybody who was involved?
WALTER ISAACSON: You know, those of us who are biographers know that we distort history sometimes, and we make it sound like it’s a gal or a guy in a garage or a garret with a singular lightbulb moment, and one person changes things.
As you know, most innovation comes from people working together, collaborating in teams. So I wanted to show how groups of people brought together to form teams that created the digital revolution. I also think it’s fun to understand where our technology comes from.
I mean, you and I love understanding American Revolution, but let’s also understand the digital revolution, because that makes us more comfortable with our technology.
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