Ever Feel Discouraged? Read This:

[snot]

http://joelrunyon.com/two3/an-unexpected-ass-kicking/

The author sat down to work on his laptop in a coffee shop. A very elderly gentleman sat down next to him; turns out, he invented the first internally-programmable computer, and he has some important insights.

[L0oniX]

1. K & R

[Scuba]

2. Just another worthless old person who sucks up our resources without contributing... oh, wait...

Want to mess with your mind? Without the man in the photo, the photo of this man wouldn’t exist.

[freshwest]

16. +1. We are all part of a huge library of knowledge. Openness is the key to reading the books.

We have been caught in a brightly colored, loud circus that demands we pay for the privilege to learn someone else's way of thinking. We get so invested in what is being sold to us that we avoid learning to think ourselves.

[JDPriestly]

17. +100000

Agree completely.

[snot]

22. +1!

[riverwalker]

3. wow

just wow. Thank you, that was amazing.

[HiPointDem]

4. he did it with public funding, while working at the national bureau of standards. with a team.

and went to the bronx high school of science, a publicly-funded specialised math/science school that when he was there took only boys.

i take the point of the article, but this type of article (be all that you can be! dare! aspire!) kind of glides over the support systems that allow people like kirsch to thrive.

i used to take those systems for granted; they are being destroyed.

[redqueen]

6. Aaaaaand now I'm back to discouraged.

Kidding, good points.

[Hydra]

14. Another grand irony

Is that the people in charge are doing their best to make it illegal to do new things and tinker with old things. It's veiled as "protecting intellectual property" and such, but the results are interesting- cooling innovation and creating a climate and mindset of "It's not possible."

[HiPointDem]

15. i think that's what it's about. for example, why aren't we routinely teaching computer programming

and similar skills in jr. high & high school? it's not that complicated if you start young, nor is understanding such things.

i think it's basically to keep such knowledge arcane, to restrict it to a narrow slice of the population, to create artificial scarcity, etc.

the new patent/copyright/intellectual property laws are all about that too. huge restriction of the so-called 'free market,' enlarging the rentier class, but they never talk about that during their paeans to capitalism.

yeah, it discourages innovation and dumbs people down. they become stupid consumers of things others make for them, of which they have no understanding.

[demosincebirth]

5. We forget the old persons who invented the things that make our lives better today...or maybe

worse.

[chowder66]

7. That story just reminded me of how unimaginative I really am.

Every time I have thought of something... I find out it has already been done. I keep trying though.

What a great story.

[obxhead]

8. Just because it's been done, doesn't mean it was done correctly.

The paper clip was invented and they made money. It was reinvented and they made even more money.

[chowder66]

11. I agree. nt

[TlalocW]

9. Damn it!

I'm sorry, folks, but that's my grandpa. He routinely escapes from the home and then goes around telling people stuff. I'm sorry. If you've seen him please call me at...

Just kidding. Cool story.

TlalocW

[AsahinaKimi]

10. If I were that guy

at the table, and knew who he was, I would give him a huge permanent black marker and ask him to sign my LAPTOP.. with the words...

"I made this just for you... love to kimi! ~Russell Kirsch "

[Ruby the Liberal]

12. Neat story. k&r

[northoftheborder]

13. Fascinating and inspiring story! Thanks!

[UnrepentantLiberal]

18. That was as cool as it gets.

[trof]

19. Damn! I've used his drum scanner.

I was a newspaper reporter in the early 60s.
We got this new contraption in the newsroom that could send and receive photos anywhere in the world that had a phone line (and a drum scanner).
Wow.
What a brilliant guy.

[backscatter712]

20. That is a king-sized bucket of awesome! n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

21. Shakubuku.

K&R