One of the most fascinating things about the birth of modern computing has always been the uncommon paths it followed. It is a road very far from the “official” linear history that decorates so many power points for meet ups and events nowadays. Reality is more peculiar than fiction around computers.
And it’s not only the story of brave lonely heroes facing adversity. Yeah, sure, there were heroes and there were perseverant characters beyond bounds. It’s about those that just couldn’t give up on doing things for no apparent useful reason at all (i.e. commercial).
As an example, there it is the delightful story of Kernighan and Ritchie, the creators of the C language and the UNIX operating system, trying first to get a nice system for a prehistoric game of asteroids. Yes, a game of asteroids. It seems the prehistoric punched-card machines they worked with were useless for that purpose. So they fought, and got at last, the right to use another machine with some screen and minimal power for the craft.
They began with an objective that served as motivation for the job. However the transformation of the machine into something usable for the initial objective entailed many problems. They began thinking into a lightweight operating system to power the game, the one which in time came to be known as UNIX. To program this new operating system, they built a programming language that made possible to program with ease. The result was the C language. Then sheer curiosity and pleasure of learning increase. It was a fight against no enemy known, but it was a victory that changed the world. The rest, it's just history...
Character
Most people on computing from the beginning till now have had a wide variety of characters and personalities. But what they were not, not a single one of them, were 9-to-5 people that did labor and went home to forget the office.
All these men and women were passionate, curious, not easily discouraged or turned down just by other’s comments. They weren’t antisocial either. That is part of the myth around computing: lonely freaks that are afraid of social life.
Nothing can be further away from the truth. Working with computers is not only social, but requires a team instinct incomparable to any other professional area. Computing teams are choreographies, orchestrations and require high synchronization. Teamwork is the key to understand the mix of real entrepreneurs in computing. They assume their natural role in the team, what they excel above others, and there they give our absolute best.
Coding is exciting. Real coding is a competitive sport like none other, where incredible networks all across the globe are building new edge things whilst enjoying every second of the process.
Be a disrupter that visions opportunities to make an impact in our society and is not afraid of pursuing them. Be IMMUNE.
