Book Review: "iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon"

In his best-seller book, "iWoz - Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I invented the personal computer, co-founded Apple, and had fun doing it", Steve Wozniak shares his personal account of the story that , he says, " most people got wrong".

The plot begins in his childhood years, when one could already see sparks of a genius. He recounts every sort of cool electronic projects he did while in high-school ; getting into colllege and dropping out of school to go work at HP; and eventually having the idea that started the PC revolution we now live in: "designing a machine affordable enough that everyone could use and that would empower people to do things the never could before".

Rather than a mere chronological compilation of events, the book is full advices, even if oftentimes they are
primarily targeted at geeks who feel somewhat connected with Woz personality, the self-centered genius.
For an instance, he encourages young would-be inventors to pursue their passion alone, working in the moonlight, the same way he did.
Even if that might have worked in the early days of Computer Revolution, I strongly believe that you are
better off if you team up with a someone. My point is: even if you may spend you "creative" time alone, having a partner
to share your "clever" ideas is imperative. Please don't lock yourself waiting until you feel confident to shout out
your revolutionary ideas!

One of the many highs of this book is the conversational style Wozniak uses to incite in the reader passion for innovation and invention.
You will easily have a great time learning about the "Electronic Kids" of Santa Clara Valley (what we now know as Silicon Valley) and how hid dad played a vital role in shaping beliefs and moral values that he carries as his mantra
up to this day.

As he explicitly states, one of the goals in writing this book was to give credit to who deserved it. A common misconception around Apple's early days is that Steve Jobs was involved, to a certain degree, in the design of the first personal computers. Truth is Woz designed
both Apple I and II all alone, as arguably everything he invented in his life. Think you know who truly came with the concept introduced
with the iPod? If you answered Steve Jobs, you got it all wrong! As Wozniak points out, when Jobs returned to Apple during late 90s
the whole design of the iPod and iMac by Jonathan Ive was in late stage. I'm not trying to downplay Steve Jobs' role in Apple's recovery.
His unique way of introducing "insanely" great products and re-evangelizing Apple customers were vital for the company's rebound.

In sum, even if you may oftentimes disagree with Woz's advices or view of the world, you can't help getting captivated by
all the excitement and fun he had while creating those first computers! A must read!

Why do we love memorabilia?

Today, while reading my copy of SICP and googling related stuff, I came across this guy's website where he joyfully recounted how he got his copy to be signed by the authors, after reading it cover to cover. Even it not being anything out of ordinary, it got me puzzled.

Since I'm currently working at CSAIL (MIT), it is not rare for Sussman himself or people like Rivest (RSA inventor), Stallman (FSF founder) to pass me by.
To be honest, it is indeed exciting, isn't it? But why is that?
Why do we get fulfilled through autographs, or memorabilia in general?

As matter of fact, this is so much true that people make a lot of money out of it. Look up for you favorite movie start or singer on the web to find out that he/she is probably already selling signed stuff. But wait, it is not only about famous people. We do keep our own old stuff as a way of recalling past sensations, memories...

If we want to understand this better, we should definitely take into account social interactions, after all who wouldn't love to brag about having a guitar signed by the Beatles? Still, I believe that the primary reason has to with the individual himself.

Throughout life, we find inevitable to refer to past moments or feelings in our lives or other people's. And that could happen either as a way to avoid repeating mistakes, to relive or reproduce past successes or to get closer to people we like.

Of course I'm not naive to believe this is as a complete explanation, but it suffices for now.
Thus I should finish this post exactly here.

The Other Side of John

I've always been a Beatles aficionado but never to the point of digging for details of their lives.
Well, Philip Norman's latest book, the 800-page biography of John Lennon, sounded like way too much information for a sane person. Still, I decided to give it a try.
To my surprise, thus far, Norman's account of Lennon's life feels like a nice portrait of Liverpool and England in the sixties.
Boy, try reading it while listening to the compilation Beatles Love by Sir George Martin!

Even if John is sometimes regarded as The Beatles leader, there was never such a thing. He being the most extravagant beatle, sometimes downplays Paul's stardom, even the latter having written alone stuff like Lady Madonna, Yesterday... But what about the so-called Lennon/McCartney partnership? When it came to writing the songs, just a few would be written eyeball to eyeball. That's where the famous rivalry begins and this is meticulously described in the book.

Anyone out there who enjoyed The Anthology would love reliving John's reluctance in letting Paul join the band (The Quarrymen at the time) or watching an insecure John accusing Paul of always overshadowing him by trying to write more songs.

"I didn't write any of that [Magical Mystery Tour] except The Walrus ... You'd already five or six songs, so I'd think, 'Fuck it, I can't keep up with that.'"

A psychiatrist who treated him declared that "at the center of all that fame and wealth and adulation was just a lonely little kid".

Reading Norman's book feels as if i could kick Ring out of the band and become a beatle for a day.

Blog Kickoff!

Welcome friends

We do hope this will not be just another false start. Let this blog be our place to freely exchange thoughts, opinions and findings.

... and dear audience (if there is one)!

A bit of background. We are five college students who went to high school together but are now spread all over the place. By now we should say the group is heterogeneous enough to make this blog interesting:

• medicine (1) : joão
• engineering (2) : gustavo, lucas
• law (2) : caio, david

That means you guys should expect interesting stuff to come out here, as we do.
We should be talking about issues ranging from religion, literature and music to science and politics.

See you in the next post.