computer science

The Innovators (book)

The Innovators (book) is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Innovators (book) rather than just read about it. In short: The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution is an overview of the history of computer science and the Digital Revolution. It was written by Walter Isaacson, and published in 2014 by Simon & Schuster.

Key takeaways

The Innovators (book) belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Innovators (book) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Innovators (book) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution is an overview of the history of computer science and the Digital Revolution. It was written by Walter Isaacson, and published in 2014 by Simon & Schuster. The book summarizes the contributions of several innovators who have made pivotal breakthroughs in computer technology and its applications—from the world's first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, and Alan Turing's work in artificial intelligence, through the Information Age of the present.

Corrections In December 2015, Simon & Schuster published a revised electronic edition of The Innovators, which corrected significant errors and omissions in the original edition's Chapter 9, which covers software. Isaacson – who in researching the book interviewed Bill Gates but not Paul Allen – had assigned virtually all credit for the company's early innovations and success to Gates, when in fact they were the product of highly collaborative efforts by several people, including Allen. In the revised edition, among other edits, Isaacson includes archival material from 1981 which Gates credits Allen for being the "idea man" in charge of R&D at Microsoft, while he, Gates, was "the frontman running the business". In the 2019 three-part Netflix docuseries Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, this conflict is briefly mentioned by who appears to be Gates's secretary as she goes over the books that Gates was reading at the time of recording. Isaacson explains in his book that, as he was writing about Wikipedia and how it worked, he decided that his book should be collectively examined in a Wikipedia manner. Hence he uploaded a draft on Medium, allowing readers to make dozens of comments to correct and improve the book.

Innovators by chapter Innovators discussed in the book by chapter:

Chapter 1 – Ada, Countess of Lovelace: Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace Chapter 2 – The Computer: Herman Hollerith, Vannevar Bush, Konrad Zuse, Alan Turing, George Stibitz, Claude Shannon, Howard Aiken, John Atanasoff, John Mauchly, J. Presper Eckert Chapter 3 – Programming: Grace Hopper, Richard Bloch, Jean Jennings, John von Neumann Chapter 4 – The Transistor: John Bardeen, William Shockley, Walter Brattain, Patrick Haggerty, Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore Chapter 5 – The Microchip: Jack Kilby, Arthur Rock, Andy Grove, Ted Hoff, Jean Hoerni Chapter 6 – Video Games: Steve Russell, Nolan Bushnell Chapter 7 – The Internet: J. C. R. Licklider, Robert Taylor, Larry Roberts, Paul Baran, Donald Davies, Leonard Kleinrock, Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn Chapter 8 – The Personal Computer: Ken Kesey, Stewart Brand, Doug Engelbart, Alan Kay, Lee Felsenstien, Ed Roberts Chapter 9 – Software: Paul Allen, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Dan Bricklin Chapter 10 – Online William von Meister, Steve Case, Al Gore Chapter 11 – The Web Tim Berners-Lee, Marc Andreessen, Justin Hall, Ev Williams, Ward Cunningham, Jimmy Wales, Larry Page, Sergey Brin Chapter 12 – Ada Forever

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Innovators (book)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Innovators (book) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Innovators (book) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Innovators (book) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Innovators (book)

In research: The Innovators (book) appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Innovators (book) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Innovators (book) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2014 non-fiction books, American history books, Biographies about businesspeople, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Innovators (book) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Innovators (book) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Innovators (book) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Innovators (book) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Innovators (book) in simple terms?

Why does The Innovators (book) matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Innovators (book)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Innovators (book).