Bricklin on Technology Review

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(More customer reviews)I read a few books this weekend - the most enjoyable was Bricklin on Technology . I've somehow managed to end up with three of them - I know that Dan Bricklin sent me one and Amazon sent me one, but I don't know where the third came from. Dan told me about this book a few months ago when I saw him in Boston at the TechStars for a Day event. He's done an outstanding job of combining his essays on computing with updated thinking along with a bunch of great history. There are a dozen chapters - each are a "mini-book" within the book. My favorite was Chapter 12: VisiCalc (which is - not surprisingly - the history of VisiCalc) but the other chapters are all great and include things like:
* What Will People Pay For?
* The Recording Industry and Copying
* Leveraging the Crowd
* Blogging and Podcasting: Observations through Their Development
* Tools: My Philosophy about What We Should Be Developing
I first heard of Dan Bricklin in 1979. I had bought an Apple II with my bar mitzvah money (and some help from my dad). When VisiCalc came out, we bought one of the first copies; we still have the original 5.25" disk in the brown vinyl VisiCalc binder (our copy was the one featured in the Triumph of the Nerds video series - that's another long story.) Not surprisingly, Dan and his partner Bob Frankston were early heroes of mine. I even bought a copy of TK Solver when it came out.
I finally met Dan in 1995 when he was starting to think about the company that became Trellix. I think we were introduced by Aaron Kleiner, but I can't remember. Yes - I was really excited the first time we met! I ended up helping out in the very early days of Trellix through the point that Dan raised a $200k seed financing from CRV.
I've always loved the way Dan's brain works and Bricklin on Technology is a bunch of it in one portable package.

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In a world that divides us, technology creates connection. Cell phones, e-mail, digital cameras, personal Web sites—they all join us, however tenuously, to what we value. Is connectivity what we're willing to pay for? Should technology be our servant or a tool that helps us do other things? What can we really learn from Napster? What would intelligent standards for touch-screen user interface look like? How does technology evolve, and what drives that evolution?
For Dan Bricklin, technology cannot exist independently of the lives and needs of those who use it. For more than a decade he has shared his thoughts on this essential interdependence in blogs, podcasts, and essays. This volume compiles those observations, putting together case histories and new reflections for a fascinating study of how people and technology affect one another. Whether you're a software developer or a student of human nature, you'll find yourself drawn into this most intriguing discourse—because you are its subject.

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