Questions About The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution

by Walter Isaacson (Goodreads Author)

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Answered Questions (1)

Material derived from this book that was published in the October 2014 Vanity Fair (where I work) suggests that Isaacson is inclined to gloss over messy, complex details for the sake of a smooth, clear story. Are knowledgeable readers finding this book technically sound?

Mark It's not technically unsound. It's just not very technical. I'm actually a statistician/programmer, but with limited knowledge of the history of compu…moreIt's not technically unsound. It's just not very technical. I'm actually a statistician/programmer, but with limited knowledge of the history of computers. The book is very good at giving the who/where/when but is more interested in discussing a feud between people over a patent then the logic of a full adder.

Some of the topics he has touched on have sent me out to the internet to look deeper into (for instance, "delay line memory") which is more than I can say for a lot of non-fiction. So, he's not going to go into a topic like that deeply, but he offers an appreciation of it's importance and short comings and place in computer history. That's what the book is trying to do. It does it well, in my opinion.

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