Grace Hopper: The Queen of Code

The FiveThirtyEight Signals Series: 

You probably don’t know the name Grace Hopper, but you should.

As a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, Hopper worked on the first computer, the Harvard Mark 1. And she headed the team that created the first compiler, which led to the creation of COBOL, a programming language that by the year 2000 accounted for 70 percent of all actively used code. Passing away in 1992, she left behind an inimitable legacy as a brilliant programmer and pioneering woman in male-dominated fields. 

Hopper’s story is told in “The Queen of Code,” directed by Gillian Jacobs (of “Community” fame). It’s the latest film in FiveThirtyEight’s “Signals” series.

Seth Godin: Keep Making a Ruckus

In this wide-ranging question and answer session, bestselling author Seth Godin advocates us to be bold. Whether it’s a toxic work culture or stagnation in your craft, Godin urges us all to recapture the child-like delight in taking a risk.

“You may know how to use fancy design tools, but if there isn’t that leap that leads to connection, it doesn’t matter….you’re not making art,” says Godin. “We didn’t build stuff because we need more beautifully laid out menus. We did it because people want to be touched, noticed, and connected.”

A Rare Look at Design Genius Jony Ive: The Man Behind the Apple Watch

The cultural shift at Apple continues. To the point they've allowed the publishing of a very rare profile of Jony Ive. But that's not even the most surprising thing, the profile was in Vogue, re-iterating how Apple is certainly moving towards fashion in their marketing of the Apple Watch, a device they allowed writer Robert Sullivan to know about and handle before the product announcement, which is unheard of for Apple. 

In 1985, the year Jobs was forced out of Apple, Jony Ive was in design school in England, struggling with computers, blaming himself. “Isn’t that curious?” he says now. “Because if you tasted some food that you didn’t think tasted right, you would assume that the food was wrong. But for some reason, it’s part of the human condition that if we struggle to use something, we assume that the problem resides with us.”

Have you met @AlaindeBotton?

Alain de Botton is a philosopher with a decidedly 21st century edge. He is capable of presenting the works of the Philosophy masters in a way that is simple but not simplistic, while adjusting their ideas to reflect current day realities. It should not be a surprise that I first discovered de Botton via TED, where earlier this year he did a talk presenting a kindler, gentler idea of success. You can see that talk here.

The talk resonated with me and I went searching for more. What I discovered was an eclectic body of work full of deep explorations of everyday challenges from unique and interesting perspectives, the very definition of thought provoking. His most recent book “The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work” dives into, well, work. In “The Architecture of Happiness,” featured in the movie “(500) Days of Summer,” he argues that architecture should play an important role in our happiness. “The Consolations of Philosophy” led to a BBC series that can be seen below. Monocle recently asked him, and 24 other thinkers, what’s next for our world, you can see his answer here. 

If you want a tour guide to the world from a philosophical standpoint de Botton is your man.

Socrates on self-confidence:
 

Epicurus on happiness:
 

Seneca on anger:
 

Montaigne on self-esteem:
 

Schopenhauer on love:
 

Nietzche on hardship:
 

Related:
Alain de Botton: web, wiki, facebook, twitter

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
The Architecture of Happiness (Vintage)
How Proust Can Change Your Life
Status Anxiety
The Consolations of Philosophy

Have you met @SirKenRobinson?

“If you are not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”

 

Inspiring education advocate Sir Ken Robinson recently launched a new website at sirkenrobinson.com.

 

Sir Robinson’s talk on creativity and education was one of the very first talks released by TED on the web and has been downloaded over 3.5 million times in over 200 countries, making him an admired expert on creativity, innovation and education. You can view the charming talk here.

 

Most recently he wrote the book The Element, which he describes as “the place where passion and skill meet. People find The Element when they engage in the thing that they love that they are also especially good at doing.” The book encourages us to follow our passions.

 

Here is the (long but worthwhile) talk he recently presented at UCLA as part of the Hammer Lectures:

 

 

Visit his website and make sure to follow him on twitter and facebook.