Triumph of the Nerds Part I

Comment of the video

The video "Triumph of the nerds Part I" it's a good documental where we can see how these computer industries had evolved. The video is also based on the book "Accidental Empires" by Robert Cringely where describes further about the lives of these people who left their mark on everyday people's life. Even though, each history is completely different in terms of the process and the intended goal, the documental try to link all these histories, so we can know where does it come from the product we know nowadays as a computer.

Photo taken by Cristina Arteaga

These accidental empires were like as a phrase says, "learn from your mistakes", but instead of mistakes was like there was something missing. So without these chains of events, I think that it would not have been achieved. The best metaphor for this video is surfing; you have to know what waves to take and when to take it, because if you take it too early you may have losses.

In general I like the video, for what it made me reflect, but there were some parts that I will change, like the part they make a comparison of a girl that is sitting on the yard and said that it was a "boys thing", although it's an old video that comment was a little bit discriminatory. The fact is that nowadays there many women who have interest in computers and that are good at it, so that stereotype must be broken.

As moral of the video from my point of view, it's that no matter what you study, the age or how crazy your dream is, if you keep trying and searching, you can make it real. In one hand, Bill Gates had the brain to do the things, obviously with the support of others like Paul Allen. And in the other hand, we have Steve Jobs, he wasn't an engineer, instead of that he was a visionary that knew how to take those chances.

References Cringely, Robert X. (1996). Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date . California: HarperBusiness.