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by fitzn 2253 days ago
I really enjoyed the Idea Factory, by Jon Gertner: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11797471-the-idea-factor...

It was exciting and inspiring and fun. It covered a ton of different inventions that came out of Bell Labs from its inception through the 1960's. It had some fun factoids like how they selected the wood for the telephone poles. Just an awesome book.

Another is Dealers of Lightning, by Michael Hiltzik: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1101290.Dealers_of_Light...

Exciting and inspiring like the first, but with a different feel. It's about Xerox PARC and all of their work and the people there.

1 comments

Could not agree more with The Idea Factory, his talks are also great. I also came away feeling inspired, nostalgic and the book is very fun. They are some real characters.

There’s some good picks in the similar books I’ve been looking at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/similar/16750267-the-idea-fac...

If you haven’t read Ben Franklins autobiography it’s also pretty fun and inspiring.