I picked up this collections of essays on the history of code in one of my not-always-consistent efforts to get closer to the technical side of tech, or at least become more cultured about it.
As a designer most times you have the option to put this veneer between you and the full understanding of the technologies the work you do gets build on. I have this secret fear that becoming too technical will separate me from the human using the products. If I learn Python I’ll stop empathizing.
But a desire to understand infrastructure and how the magic happens doesn’t mean you’ll be abducted by that side. This deep need for understanding people and social systems intrinsic to many designers is not incompatible with looking for answers on the technical side too. It’s never either or.
This book contains some tech history lore I’d never heard before, like how the origins of code trace back to jacquard loom machines, how coding was originally a women-dominated field, how the design of the email started as a second-level task assigned to entry-level engineers. And how Facebook was initially reluctant on the ‘Like’ button concept, worrying that it would trivialize online social interactions.
These short reads show the technical is more intertwined with people and culture than I usually think of. I’ve been watching this collective realization online lately (mostly triggered by AI ethical debates) that technology is not this unstoppable and unavoidable major force but that it has everything to do with people. And we should be more aware of that.
