Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, The Innovators is Walter Isaacson’s revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens.

What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail?

In his masterly saga, Isaacson begins with Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s daughter, who pioneered computer programming in the 1840s. He explores the fascinating personalities that created our current digital revolution, such as Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee, and Larry Page.

This is the story of how their minds worked and what made them so inventive. It’s also a narrative of how their ability to collaborate and master the art of teamwork made them even more creative.

For an era that seeks to foster innovation, creativity, and teamwork, The Innovators shows how they happen.

Listening Length

17 hours and 28 minutes
Author

Walter Isaacson
Narrator

Dennis Boutsikaris
Audible release date

October 7, 2014
Language

English
Publisher

Simon & Schuster Audio
ASIN

B00M9KICAY
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	17 hours and 28 minutes
Author	Walter Isaacson
Narrator	Dennis Boutsikaris
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	October 07, 2014
Publisher	Simon & Schuster Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00M9KICAY
Best Sellers Rank	#6,498 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #2 in Digital Design (Books) #4 in Computing Industry History #4 in Computer & Technology Biographies

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Joshua

Yes, actually, you DID build that!

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2018

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The overplayed hands of Ada Lovelace and Collaboration, constantly reinforced throughout the book, felt like Isaacson wanted to write the book around these points from the beginning.

While it’s true that the world’s greatest innovators were enabled by systems of collaborative support, the framing of it all in this book seemed so planned that it came across as dishonest. All the way to the end when the famous quote came up: ‘you didn’t build that’.

Certain people have a disproportionate impact on human advancement, and no matter how hard you try to replace the main course with a side dish, the main course is the main course. Give credit where credit is due, and that did not appropriately come out in this book.

Moving on to Harold Bloom’s, Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds...

52 people found this helpful

Helpful

A Good Introduction to the Ethos and Major Figures of Modern Computing

Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2017

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As an introduction to the ethos and personalities who created the modern digital revolution era, The Innovators is a success. Even though extremely light on the actual science and engineering of computers (there isn't a single line of code) and necessarily brief about the major personalities of its one hundred fifty year odd history, the book does convey a good sense of the similarities among the luminaries of computing.

Isaacson, always interested in what makes some people truly significant and others merely dreamers or money makers, focuses on the need for sensitivity to the ability of computers to complement, instead of replace, human intelligence. He also observes that the major figures in computing were able to blend insights from the humanities and sciences and tended to work in close collaboration with others. The myth of the lonely creative genius turns out, at least in computing, to be mostly a myth.

The book travels rather well trodden ground and is not a book for those who want an understanding of the development of computer science. But if you are interested in sketches--almost universally positive as is Isaacson's style--of the major figures in computing along with a simple explanation as to why they're important, this book is a good purchase.

Isaacson's prose is easy to read--I read the whole book in less than day--which means that the book is not only a worthy exercise in lifetime learning but a pleasurable experience as well. I would have preferred more technical descriptions of computer science but I work in data analytics so my opinion may not accord with the majority of readers.

Somewhat simplistic, too universally positive but still an interesting survey of the major figures in computing. Not life changing but I can think of worse ways to spend nine hours than reading a work with as interesting a subject and as polished prose as this book.

36 people found this helpful

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Wally Bock

Excellent Overview of the History of Computer Technology with Excellent Stories

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2018

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I still remember my mother’s instructions on the day that I made my first phone call. “Wally,” she said, “pick up the phone and listen for the operator to say ‘Number, please?’”

That was 1952. It was also the year when Grace Hopper developed the first computer compiler and a computer predicted the winner of a presidential election. We’ve sure come a long way since then.

My telephone story didn’t make Walter Isaacson’s book, The Innovators: How A Group of Hackers, Geniuses, And Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, but Grace Hopper’s story did, and so did the story of that UNIVAC computer that predicted the outcome of the presidential election. If you like stories of human ingenuity, and you’re interested in how we got to where we are today in technology, this is the book for you.

Walter Isaacson is an amazing writer and a great storyteller. The book is a selection of stories, beginning back in 1843 with Ada Lovelace, right down to almost the present day with the stories of Wikipedia and IBM’s Watson computer beating the experts on Jeopardy!

There are stories about people that I’m sure you’ve heard of, like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and Steward Brand. There are also stories of people who aren’t as well-known to the general public.

You’ll read about Paul Baran, who devised the packet-switching technology that makes the internet possible. There’s the story of Ray Tomlinson, who gets credit for creating the first email program. You’ll learn about the powerful influence that World War II had on the development of technology. You’ll trace the genealogy of important tech companies, from Bell Labs through Shockley Semiconductor, Fairchild Semiconductor, and Intel. You’ll learn how George Boole’s system of using algebra for logical reasoning (1847) was used by Claude Shannon almost a century later.

I’ve got a special perspective on this book stories because I’ve been fascinated with technology since I was young, and because I was “present at the creation” when computers were moving from kits to finished goods and computing was changing from mainframe systems to client-server systems. I have first-hand experience with some of the people and situations described in this book, and by and large, Isaacson got them all right.

In A Nutshell

If you’re interested in the history of technology and how we got to where we are today, rendered in well-told, accurate stories, you’ll want to read The Innovators: How A Group of Hackers, Geniuses, And Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson.

17 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Brian61

Very interesting book for those interested in the advance of computer science

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2019

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We have all heard of the famouse people that have driven electronic products for the masses in recent years. This book also highlights the unsung heroes that also made contributions either as individuals of more importantly as part of a team. Improvements in electronics that everyone now takes for granted has been done incrementally over many years with very few earth shattering individual moments. As with cars we didn't go from a Model T Ford to a modern Formula 1 car overnight. A lot of small improvements happened in between.

2 people found this helpful

Niall J

Importantly left out Plato

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 4, 2021

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Not sure how this oversight made it through but the system that first took the flat screen and touchscreen idea into actual use is left out here. University of Illinois's Plato, as well as a terminal was also a networked system that at one time was briefly larger than the Arpanet and certainly more open. I mean, there's a chapter on the Internet! Come on! Otherwise a good book.

One person found this helpful

Thiefboy

Superb summary of the history of the computer and computer science

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2020

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Walter has an open and engaging style that engages immediately. I have found myself quoting and sending quotes from the kindle version of this book to my family more than on anything else I have read. Thanks for bringing together art and science and highlighting the fantastic opportunities ahead of us if we work with artificial intelligence instead of competing with it.

Well worth a read.

P.S. The section on Wiki’s also encouraged me to write this review and contribute, very convincing!

One person found this helpful

utk

What a wonderfully connected storytelling - Isaacson really takes you through the ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 7, 2015

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What a wonderfully connected storytelling - Isaacson really takes you through the various branches of innovations that have led to the digital life we have today. Without getting boring for a second, he walks one through an interconnected culture of hackers that was intent on prodding things, often producing results that they didn't set out to get.

My one gripe with the narrative is that it does get a little repetitive at times from a format perspective (new tech -> innovator -> childhood and growing up -> what led to the innovation etc) but that can hardly be avoided in a book of this nature.

The fact that he starts from Ada Lovelace and Babbage and takes us all the way through to the present day in one book is really incredible.

3 people found this helpful

Mr. R. J. Smith

Interesting and insightful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2015

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Great whistlestop history of the milestones that have allowed us to reach great heights as a species. Also refreshing to see the common themes of collaboration and the way all innovation is the tip of an ever growing stack of innovations that came before it. A real human team effort. Final point, I did a computer science degree in the 90's and something this book shows which my degree didn't is the massive contribution the ladies made to the field even back in the beginning when they were generally discouraged from dabbling in what was considered a man world. Long Live Ada!

2 people found this helpful

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