The myth of the peachfuzz billionaire has emerged. This new Horatio Alger typically launches his first start-up in middle school, and somewhere between the campus computer-science lab and a move to Palo Alto hacks up a Web site where users provide fun or useful content.

Steven Levy

Categorized in : New Somewhere School Fun

The world is poised on the cusp of an economic and cultural shift as dramatic as that of the Industrial Revolution. (OK, it doesn't take a genius, or even a politician, to figure out that big changes are afoot when we have a medium that lets someone throw up a virtual storefront on the Web and instantly gain access to the global market.)

Steven Levy

gains genius world

The Hacker Ethic: Access to computers--and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works--should be unlimited and total.

Steven Levy

yield hands art

[Google is] an omnivorous collector of information, a hyperencyclopedic vault of human knowledge, an unerring auctioneer, an eerily skilful student of languages, behaviour, and desires.

Steven Levy

google behaviour desire

Ideas, Mike Jones, an engineer at Google explained, were like babies - everything about their environment said they shouldn't exist. But they do. You can't dwell on problems too early, or they will swamp the virtues and you will decide not to do the project.

Steven Levy

google baby ideas

You can create art and beauty with a computer.

Steven Levy

computer art

At the core of Silicon Valley is a passion for 'yes.'

Steven Levy

silicon valleys passion

I think that the most beautiful thing lately hasn't been in hardware or software per se but collaboration - the idea behind Napster, which uses the distributed power of the Internet as its engine.

Steven Levy

beautiful ideas thinking

Computer technology is so built into our lives that it's part of the surround of every artist.

Steven Levy

computer technology artist

The fact that biological, or "natural" rules might help in the creation of a computer generated work of art is interesting, but even a wonderful work of art made in this fashion isn't the same as a person, with all his or her experiences and emotions involved, making art.

Steven Levy

fashion art interesting

You can’t argue with facts. You’re not entitled to your own facts.

Steven Levy

entitled arguing facts

There has never been an unexpectedly short debugging period in the history of computers.

Steven Levy

debugging bugs computer

Find a way to delight in all students. Look for the best, expect the best, and find something in each child [you] can treasure.

Steven Levy

teaching children looks

The world is poised on the cusp of an economic and cultural shift as dramatic as that of the Industrial Revolution.

Steven Levy

dramatic revolution world

There are some surprising names.

Steven Levy

company-news

Wifi was never supposed to be a big thing and certainly not a thing that would become as vital to a home as indoor plumbing.

Steven Levy

become big never home

Even though chess isn't the toughest thing that computers will tackle for centuries, it stood as a handy symbol for human intelligence. No matter what human-like feat computers perform in the future, the Deep Blue match demands an indelible dot on all timelines of AI progress.

Steven Levy

computers intelligence future blue

Every great device, gadget, electric car, and robot would be even greater if batteries didn't suck so badly.

Steven Levy

robot suck great car

As an open system, Android is not under the tight control of its creator, Google.

Steven Levy

open control google creator

After a few days with the iPhone X, I can begin to make out its themes. It's a step towards fading the actual physical manifestation of technology into a mist where it's just there - a phone that's 'all screen,' one that turns on simply by seeing you, one that removes the mechanics of buttons and charging cables.

Steven Levy

phone step you technology

Just as we have what used to be supercomputers in our pockets, our homes now require the telecommunications infrastructure of a small city.

Steven Levy

city small just now