Canadian - Journalist | 1968 -
America has always had tinkerers, including just about any teenager who ever hot-rodded a Camaro.
Clive Thompson
AmericaAlwaysJustWhoIncluding
I lust after iPods or Mini Coopers not because they're unique, but because they've been so artfully made that I couldn't imagine doing it better myself.
MyselfBetterDoingUniqueLust
Plays are frequently infected with ideas that came from actors or even sound engineers. Some Shakespeare scholars wonder whether some of the Bard's lines came from onstage improvisations by actors.
IdeasWonderEngineersSoundLines
The Internet lets thousands of total strangers collaborate to produce a truly hivelike result.
InternetResultStrangersLetsTotal
Truly huge artistic collaboration on the Internet seems to work only if the gang has a well-defined objective.
WorkCollaborationInternetGang
A textbook requires a consistent sense of style and a linear structure, hallmarks of a single authorial presence. An encyclopedia doesn't.
StyleStructureSinglePresence
More than any other modern tool, computers are a total mystery to their users. Most people never open them up to fix them or to see how they work.
WorkPeopleComputersMysteryNever
The computer industry began with home-brew boxes that everyone had to program for themselves, but that was a huge hassle. The computer revolution didn't explode until the first Macintosh arrived, with its point-and-click simplicity.
SimplicityRevolutionFirstEveryone
Software is now so complex - requiring so many gazillions of tiny files all over your computer - that most consumers don't want to bother to know what's really going on.
KnowNowWantSoftwareOverComplex
If you, or any public-spirited programmer, wanted to figure out what the software on your machine is really doing, tough luck. It's illegal to reverse engineer the source code of commercial software to find out how it works.
LuckToughDoingYouFindSoftware
No consumer product improves more drastically, year after year, than the computer.
YearProductMoreComputerConsumer
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