Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice
nytimes.com
Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice
1–10 of 21 posts
Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice
#2Actually I'd wager that Stewart Brand has changed the world more than twice. I was a huge fan of both the whole earth catalog and the Well. Both Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle have mentioned him as a mentor and influence.
Though it wasn't mentioned in the article he's also along with Kevin Kelly behind The Long Now foundation http://longnow.org/about/
Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice
#3Stewart Brand is a phenom. Not mentioned in this article but he started The Long Now Foundation (http://longnow.org/) to "foster long term thinking". I've been a member for over a year and their seminars are absolutely fantastic.
Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice
#4Fun fact: Stewart's catalog is also the origin of the iconic "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" tagline.
http://ailiangan.com/post/50201060795/the-origins-of-stay-hu...
Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice
#5I quickly read through the article, but I was unable to see how Brand changed the world.
I've lived outside the US for most of my life and I'm probably a bit too young to have been directly impacted by Brands work.
Based on the article, most of his work involved combining the spiritual and technological into a cohesive whole. This sounds really cool, but seemed to only be limited to US culture.
Honestly, I think the usage of the phrase "change the world" involves a much larger impact on the world than this article describes.
I'd be grateful if another user could perhaps expand upon the article and help me understand what made Brand so great here in the US.
Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice
#6I quickly read through the article, but I was unable to see how Brand changed the world. I've lived outside the US for most of my life and I'm probably a bit too young to have been directly impacted by Brands work. Based on the article, most of his work involved combining the spiritual and technological into a cohesive whole. This sounds really cool, but seemed to only be limited to US culture. Honestly, I think the…
There is something delicious about such a comment on Hacker News. There is a direct link between The Well and Hacker News, and you would probably feel quite at home back on The Well in its heyday. What is the old saw, that fish can't grok the concept of water? Someone had to invent these online forums that attract smart people and intelligent discussions from around the world.
For a wild ride with Stewart Brand polymath of polymaths, I'd recommend the Tim Ferriss podcast episode[0].
Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice
#7What must have been a side project for him, the book "How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built", was hugely influential to me as an architecture student. His observations of built works continually adapting to the evolving needs of users have obvious parallels in the world of software, and helped form the basis of how I approach UX and product design.
Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice
#8He's also the fellow who wrote this:
"On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other."
Source of the "information wants to be free" meme.
I carried around a copy of "The Next Whole Earth Catalog" in my backpack in high school one year instead of books. Yes, the big one.
Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice
#9What must have been a side project for him, the book "How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built", was hugely influential to me as an architecture student. His observations of built works continually adapting to the evolving needs of users have obvious parallels in the world of software, and helped form the basis of how I approach UX and product design.
The mental model of "pace layers"[1] is a really insightful one. I've found it extremely useful to think about problems from a systems perspective - eg. what layer am I operating in and what layers may I encounter in the future? What might I expect from this layer (eg. dynamic, spontaneous vs. cautious, calculating), and how does that inform the decisions I should make?
[1] https://alexpetralia.github.io/2018/02/19/NL-2018-02-19.html
Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice
#10Funny coincidence: Stewart Brand was actually the camera man filming Douglas Engelbart's Mother of All Demos as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos
Evidently he helped advise the team on how to present the demo.