Forum / Wired

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    Chris Okum
    Nov 10, 07:27pm

    I now know the name of the guy who invented Excel. I didn't want to know his name, never cared, but I've been told who he is and that he's a genius. He's a genius because he invented Excel. Every guy who ever invented a piece of software, or an app for your iPhone, well, they're all geniuses. But not the person who invented the coffee percolator, or contact lens solution, or the book light, those people are not considered geniuses in our culture. But the guy who invented spreadsheets is on par with Einstein. This is one of the biggest myths about America, that the men who invent shit related to computers are all geniuses and should be treated as such. Do you know who invented the mechanical tracks that helped facilitate the assembly lines at the Ford Auto Plant in 1932? Some person invented that one piece of the system, and do you think that after they invented it they got to fly around the world in a private jet and hang out with Clark Cable and Woodrow Wilson and date Myrna Loy? The elevation of digital entrepreneurs to Godlike status is one of the strangest and most pernicious PR victories of the last 50 years, and puts into relief the toxic egos of these people. Do you know who invented the football?

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    Misti Rainwater-Lites
    Nov 10, 07:40pm

    I'm an INFP with Mercury in Pisces so I've always been more in awe of artistic geniuses. When I'm using the word "genius" I'm thinking of Lester Bangs, Prince, Beethoven, John Lennon, Gertrude Stein, Basquiat, Jackson Pollock, Thurston Moore, Zora Neale Hurston, Amy Winehouse. Elon Musk seems really stupid and insufferable to me. I'm a terrible Texan. I don't care about football. I loathe Bill Gates because MS Word leaves a lot to be desired. Steve Jobs. Whatever. I make my money with YouTube and the iPhone but if it all came crashing down tomorrow I wouldn't be sad about it.

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    David Ackley
    Nov 12, 01:11pm

    The truth is all those alleged geniuses essential gift was stealing and monetizing the ideas of other anonymous toilers in the Xerox labs, where the personal computer first saw the light of day, and which both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs "borrowed" for their "innovations." And of course the internet was originated by the military. The electric car was once the dominant "horseless carriage," until Henry Ford came along and innovated our carbon addiction.

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