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Geek Gestalt

The space program's influence on Silicon Valley

As a Bay Area native steeped in academia--my father is a college professor--I always wanted to believe in the primacy of universities in just about everything.

That's why, for years, I had assumed that the most important factor in the development of Silicon Valley as the world's leading technology center was Stanford. After all, it is located in Palo Alto, Calif., right in the middle of the Valley, and its students and graduates were behind such industry powerhouses as Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo, Google and many others.

Well, as my story, How NASA helped invent Silicon Valley, which is up … Read more

Welcome to Geek Culture

When I was in high school, all those years ago, being a nerd, or a geek, was a painful thing. We were the outcasts, the forgotten ones who couldn't get a date to save our lives, and for whom the future seemed certain to be a blur of solitary days and nights spent coding.

Over the years, as my lot in life improved, it occurred to me from time to time that I should go back to that school, take a few of these unfortunate souls aside, and give them the good news: Sure, today you're alone and … Read more