Here I Stand, at Age 80
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN people point to it as Nelson's candid, first-person overview of his life, Xanadu's failure, and the lessons he drew, a historical record from the man himself.
What it is
Ted Nelson, the originator of hypertext and Project Xanadu, gives a personal account at age 80 of his ideals, his career, and how a poor career plan led to discoveries and adventures. It works as an alternative history of personal computing and hypertext.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2017 to 2019.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec cookiecaper · 2018-01 · on “Ted Nelson’s published papers on computers and interaction, 1965 to 1977”
Ted gives a great overview of his life and work at [0]. In this, he ascribes the demotion/firing of Xu88's project lead Roger Gregory as the reason it failed to come fruition, and takes credit for the "regrettable" part he played in this. The whole talk is a wonderful high-level overview from Ted's perspective, which is so often warped and misrepresented. Though he admits that he has, at times, been "overwhelmed by bitterness", he doesn't seem to harbor any lasting hostility or malice to anyone, and continues to work on seeing his vision come to life. He identifies many of the mistakes he's made, identifying multiple critical junctures in which Xanadu may have taken off if he had done someth
Recommends jonah-archive · 2017-09 · on “A Thought for Your Pennies: Micropayment and the Liberation of Content (2009)”
Ted's sitting across from me right now! He says this article is old, and wanted to link to a video he recently made talking about his life and work, if anyone's interested: [this video] We're also hosting an ongoing archival project of his junk mail that he's saved over the years: [LINK] (more details on the project: [LINK] )
Cites shrimp_emoji · 2019-04 · on “I Can't Do Anything for Fun Anymore; Every Hobby Is an Attempt to Make Money”
Yes! There are no serious moves. Nothing in life is really serious, not even death. But I feel like I need to reach some impossible state of ego integrity or ego death or something to actually live by that line of thinking. So instead, I'm moved by fear and contrived seriousness. I want to be successful, or at least successful enough that one day I can spend my 80s seriously and nostalgically navel-gazing to bewildered viewers outside of my social reality, convinced that I am extremely special. [0] :3 0: [this video]