THIS WEEK: Courage, Confidence and Computational Thinking

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer and are managing to take some time out to relax and reflect. I am just back from a much-needed break and, as I said on my Instagram , every season, I learn lessons that learn a lifetime... But, in truth, those lessons only come to me when I take time out to reflect on them. Anyone else feel like that? The rest of the time we are on this hamster wheel of life, trying to get things ticked off our ever-expanding to do lists.

But with one eye always on social media and an unhealthy sense of curiosity, I wanted to bring you some highlights I have found recently including a podcast, quote, film, book and interview which I think you will enjoy. Here goes...

PODCAST

I am so excited to bring Series 7 to you this September. I interviewed Rick Smith and Chris Sheldrick this week and we had great discussions around their backgrounds, gun violence, mapping the world and what advice they would give their younger selves starting out on their entrepreneurial journeys. Subscribe here so that you are the first to hear these new episodes when they come out.

In the mean time, check out this rare interview that Lex Fridman managed to get with the incredible programmer and gaming pioneer John Carmack.

QUOTE

INTERVIEW

"I don’t think of the world that way. I’m a tool builder. That’s how I think of myself. I want to build really good tools that I know in my gut and my heart will be valuable. And then whatever happens is… you can’t really predict exactly what will happen, but you can feel the direction that we’re going. And that’s about as close as you can get. Then you just stand back and get out of the way, and these things take on a life of their own." Steve Jobs

I found this fantastic archived Rolling Stone interview with Steve Jobs, published in 1994.

"The story of Apple CEO Steve Jobs is one of the most familiar in American business — shaggy Bob-Dylan-loving kid starts a computer company in a Silicon Valley garage and changes the world. But like any compelling story, it has its dark moments. Before the?iPad?or the iPhone, Jobs, then the Head of ?NeXT Computer, sat down with?Rolling Stone‘s?Jeff Goodell. It was 1994, Jobs had long ago been booted from Apple, the internet was still the province of geeks and academics, and the personal computer revolution looked like it might be over. But even at one of the low points in his career, Jobs still had confidence in the limitless potential of personal computing. Read on to get Jobs’ prescient take on PDAs and object-oriented software, as well as his relationship with?Bill Gates?and why he wanted the internet in his den, but not living room."

Read the full interview here. Image of Steve by the fantastic Doug Menuez

BOOK

I have the great honour of interviewing John Maeda for Series 7 of the podcast and, in the mean time, I am devouring his book How to Speak Machine: Computational Thinking for the Rest of Us .

Visionary designer and technologist John Maeda defines the fundamental laws of how computers think, and why you should care even if you aren't a programmer.

Buy the book here.

FILM

How the first woman of colour to be elected to the US Congress impacted education

Have you heard of Patsy Mink? If not, you should watch this short doc, narrated by her daughter Gwendolyn Mink here.

Patsy Takemoto Mink (1927-2002) isn’t a household name in the history of US politics but she should be. This short documentary?offers an inspiring brief history of her life - combining archival footage and narration by daughter Wendy Mink, the Canadian director Ben Proudfoot traces how the Hawaiian-born Mink beat the odds to become the first-ever woman of colour elected to the US Congress, and how her legacy of fighting for equality lives on in?Title IX?– a law that ushered in a revolution in women’s collegiate sports.

Watch the film here.

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I hope you enjoyed this week's newsletter. See you next week.

Danielle