The Wonder of Tech

Welcome to?The?Art?of?The?Impossible, a weekly newsletter where I unearth five pieces?of?content which I hope will both inspire?and?embolden you.

PODCAST

This week's guest is David Senra , ex-founder and host of ?Founders podcast – one of my favourite podcasts where each week, David devours a biography of a founder and shares his favourite lessons with the world, whether it’s Charlie Munger, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Kobe Bryant, The Wright Brothers, Lucille Ball, Jay Z, Enzo Ferrari and many more! Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts from.

But David has a really interesting story himself and one we dive into today. We talk about his tough childhood and how his escape came through his obsession with books because it was within those pages where he found the role models he wanted and needed to inspire him on his way. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts from.

We also discuss some key themes between the founders and innovators whose stories David has shared in over 300 episodes now from a self-styled delusion which helps them to ignore the naysayers and dream the impossible to the obsession which comes with a laser focus on what matters.

There are lots of great stories and anecdotes as you can imagine from David but there are also some great lessons that he has learned about success on his personal journey and why he wants to build something he’s younger self would be proud of.

Enjoy!

This episode was originally released April 2023 - S9:E73

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts from.

QUOTE

“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what a product looks like. People think it’s this veneer—that the designers are handed this box and told, “Make it look good!”

That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like.

Design is how it works.” ― Ken Kocienda

INTERVIEW

Lilian Swartz - a pioneer in computer generated arts sadly passed away this week.

Lillian was one of the earliest artists to create art animations using computers. Brought to Bell Labs by researcher Leon Harmon , Schwartz worked on animations and graphics, including seminal works like Pixillation, Olympiad, and UFOs.

In this interview, Schwartz describes her involvement with the Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT), work at Bell Labs during the 1960s and 70s, her subsequent works in film and mixed media, and her videos including Museum of Modern Art, Mona/Leo and Pictures from a Gallery.

Watch this short docu here. Read her full interview from 2013 here.

BOOK

Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcom Gladwell

On the 25th anniversary of the Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do elite universities care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In his new book, Malcolm Gladwell returns to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of the contagious phenomena. Through a series of stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world's most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, Gladwell offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of the modern world.

Buy the book here.

FILM

The Rubber-Keyed Wonder

An upcoming film from Anthony & Nicola Caulfield, The Rubber-Keyed Wonder tells the story of Clive Sinclair’s now legendary ZX Spectrum home computer that was first released in 1982.

The Rubber-Keyed Wonder charts the development and creation of the ZX Spectrum from concept through to its first release, and the financial and reputational success it brought Clive Sinclair. It also examines the impact of subsequent versions of the computer and features a huge array of games that were developed on the Spectrum including: Jet Set Willy, Knightlore, Chuckie Egg, Ant Attack, Saboteur and many more.

The film is highly nostalgic and features rare archive material combined with new interviews with the Spectrum’s original designers, Sir Clive’s son and nephew, and some of the Spectrum's greatest game developers, all sharing their memories of the spectacular rise of the ZX Spectrum and its extraordinary inventor, Sir Clive Sinclair.

Watch the trailer here.

Thank you so much for reading?the?newsletter?and?for listening to?the?podcast , and?if you enjoy them, please do share with your network - my goal is to have these stories reach as many as possible so that others can be inspired too. And if you have two minutes, please do leave a review for the podcast - it would mean the world to me and helps others to find it too.

Danielle