Timeline of the last 40 years
Chapter 1 – The PC revolution
When I was 12, my dad brought home our first IBM PC clone, and it was nothing short of magical. I would spend countless hours playing with it, creating menus in DDOS, enjoying games, and completely losing track of time. I knew I was hooked, and it was no surprise, given that I grew up in a family full of engineers. My father was the VP at Prime Computer, a large mainframe computer provider, and three of my brothers worked as field engineers within the mainframe industry. I remember accompanying my brother Terry to the Anaheim Convention Center to fix these massive, refrigerator-sized computers with large tape drives. It was truly inspiring.
Thanks to Moore’s Law, affordable computers became available to the world, and Windows, along with its application ecosystem, provided the software necessary to harness their power. I’ll never forget building my first PC from scratch, complete with an 8088 processor and a 20MB hard drive. It was cutting-edge.
I attended Southwestern College in Chula Vista, California. My dad knew the dean of the computer science division and assured me that they had the latest mainframes and excellent exposure to VAX/VMS, programming, and a solid education in computer science. I gained invaluable knowledge about troubleshooting, operating systems, programming, digital logic, and computer science concepts in general.
At the time, breaking into the tech scene in San Diego was challenging, so I worked in the defense sector at a company called REMEC. While I didn’t work directly with computers, I gained valuable experience with electronics and technology, using oscilloscopes and other fascinating tools. It was incredibly enjoyable. Concurrently, I enrolled in a night class on UNIX programming, which led me to fall in love with UNIX and the power of programming.
Chapter 2 – The Internet revolution
In 1995, a fantastic opportunity presented itself in Silicon Valley when I joined Netcom Online, one of the early pioneers in constructing the global access layer for the Internet. At just 24 years old, I worked the night shift, ensuring the access layer was operational 24/7/365. With my trusty UNIX Made Easy book by my side, I started automating my job responsibilities. The Internet revolution was fueled by two key elements: the aggregation of affordable, commodity computing power in the cloud, and a new breed of distributed applications easily discoverable via search, instantly accessible worldwide to billions of users.
During this era, I had the pleasure of working at several exciting and innovative companies, including Best Internet, my first stint at Microsoft (WebTV), Scale8 (an early cloud storage provider), and ValueClick, an early and significant player in the online advertising industry.
Chapter 3 – The Smartphone revolution
I will never forget the announcement of the very first Apple iPhone, I had to have one.
was about these two things: putting a powerful, always-on computer in everyone’s pocket connected to an expanding cloud, and a new category of apps architected for real ubiquity and pervasive connectivity.
Chapter 4 – The AI revolution
As I stand here in 2023, I can’t help but feel excited about the onset of a fourth revolution. For the first time in almost two centuries, I’ll be able to convey my intentions to a computing device in such a natural way, without any preconceived notion or code determining how to translate my intent into something practical. I won’t need programming expertise, and I won’t have to rely on a programmer who had to predict my needs and create a solution beforehand.
The experience will feel unique to me in several ways – it’ll be more personal, adaptable, and potentially even more natural than the software I’ve been using until now. What’s even more impressive is the wide range of issues that can already be tackled using this method, and I can’t wait to see how much more it’ll expand in just a few short years.
When I was a kid, my grandfather used to say, “I’ve been doing this for 40 damned years,” mostly as a way of playfully deflecting whatever advice someone was trying to give him. I heard myself saying this to someone the other day. I’m 50 years old and have been programming for 40 years now, give or take a few months. In some ways, I have the same conviction about how the world works as my grandfather must have had after four decades of practicing his craft. That said, never have I experienced a moment in my career where so much about my field is changing, and where the opportunity to reimagine what is possible is so present and exciting. That’s coming from someone who first learned to program as the PC revolution was unfolding, and whose career in computing was formed by the Internet revolution and the Smartphone revolution. What lies ahead, to me at least, feels even more exciting and wondrous.
–Kevin Scott, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft.
References
Age of AI has begun – Bill Gates
LinkedIn Learning Courses
- Better AI discovery: New Gen AI dedicated Browse page, featured Gen AI courses on Homepage banner, and curated AI Events in Editor’s Picks.
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