The shock of the old
by David Edgerton · first published 2006
8mentions
3recommended by
3HN commenters
2017–2021first – last mentioned
100% recommend
Offers a global account of the place of technology in twentieth century history.
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…whatsoever to regular readers of Hacker News —— why not read a book about the deeper reasons how and why old technologies persist, and the ethic and duty of maintaining them. Specifically: David Edgerton, The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900 (2006). Andrew L. Russell and Lee Vinsel, The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most (2020). You won’t…
on “COBOL underpins the entire financial system” ↗…interesting, and who cares about technology as it really is across the world rather than as it's portrayed by the Silicon Valley hype machine, I highly recommend the book cited at one point in the article: The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History since 1900, by the historian David Edgerton. It completely changed how I think about technology and the ways people use it.
on “Maintenance often matters more than innovation (2016)” ↗Very much this. People need to look at things from a "technology in use" perspective rather than just read press releases about the latest invention. David Edgerton's The Shock Of The Old[1] is a useful corrective to the gee-whizzery of pieces like the OP. (I'm re-reading it at the moment.) 1. https://www.amazon.com/Shock-Old-Technology-Global-History/d...
on “Cracks in the Great Stagnation?” ↗…The Soul of A New Machine, by Tracy Kidder is a good example. Finally, there is some very good general history of technology that doesn't focus exclusively on computing. An example is the superb _The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900_ by David Edgerton (polemical, controversial, easy to read, and even if you disagree with his argument it will likely change how you see technology forever).
on “Ask HN: What are some great posts or articles about history of computing?” ↗At the beginning of the 20th century something around 40% American cars was electric, same with 20% of the Berlin taxis. There's a wonderful book "The Shock of the Old" about the meandering ways innovation takes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_of_the_Old
on “Worked for 52 Years, Still Running: 1912 C-T 4WD Electric Truck” ↗Thanks for these! I have a copy of The Shock of The Old and I did find it thought-provoking. I had recently become aware of the ideas/discipline of discourse analysis[1] so it was more enlightening than it might have been to someone who wasn't really aware…
on “COBOL underpins the entire financial system” ↗According to David Edgerton's The Shock of the Old, Brigadier-General Leslie Groves had previously overseen the construction of several munitions plants costing much more than the entire cost of the Manhattan Engineering District project. 1. Chapter…
on “U.S. physicists rally around plan to build fusion power plant” ↗…about horse naysayers. Do you have citations? Interesting off-topic: according to Vaclav Smil, the number of horses in the USA peaked in the 1930s. In Europe, later still. David Edgerton's book The Shock of the Old talks about horses as well, among other "outdated" technologies.
on “Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab” ↗