Leonardo’s Laptop: Inspirations
Published a few years ago, Leonardo’s Laptop was a disappointing book. The premise was exciting: how would we conceive computing and the internet if Leonardo were using a laptop, like he used his notebooks?
But the book largely broke down into a discussion of usability and how technology could transform medicine, the arts, engineering, politics. That said, there are some good, Powerpoint-worthy(!), lines from the author and the people he quotes.
I feel … an ardent desire to see knowledge so disseminated through the mass of mankind that it may … reach even the extremes of society: beggars and kings. — Thomas Jefferson
A fuchsia cell phone might be pretty. But a cell phone that does not require a manual — now that is beauty. – Katrina Galway, Letter to the Editor, Time Magazine
Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. — George Lois
JJ Abrams, in his TEDTalk, has some great lines about tools and inspiration. He relates the importance of his Super 8 camera when he was 10, a synthesizer when we was 14 (he composed the theme to Alias), and he has a great line about his Powerbook:
mystery is the catalyst to imagination
technology is mind-blowingly inspiring to me, that blank page is a magic box
the Powerbook challenges me, it says ‘what are you gonna write worthy of me?’