Dealers of Lightning
- Author
- Michael A. Hiltzik
- Published
- 1999
- Pages
- 448
- Recommended
- Once
Michael A. Hiltzik, Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age (1999).
Why it’s on the list: The standard history of Xerox PARC — how a copier company assembled the group that produced the graphical interface, the laser printer, Ethernet and the personal workstation, and then failed to commercialise almost any of it.
Where I saw it: In the replies to Sarah Guo’s March 22, 2025 question on X — “is there a book / essay about environments that best support scientific discovery? Not about specifically bell labs, cavendish, xerox parc, los alamos - but why these places were so productive?” Kyle saved the link and reconstructed the full reply-thread list on 2026-09-17; the whole recovered list is on Is There a Book… (tweet).
Metadata checked: Open Library (1999; 448 pages).
Connections
- Xerox PARC — the subject.
- Bell Labs · The Idea Factory — the other canonical lab, and the book most often read alongside this one.
- Robert Taylor — ran PARC’s Computer Science Laboratory; also the co-author of the Zen and the Art of Research Management rules saved in the same thread.
- Silicon Valley — what PARC’s diaspora built.
Not yet read.