TITLE: Invention, One Level Down
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: May 29, 2014  2:14 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Brent Simmons wrote a blog entry on
<A HREF="http://inessential.com/2014/05/24/what_happened_at_userland">
   his time at UserLand</A>.
After describing a few of the ideas that founder Dave Winer
created and extending, such as RSS and blogging, Simmons said
this about Winer:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 The tech was his invention too: he built the thing he needed
 to be able to build other things.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is among the highest praise one can bestow on an inventor.
It's also one of the things I like about computer science.  The
hallmark of so many interesting advances in computing is the
creation of a technology or language that makes the advance
possible.  Sometimes the enabling technology turns out to be
pretty important in its own right.  Sometimes, it's a game
changer.  But even when it is only a scaffold to something
bigger, it needed to be created.
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