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Here I Stand, at Age 80

Here I Stand, at Age 80 on HackerTube: recommended by 2 Hacker News commenters across 2 separate months, 2017–2019.

Ted Nelson, the originator of hypertext and Project Xanadu, gives a personal account at age 80 of his ideals, his career, and how a poor career plan led to discoveries and adventures. It works as an alternative history of personal computing and hypertext.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN people point to it as Nelson's candid, first-person overview of his life, Xanadu's failure, and the lessons he drew, a historical record from the man himself.

people recommended it
2
separate months
2
strong recommendations
1
discussed on HN
2017–2019
“Strongly recommended, and I'm grateful that he recorded this historical treasure.”
— cookiecaper, Jan 2018, in “Ted Nelson’s published papers on computers and interaction, 1965 to 1977”

What HN commenters said

3 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

cookiecaperJan 2018Strongly recommends

Ted gives a great overview of his life and work at [0]. In this, he ascribes the demotion/firing of Xu88's project lead Roger Gregory as the reason it failed to come fruition, and takes credit for the "regrettable" part he played in this. The whole talk is a wonderful high-level overview from Ted's perspective, which is so often warped and misrepresented. Though he admits that he has, at times, been "overwhelmed by bitterness", he doesn't seem to harbor any lasting hostility or malice to anyone, and continues to work on seeing his vision come to life. He identifies many of the mistakes he's made, identifying multiple critical junctures in which Xanadu may have taken off if he had done something better. Strongly recommended, and I'm grateful that he recorded this historical treasure. Far more valuable and significant than any "incredible journey" post-mortem. [0] ▶ this video [timestamped to Autodesk discussion for relevance; watch the whole thing]

in “Ted Nelson’s published papers on computers and interaction, 1965 to 1977” · View on HN

jonah-archiveSep 2017Recommends

Ted's sitting across from me right now! He says this article is old, and wanted to link to a video he recently made talking about his life and work, if anyone's interested: ▶ this video We're also hosting an ongoing archival project of his junk mail that he's saved over the years: [link] (more details on the project: [link] )

in “A Thought for Your Pennies: Micropayment and the Liberation of Content (2009)” · View on HN

shrimp_emojiApr 2019Cites it

Yes! There are no serious moves. Nothing in life is really serious, not even death. But I feel like I need to reach some impossible state of ego integrity or ego death or something to actually live by that line of thinking. So instead, I'm moved by fear and contrived seriousness. I want to be successful, or at least successful enough that one day I can spend my 80s seriously and nostalgically navel-gazing to bewildered viewers outside of my social reality, convinced that I am extremely special. [0] :3 0: ▶ this video

in “I Can't Do Anything for Fun Anymore; Every Hobby Is an Attempt to Make Money” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Tech pioneers & interviewsHistory of computingGUI, HCI & interface historyted nelsonxanaduhypertextcomputer historypersonal computing