I was about 9 years old when my parents gave me a Spectrum. Some friends of mine had one, and ever since I was 6 I spent hours watching them do simple programs (FOR cycles drawing circles within circles with different colors and buzzing awkward BEEPs at the same time, etc) and, mostly, playing games.
At the time, I didn’t have a real notion of what a computer really meant, and what a difference it made between my generation and my parents’ generation.
With my Spectrum in hand (in reality it was a TIMEX 2048, one of many Spectrum clones, this one made in Portugal), I started a years’ journey of tape record tuning and 5-minute waits for games to load (seemed quick at the time, always dreading a “R — Tape Loading Error” message), wires everywhere plugging external speakers and other devices, POKEing cheat codes and mostly, a progressive understanding of how ‘the machine worked’. Addicted as I was to that, I literally waited for my family to go to sleep to go back to my desk to try to get past that goddamn Chuckie Egg 2 room or try out some program I got at a Spectrum magazine. It was fucking magic to me. In my emotional memory, it still is.
Chuckie Egg 2
I owe it to crackheads like Sir Clive Sinclair, recently deceased. Now, that guy was a pioneer. He himself, as most pioneers, probably didn’t have a real notion of what his work would lead to. But his vision of a computer in the hands of every UK child’s home was right on. Making it accessible, affordable, and usable is still the key for most technologies. Personally, I have a huge thank you saved up for him, wherever he might be. I think we all have.
And it makes me think: nowadays tech, software development, etc is everywhere. A lot of people are working on it. And industrialised as the SW development might be, I think it’s fundamental for all us techies to not fall into thinking we’re just factory workers in a bigger scheme. As much as tech might already be covered, believe me, a lot more is left to discover, uncover, create. Each one of us is a pioneer on our own — tweaking, cracking, hustling code away until it satisfies our biddings.
The great thing is that, contrary to my Speccy years, nowadays information and, especially, other techies are one click away. Learning, collaboration, joint discovery and innovation is much easier. Opportunities are everywhere to prevent us from falling into ‘the box’. Every single one of us is a pioneer on our own. It’s up to us.
Circling it back to the ‘now’, don’t miss the chance to celebrate tech and techies in the upcoming Future.Works Tech Conference.
Learn the story and vision of pioneers like rockstar Doom-and-Quake-creator John Romero or Philip Zimmerman (creator of PGP) before they pass away (dark joke), network and party face-to-face with other techies, boost your career by checking great opportunities and interacting directly with top companies and learn new stuff in premium Workshops. This is an event exclusively for the community of techies and devs out there. Don’t be a stranger to your own, come have a great time. #FWTC21
Pedro Moura, CMO @ Landing.Jobs
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