Here I Stand, at Age 80

TheTedNelson
8 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2017–2019
YouTube
25K views · 9 years ago · talk · intermediate · historical

Ted Nelson, who coined the word hypertext and created Project Xanadu, recorded this talk on his life and work at age 80. He goes through his ideas and the critical junctures where Xanadu might have succeeded.

HN people recommend it as a wonderful overview and a historical treasure, recorded by Nelson himself, that shows his vision first hand.

“Strongly recommended, and I'm grateful that he recorded this historical treasure.”
HCI pioneers & visionary demosTools for thought & programming UX
#tednelson#xanadu#hypertext#computinghistory#interfacevision#personalretrospective

9 comments from Hacker News

c
@cookiecaper2018 · in “Ted Nelson’s published papers on computers and interaction, 1965 to 1977”
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]
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R
@Rumperuu2019 · in ““Here I Stand, at Age 80””
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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n
@nebulous12019 · in “Interview with Ted Nelson”
Haven't watched this interview, but this video of his is very good: ▶ this video
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j
@jonah-archive2017 · in “A Thought for Your Pennies: Micropayment and the Liberation of Content (2009)”
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 )
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o
@ohjeez2017 · in “Ted Nelson: Here I Stand, at Age 80”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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s
@state2017 · in “Here I Stand, at Age 80 – Ted Nelson [video]”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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a
@azeirah2017 · in “Here I Stand, at Age 80 [Ted Nelson]”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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t
@tosh2017 · in “Here I Stand, at Age 80”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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s
@shrimp_emoji2019 · in “I Can't Do Anything for Fun Anymore; Every Hobby Is an Attempt to Make Money”
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
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