Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, which invented much of modern personal computing and whose parent failed to commercialise it - the canonical innovation cautionary tale.
How Xerox PARC built the first personal computer and laser printer, and lost them.
Recommended by: Austen Allred, Patrick Collison, Sam Altman
How Xerox invented the personal computer and then ignored it.
How Licklider and Pentagon-funded engineers built the network behind the internet.
Recommended by: Patrick Collison, Chris Dixon
J.C.R. Licklider's vision of computers that serve individuals, and how it came true.
Recommended by: Marc Andreessen, Patrick Collison
The idea of personal computing and the people who pursued it, up to PARC.
The parent company's quality turnaround against Japanese copiers.
Insider account by Xerox's CEO of the quality-driven turnaround.
Chester Carlson and xerography, the invention that funded PARC.
The research chief who backed xerography tells the story from inside Xerox.
Recommended by: Patrick Collison
Sam Altmanrecommends 1 book here