I finally saw the movie ‘The Social Network’ last month. We all know and expect that movies stretch the truth for entertainment purposes. But there were a couple of ideas in the film that I actually thought communicated some useful truth about computer science. One was the idea that a group of young people can build something that no one saw coming and that makes a big impact on the world. There have been many famous examples of this kind of thing over the last few decades. It happens. Of course, it has happened in the recent history of the world in many technological domains. But I think computing has produced these kinds of moments more often, and more quickly than any other enabling technology.
The second cool idea for me was the example of how you can get an idea, run to your room, implement and test it, and deploy it … all in one evening. That actually happens. And it’s a huge rush!