First Chapter, Last Chapter: Mindstorms (by Seymour Papert)

First Chapter, Last Chapter: Let's read a business book in 30 minutes, hot takes only.

I have a serious book collection problem. As of today, I have close to 500 books on my bookshelf at home.

I probably haven’t even started about 100 of them (mostly nonfiction or business books). 

Needless to say, the math is not good. So much latent learning in my bedroom. So this weekend when cleaning up, I made myself a deal: 

1. Donate a bunch of books that I no longer want. (about 40 books)

2. Create a priority shelf of books I actually want to read cover to cover. (about 20 books)

3. Play “first chapter, last chapter” with all the rest. (another 40 books)

Let me explain.

I figure that it’ll take me about 30 minutes to read the first chapter and the last chapter of most business books. And so, rather than let these books agonize on my shelf for months (or in some cases, years) I'll read just the beginnings and ends, then decide if they are a keep or a chuck for the long term.

In other words: Let's see how much I can learn from a business book by just reading the bookends.

Last night, I picked up the book at the top of the pile: Mindstorms, by Seymour Papert and read the first chapter and the last chapter only. Here’s my summary and hot take.

Author: Seymour Papert

When I bought it: January 2024

When it was published: 1980

Why I bought it:
I was on an education learning bender and got access to a curriculum about curriculum building from a Stanford professor (Meta, I know. Also, thank you, Denise Pope.) I wanted to see what the outlook was for learning with computers from the 1980s to draw any parallels to learning constructs today.

First chapter overview:
Papert introduces the idea of “computer-aided instruction” as a new concept (remember - he wrote this in 1980) right off the bat and acknowledges the tension between people (ie: teachers) assuming that computers will be used to “program children.” He instead offers the inverse idea where a child programs a computer, which could teach both mastery of a skill (that will become as natural as learning any language) as well as the development of a natural curiosity that will help them throughout life. INTERESTING.

Last chapter overview: 
There are a few really fun riffs on cultural and technological community spaces that Papert proposes will become more commonplace in an age of ubiquitous personal computers. He describes a sort of dreamy view of a “samba school” style cultural institution, but for technologists. Which basically sounds like a coding bootcamp (plus one for being ahead of his time). He also alludes to the idea that the thing teachers will need to get a lot better at in the age of personal computers is acting more the role of “cultural anthropologists” or guided hosts to help students navigate their own paths through a rapidly changing world. ALSO INTERESTING.

Hot Take:
10 out of 10, great first go at the game.

Kind of wish I had more time to dig into all of the nuggets and vignettes that I'm sure made up the middle. Alas. I don’t. Embarrassingly, I hadn't really separated the concept of “using a programming language" as discrete from the concept of “programming a computer." But as Papert literally wrote this before any modern languages like JavaScript or Ruby, he was really just referring to the idea of getting a computer to do anything at all. It is patently obvious now that programming a computer is the exact same construct in the age of AI. That’s to say, we can use AI to program computers. The major upgrade is that we went from straight-up code to a human-readable command line.

Random Easter Egg: It appears my copy of the book (which I ordered second-hand from Amazon) was autographed by Seymour Papert himself and apparently once belonged to the former French executive Jean Riboud?? I guess this one is staying on the shelf long-term.