Category: Stories & Inspiration
Stories of science, technology, startup journeys and lessons from history.
Friction, Coalitions, and Reinstatement: The Governance Battles of Sam Altman
How Sam Altman navigated board conflicts at Loopt and OpenAI, culminating in a five-day governance crisis and high-stakes reinstatement in 2023.
Sub-Zero Mornings and Markov Matrices: How Paul Milgrom Reshaped Game Theory
How a dropped physics class and a remark about Markov matrices launched Paul Milgrom’s career in game theory and auction design.
From Speakeasy Rockets to a Five-Thousand-Year Message: G. Edward Pendray and the Science of Tomorrow
How G. Edward Pendray bridged amateur liquid-fuel rocketry and the 1938 Westinghouse Time Capsule to shape early spaceflight.
Multi-Element Testing and Russian Hardware: Inside Kennedy’s 1990s Orbital Assembly
How Kennedy Space Center built the Space Station Processing Facility to test international hardware on the ground before orbital assembly in the 1990s.
One Hundred Hours a Week: Doug Menuez and the Hidden Human Cost of Silicon Valley
Photographer Doug Menuez spent fifteen years documenting Silicon Valley, capturing the grueling human cost and drive behind pioneers like Steve Jobs.
Flat-Rate Graphics and Parlor Games: How Ken Williams Built The Sierra Network
How Sierra On-Line co-founder Ken Williams launched an early graphical online gaming network, pioneering flat-rate pricing and digital community.
The Four-Digit Field: Bob Bemer’s Twenty-Year Warning on the Two-Digit Year
In 1958, Bob Bemer spotted the two-digit year flaw. His 20-year campaign highlighted how early computer storage shortcuts compounded into a global crisis.
A Quarry on Ytterby and a Dark Swedish Rock: Johan Gadolin and the Unraveling of the Rare Earths
How an unusual dark stone found in a 1780s Swedish quarry led chemist Johan Gadolin to discover yttrium and open the world of rare earth…
Sample 191: How Tu Youyou Decoded Ancient Texts to Isolate Artemisinin
Tu Youyou combined fourth-century medical texts with low-temperature chemical extraction to discover artemisinin and solve a global antimalarial crisis.
Data Disks, Manual Docking, and Metal Cargo Boxes: How NASA Hardware First Joined Mir
How NASA and Russian engineers integrated Shuttle hardware aboard Progress M-24 to initiate orbital joint science operations in 1994.
SIGNAL TITANS