WordPress: The Matt Who Set the Internet to Jazz
In 2003, 19-year-old Matt Mullenweg found out firsthand that necessity is the mother of invention. He was using a free blogging platform and needed a little help, but there was no one to give it. The result, born on April 1 and no joke at all, was WordPress, the open-source platform that lets anyone build a good-looking site with minimal effort. Today WordPress carries on its shoulders… a third of the world's web pages! But what does jazz have to do with any of it? This story from two decades ago is as meaningful as it is full of colorful details.
02The Unseen Code
“In the software world, people with visual impairments can find exceptionally good professional opportunities,” says today’s guest—and he proves it with his own example. For two decades Ismail Ismail has been building websites with open-source platforms and championing accessibility in the Bulgarian WordPress community, and now he has set out on the path of classical programming. Open your senses to a rather unexpected… point of view.
03“Google Is Far More Dynamic and Chaotic Than It Looks from the Outside”
Minko Gechev works at Google as a senior developer on the Angular team. What is it like to be part of Google? How is studying at Sofia's Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics like studying at MIT? Why are programmers often more “closed off” people, and what does it take to succeed in the profession? Answers from a programmer with an impressive résumé and a curious outlook.
04The Programmer Who Deleted 11 Lines and “Broke” the Internet
March 23, 2016, could have been an apocalyptic day in the history of the digital world, one unlikely ever to be repeated. Netflix, Facebook and Spotify were just a few of the countless sites that suddenly turned out to be… impossible to maintain and update. Why? Twenty-eight-year-old programmer Azer Koçulu had simply deleted 11 fateful lines of computer code. But how can an unknown programmer block the sites of global giants? Why, in today's strange online world, do enormous multibillion-dollar projects unexpectedly turn out to rest on the shoulders of volunteer enthusiasts? And what made Azer so angry that he unleashed the butterfly effect in its most terrifying form? Sometimes the smallest, seemingly harmless lines of code change the whole program…
05Linus the Lionheart
“Nobody has ever told me I'm cool. I'm just the thing halfway between a normal person and a tech geek,” says Linus Torvalds. The computer engineer is surely one of the heroes of today's online world: the projects he created, Linux and Git, laid much of the groundwork for life on the internet as we know it. What kind of man is Linus? How does fame sit with him? And what does it feel like to start… an accidental revolution?
06A Generational Question: Digital Leaders and the Cult of Personality
Who have been the most striking figures in public life over the past few decades? The ones we would least expect, if we believe the stereotypes—the people of technology. From Bill Gates, whom the whole of conspiracy-minded humanity turned into the chief culprit behind the pandemic, to Elon Musk, who, while “saving” our freedom of speech, is our last real hope of rising to the stars as a civilization… Yes, the cult of personality is going through a rather strange apogee in the digital age. Politicians long ago lost their magic as interesting personalities, artists tend to stay focused on their particular audiences… while the celebrities of technological progress have become the powerful figures of the new era. Is it because technology is today’s magic? Incomprehensible to many, transformative, alluring… Are the powerful figures of the digital age supermen? Do the innovators get the fame they deserve, or do the idea thieves thrive? What do the representatives of different generations share, and what sets them apart? We meet some very different digital stories…
07“Without a Little Madness, It Just Won't Work”
In this life you shouldn't, and can't, only take. If you don't give—in return or entirely for free—you have lived in vain, as the popular hit song goes. Even if we know it, it is worth reminding ourselves often. I hope this Digital Story reaches more people. I believe that if more people recognize its lessons, we are all capable of reclaiming the conversation and helping our country flourish. Of fulfilling the great dream of the protagonist and narrator here—that our children will WANT to stay in Bulgaria. Tenko Nikolov is not only one of Bulgaria's most successful tech entrepreneurs. He is a visionary who believes in the power of a close-knit team, shared values and a little “healthy” madness.
08Yuval Noah Harari: Prophet of a New Age
Yuval Noah Harari's name comes up again and again in conversations about the future: the historian and futurist who untangles the threads of humanity's past and poses the big questions of tomorrow. How did a history professor become the favorite author of Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Clinton while staying popular, translated, read and debated? A colorful figure beyond the stereotypes, and, to my mind, a valuable and powerful voice warning us about the immediate dangers we face as a species.
09On the Tenth Day, Brendan Created JavaScript…
You know, one mythical figure created the world in a week. Brendan Eich took a little longer—10 days—to create another new world we all live in… JavaScript. Here is the cautionary tale of how a man who landed almost by accident at the epicenter of events built something enormous, and how, in fast-moving technological times, fate can turn a hero into an outsider in the blink of an eye. console.log(“Here we go!”);
10Podkrepi.bg: Can We Work Miracles Together?
What happens when 1,000 volunteers, most of them from the world of information technology, roll up their sleeves to build something that could change our society? I’ll let you in on it: the result of this experiment is positive, and it lays the foundations of a platform that can literally save lives. This digital story is meaningful, and it shows that when different people join forces, backed by a dose of typical Bulgarian stubbornness, they can work real miracles.
