My Thoughts on the Movie: Pirates of Silicon Valley

I like the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley because I think it is one of the informative yet funny movies that show how the company Apple and Windows started. This movie was able to show the ups and downs of both characters in their path to create two of the biggest companies in the world. It showed how inventions come about and what kind of abilities people must have in order to succeed in the Information technology industry.
Based on the movie, Steve Jobs, Paul Allen and Bill Gates showed great interest and knowledge in the creating computers.

Both of them showed that they sacrificed partying because they wanted to pursue their interest.

For Bill and his friend Paul Allen, the spark of their passion for computers started when they saw a magazine saying that the creators of the computer Altair was in need for someone to figure out a language for the machine. Bill and Paul Allen had known each other since they were kids. If the word passion entered into their lives it was for one thing: computers.

The same goes with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. They were also passionate with computers. Jobs and Wozniak and two other friends were able to create a computer at a garage and that became really popular to the point where their small computer business became a huge company.

Bill Gates showed an ability to do business. Bill Gates was able to convince IBM, which was one of the huge computer companies, that IBM would need what he had which was an operating system for their computers. Little did IBM know, Bill just bought an operating system off a person for a measly 50 thousand dollars, which would more than that amount when sold to IBM.

Steve Jobs used his communication skill to his pursue his purpose. That was shown when the Apple computer Lisa was released. One of the new features of Lisa would be the GUI (Graphic User Interface). The invention was gotten from a bunch of California engineers that showed Xerox what they created and since Xerox didn’t understand the value of it; they were persuaded by Steve Jobs to show all those incredible inventions that the California engineers had developed. Later on they invented the Macintosh which had a mouse.

Two Takeaways from the Movie

The first lesson

I learned from the movie was that creating wonderful inventions can happen anywhere. Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs simply created computers in their rooms and garages. This means to me that any great inventor doesn’t have to come from a big company or needs to have a big capital. But anyone can be an inventor especially if he or she has the passion and hard work in what he/she is doing.

The second lesson

I learned was to be confident of my ability as an information technology student. Just like Bill Gates, even though he didn’t have the operating system with him, he confidently persuaded IBM that it needed what he had. It takes a very good speaking power to convince people to believe him. And he succeeded in doing that.

Finally, I think this movie gave a bigger picture of how the invention of the computers started. And with this knowledge I can just appreciate the effort given to creating this complex machine that has helped us in our daily lives. Society has progressed technologically because of people who were once passionate about computers and were determined to create something that is useful for the human race.