How do we go about passing this kind of historic knowledge between generations of engineers? In my observation, most newcomers to the industry are trained either academically or through self-guided practical learning, i.e. by hacking and reading tutorials. Neither method exposes them to such 'contemporary history' of innovation within the field.
I got a Compsci degree and we did in fact learn some history, figures like Grace Hopper and Alan Turing, how punched card computers worked (we even got to make our own punched cards!) Obviously people who are passionate about computers will find such history very interesting; the newcomers with dollar signs in their eyes won't care, they just want to 'make an app'.
