I remember the first time I picked up a copy of WIRED at my university bookstore and decided I was going to splash out the little cash I had on this neon ‘thing’ instead of going for a pint in the student union. It turned out to be money well spent. WIRED changed how I think about technology, journalism and helped me leave university with a decent degree. It was an inspiration and still is.
Of the twenty years of WIRED, a few covers stand out for me – notably the all white/braille cover of 1995. That Apple cover from 1997 and a Ray Ozzie cover from 1998. Despite the glorious covers though, WIRED has always been a home for great storytelling and as a storyteller myself, that’s what I cherish most. I could recall probably twenty great stories I have read over the years but one stand out head a shoulders above them all. Mother Earth Motherboard defined the phrase ‘epic storytelling’ for me. I heard that initially this was supposed to be a few thousand word piece from Neal Stephenson but it turned in to a 42,000 word 66 page article. It was the magazine. It’s about undersea cables – sounds boring right? Wrong….it’s unbelievably good.
So step back in time this weekend, to 1996 – pre Google, the era of Yahoo, the heady days of the dot com boom and enjoy some epic storytelling. You can get to it from the link above but I would encourage you to enjoy it via the ebook.
Thanks WIRED and have an epic next 20.
