# Byte-Sized History

The origin stories of the technologies and innovations that shape our world today.

Page: <https://rssamplifier.com/bytesizedhistory-substack-com>  
Feed: <https://rssamplifier.com/bytesizedhistory-substack-com.md>

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## [Sifting Through Slop](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/sifting-through-slop)

_2025-11-04 · J. Michael Wahlen_

Finding value in a world awash with AI content

## [Three Cheers for Joel Mokyr](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/three-cheers-for-joel-mokyr)

_2025-10-20 · J. Michael Wahlen_

Celebrating a fantastic pick for the Nobel Prize in Economics

## [Achieving Liftoff: How the Wright Brothers Jumpstarted the 20th Century](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/achieving-liftoff-how-the-wright)

_2025-06-10 · J. Michael Wahlen_

How the invention of flight symbolized and energized innovation at the turn of the century

## [The Fishy Origins of Venture Capital](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/the-fishy-origins-of-venture-capital)

_2025-05-15 · J. Michael Wahlen_

A Whale of a Story

## [Is Technological Innovation Random?](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/is-technological-innovation-random)

_2025-03-30 · J. Michael Wahlen_

Revisiting QWERTY in 2025

## [Coming Out of Hibernation](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/coming-out-of-hibernation)

_2025-03-24 · J. Michael Wahlen_

A quick update on my plans for Byte-Sized History in 2025

## [WWII and the Trajectory of Technology](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/wwii-and-the-trajectory-of-technology)

_2024-10-20 · J. Michael Wahlen_

WWII's dramatic effect on innovation

## [TSMC: The Quiet Titan](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/tsmc-the-quiet-titan)

_2024-09-15 · J. Michael Wahlen_

How Taiwan's Semiconductor Giant Shapes the Global Technology Landscape

## [Back When Europe Innovated](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/back-when-europe-innovated)

_2024-08-18 · J. Michael Wahlen_

A Road Trip Down Memory Lane with The Race to the Future

## [The Age of Unprecedented Rivalry](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/the-age-of-unprecedented-rivalry)

_2024-07-21 · J. Michael Wahlen_

How the 20th Century's Rise in Competition Shapes Our Lives and Careers

## [Buy once, keep names forever (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/vmxcz61bpyCB)

_2024-07-21 · **Sponsored**_

Permanent registry: one-time $5 endings, $2 names, DNS hosting and feed sites.

## [The World’s Greatest Graph](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/the-worlds-greatest-graph)

_2024-07-05 · J. Michael Wahlen_

A picture worth 2,000 years

## [What Video Games Can Tell Us About the Limits of AI](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/what-video-games-can-tell-us-about)

_2024-06-10 · J. Michael Wahlen_

Are we all doomed to be NPCs?

## [How Did Taiwan Become So Important to Semiconductors?](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/how-did-taiwan-become-so-important)

_2024-05-23 · J. Michael Wahlen_

The story of the technology that started Silicon Valley growing up and moving out

## [How Will GenAI Affect Writing?](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/how-will-genai-affect-writing)

_2024-05-05 · J. Michael Wahlen_

What painters can tell us from their experience with photography

## [Disney: The Life and Times of a Main Character](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/disney-the-life-and-times-of-a-main)

_2024-04-21 · J. Michael Wahlen_

How Disney's past helps to explain its current malaise

## [Why did China Trade with the US?](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/why-did-china-trade-with-the-us)

_2024-03-24 · J. Michael Wahlen_

Hint: Never underestimate the importance of non-digital innovations

## [5 Thoughts on IBM's History](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/5-thoughts-on-ibms-history)

_2024-03-03 · J. Michael Wahlen_

If you thought your corporate trainings were awkward, just read on

## [Gutenberg, Word, and Sora](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/gutenberg-word-and-sora)

_2024-02-25 · J. Michael Wahlen_

Social challenges and technological innovations

## [Rules of the blog](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/rules-of-the-blog)

_2024-01-15 · J. Michael Wahlen_

The rules I've set for myself

## [Meet Claude, an AI assistant (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/M5LmfEeZpYTL)

_2024-01-15 · **Sponsored**_

Chat with Claude at claude.ai — a conversational AI assistant.

## [Network Effects: A Value Lost](https://bytesizedhistory.substack.com/p/network-effects-a-value-lost)

_2024-01-11 · J. Michael Wahlen_

Why we get less out of more