For most of the last century, progress in technology meant progress in hardware. That era is ending. Understanding how we got here, and why the curve is bending, matters if you want to understand where AI is taking us next.
The horse that started it all
Silicon Valley's origin story is, oddly, about horse breeding. In 1876, Leland Stanford began applying a data-driven method to training racehorses: identify the fastest foals as early as possible, then pour resources into them rather than waiting for a horse to mature naturally. He called it the Palo Alto system. It made him a fortune, and after his son's early death, it became the founding logic of Stanford University, built to apply the same principle to people. That instinct, spot potential early, bet everything on it, would resurface again and again as the actual engine of Silicon Valley's technical progress, from venture capital to hiring.
