MEET STEVEN LEVY

As senior editor of Newsweek and columnist for Wired Magazine, Steven Levy has been at the forefront of technology, the people who make it, and its effects on all of us since 1975.


Editor in chief of the tech hub for Medium, key writer for Wired magazine since its founding at the beginning of the internet boom, chief technology writer for Newsweek during the Internet boom and author of books that define the digital age, Steven Levy has been at the forefront of technology since the early 1980s.

Levy joined Newsweek in 1996 as senior editor, chief technology correspondent and writer of a column called “The Technologist.” In 2008, he joined Wired magazine as a full time writer after having been a contributor to the publication since its inception. This year, Levy became the most heralded journalist yet to join a new, Internet-only company, beginning a new site for Medium that will be part of a movement to redefine journalism in the digital age.

Levy’s own journey in tech began over on assignment for Rolling Stone when he wrote about hackers, a subculture that few had heard of at the time. He realized that the digital revolution would be the most significant story of our time, and his subsequent chronicles of the transformation would take him so deep into the tech world that is he now considered one of its sages. His first of seven books, Hackers, is considered the classic computer history and was named the best sci-tech in 20 years by readers of PC Magazine.

Over the years, he has developed trusted relationships with the tech giants who have shaped our world, including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs. His extraordinary access to the late Apple CEO illuminated his two critically acclaimed books: Insanely Great, the history of the Macintosh; and The Perfect Thing, about the iPod, e-commerce, and digital music.

Levy’s work often presages transformations that happen years after publication, as with his 2001 book, Crypto, winner of the grand eBook prize at the Frankfurt Book Festival. Reporters covering the recent Snowden revelations found Levy’s account of a revolutionary invention in cryptography to be essential reading. His most recent book, In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Lives, was quickly hailed as the definitive word on the powerful company.

Levy’s observations on innovation, and his view that an unprecedented technology surge has put previously impossible ambitions within reach, have won him acclaim as a writer and public speaker. His articles, opinion pieces and reviews have appeared in a wide range of publications, including Harper’s, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Premiere and the New Yorker. In addition, he has been a regular columnist for Rolling Stone and Macworld. Before focusing on technology, Levy wrote about a variety of subjects, including politics, sports and film. One early scoop was discovering the long-lost brain of Albert Einstein in a mason jar in Wichita, Kansas. His book-length venture into true crime, The Unicorn’s Secret, was made into an NBC mini-series.

SPEAKING TOPICS

Hackernomics

30 years ago, Levy’s book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution described the "hacker ethic" which has lead the huge innovations and success of technology companies. Three decades later, Steven has revisited the hacker world, and has found that the “hacker ethic” is now the dominating culture in the most of the world’s most admired companies (Facebook even named the road leading into their corporate campus “Hacker Way”). Learn why the hacker mindset drives the type of innovation that makes companies like Apple, Google, Facebook and others so successful. More importantly, he explores the key hacker concepts and practices that you can immediately use to drive higher levels of innovation in your organization. This is a critical speech for leaders looking to gain an edge over their competitors.

The Birth of Our Intelligent Future

Big Data, Smart Sensors, Artificial Intelligence and Hyper-connectivity have spawned the birth of a more Intelligent Future. From self-driving cars to Healthcare AI diagnostic systems, from smart energy grids to drones, Levy takes you thru the exponential growth of a world where systems will not only automate many of our mundane human tasks, but think and anticipate our more complicated needs and help us negotiate an ever increasingly complex world. Explore how to take advantage of this new future.

In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works & Shapes Our Lives

Security, Privacy & Technology


Technology, The People Who Make It, & Its Effects On All of Us

How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness.

Becoming a Technologist: How Tech Has Changed the Way We Live

Inside Google: The Secrets of the Company that Shaped our Lives

How the Hackers Changed the World

How I Found Einstein′s Brain

Security, Privacy & Technology

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