HackerTube.dev

Here I Stand, at Age 80

TheTedNelson · 25.5K views · 2017-09-03 · 47:57

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

Ted Nelson, the originator of hypertext and Project Xanadu, gives a personal account at age 80 of his ideals, his career, and how a poor career plan led to discoveries and adventures. It works as an alternative history of personal computing and hypertext.

On Hacker News

HN people point to it as Nelson's candid, first-person overview of his life, Xanadu's failure, and the lessons he drew, a historical record from the man himself.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2017–2019

Topics

Tech pioneers & interviewsHistory of computingGUI, HCI & interface history
Search by tags
ted nelsonxanaduhypertextcomputer historypersonal computing

What people said

cookiecaper · 2018-01 · Strong recommendation

Ted gives a great overview of his life and work at [0]. In this, he ascribes the demotion/firing of Xu88's project lead Roger Gregory as the reason it failed to come fruition, and takes credit for the "regrettable" part he played in this. The whole talk is a wonderful high-level overview from Ted's perspective, which is so often warped and misrepresented. Though he admits that he has, at times, been "overwhelmed by bitterness", he doesn't seem to harbor any lasting hostility or malice to anyone, and continues to work on seeing his vision come to life. He identifies many of the mistakes he's made, identifying multiple critical junctures in which Xanadu may have taken off if he had done something better. Strongly recommended, and I'm grateful that he recorded this historical treasure. Far more valuable and significant than any "incredible journey" post-mortem. [0] [VIDEO] [timestamped to Autodesk discussion for relevance; watch the whole thing]

Read the original HN comment ↗
jonah-archive · 2017-09 · Recommendation

Ted's sitting across from me right now! He says this article is old, and wanted to link to a video he recently made talking about his life and work, if anyone's interested: [VIDEO] We're also hosting an ongoing archival project of his junk mail that he's saved over the years: [LINK] (more details on the project: [LINK] )

Read the original HN comment ↗
shrimp_emoji · 2019-04 · Reference

Yes! There are no serious moves. Nothing in life is really serious, not even death. But I feel like I need to reach some impossible state of ego integrity or ego death or something to actually live by that line of thinking. So instead, I'm moved by fear and contrived seriousness. I want to be successful, or at least successful enough that one day I can spend my 80s seriously and nostalgically navel-gazing to bewildered viewers outside of my social reality, convinced that I am extremely special. [0] :3 0: [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by TheTedNelson, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources