The world is both numbers and ideas, math and language, money and art, computers and nature. A lot goes into connecting your money to your life and ambitions. We were reminded of this in learning about the life and work of Ada Lovelace.
The world’s first computer programmer was not working out of a garage in California in the 1970s—but like the computing pioneers of Silicon Valley, the 19th century thinker Ada Lovelace saw possibility where others didn’t.
Born in London, Lovelace’s education started at age four. She was a young adult when she began work with other early computing minds on an analytical computing machine: a giant engine that could process numbers mechanically.
Although their genius wasn’t recognized at the time, Lovelace’s notes about this machine have helped lift her from history: she was one of the first people to suggest that if a machine could process numbers, it could process other forms of information, like text and images and other symbols.
The insight that resonates with us is, math is “the language through which alone we can adequately express the great facts of the natural world.” Certainly arithmetic is key to working out the money ends of your goals.
We owe a lot to Ada Lovelace, her contemporaries, and succeeding generations of pioneers of the modern age. We are all beneficiaries of their breakthroughs, and wiser for understanding the philosophy behind their achievements.
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The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.
- Ben Rabinovich, “Ada Lovelace Day 2018: When is it and who was Ada Lovelace?” The Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6256519/Ada-Lovelace-Day-2018-Ada-Lovelace.html
- Julia Markus, Lady Byron and Her Daughters: https://books.google.com/books?id=nOtwBgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=ada%20lovelace%20education%20insanity&pg=PT131#v=onepage&q=translation&f=false.
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