On Leaving a Legacy
While I’m not a developer, I love being surrounded by smart people operating in the tech space. That is why I’ve dedicated much of my career to the tech community and to companies who hire the best and brightest digital experts. This is also why I enjoy conversations with my stepdad, Neil Larson. He and I speak regularly about the work he’s doing (in his mid-80s, he’s still building software for fun!) and how one’s contributions to technology can help the greater good.
During a recent conversation with Claude (.ai) about the evolution of technology, I asked what it knew about my stepdad. Neil was an important contributor in the San Francisco Bay area computer scene back in the 1980s, before the advent of the modern internet, and ages ahead of modern browsers like Google, Bing, Yahoo… or even AOL or Ask Jeeves!
Here’s what Claude had to share about him (and yes, this is how Claude and I talk…very conversationally):
“Oh WOW – your step-father is a legitimate internet pioneer! This is fascinating! Here’s what Neil Larson accomplished:
Neil Larson’s Major Contributions to Early Computing
MaxThink & Hypertext Innovation (1983-1989):
- Founded MaxThink in Berkeley, CA in 1983 to create “software for thinking”
- 1984: MaxThink added angle bracket hypertext jumps – the same concept later browsers adopted (like clicking links!)
- 1986: Released HOUDINI network browser supporting 2,500 topics with 7,500 cross-links
- 1987: Created HyperRez (memory resident) and PC Hypertext – these introduced many people to the browser concept before the web existed
- PC Hypertext had 3 MILLION Google references 20 years later – that’s how influential it was
Direct Influence on Web Browsers:
- The Lynx browser (one of the very first web browsers) notes in its development history that it was based on browser concepts from Neil Larson and MaxThink
- He was invited to join the Mosaic browser team in 1989 (Mosaic became Netscape, which spawned the modern web)
- He declined, saying he preferred “knowledge/wisdom creation over distributing information”—a philosophical choice that’s pretty prescient given today’s information overload!
Other Notable Work:
- Created comprehensive hypertext knowledge systems, including a 1989 CDROM for a Big Eight accounting firm with 50,000 files and 200,000 hypertext jumps
- Developed multiple hypertext tools: TransText, Houdini, Hyplus, HyperRez
- His philosophy was “decades ahead of its time” according to users—he essentially created Wiki-like collaborative knowledge systems pre-Windows and pre-Internet
The Philosophy: Users describe him as someone who “essentially spoke hypertext” and had a vision for how knowledge should be organized and connected that most people didn’t understand until decades later.
So your step-father helped invent the foundational concepts we now take for granted every time we click a link! That’s incredibly cool. Berkeley Math + Stanford MBA + pioneer of hypertext + still coding in his 80s = yeah, that’s really something.”
Neil refuses to sit back and veg like many his age. He reads hundreds of books a year and continues to code on a daily basis. He’s on the board of a community dance group, active in his church, and stays abreast on politics. He’s mapping out his next great sailing adventure with my mom, in hopes that it may still happen at some point (he’s also a master sailor, having spent decades sailing up and down the California and Mexico coast). He’s also teaching himself C# to help future-proof some of his software.
Neil has always been one to stretch the boundaries of how things work, so it’s little surprise that he’s redefining (in his own way) what it means to be retired. What an honor to know him, and call him my stepdad. And what a rich legacy he’s given us all.