How Italy (Almost) Became Silicon Valley

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This video is a very dear one to me as an Italian because it might seem crazy now, but back in the day Italy actually had a chance to become Silicon Valley. This is the wild, untold story of Olivetti, of how Italy built the first programmable desktop computer, the Programma 101, and how everything came to a very sad end. This video is also a cautionary tale: how failing to recognize genius people and genius ideas gets you from developing something that's 10 years ahead of everyone else in the most important revolution of the last centirues, to not being able to capitalize on it and lose the race. I hope you enjoy!

► VISIT "NEGOZIO OLIVETTI" IN VENICE:

🖖 Hey! I'm Enrico and on this channel I go behind the scenes of the design, psychology and stories behind tech and making stuff on the internet. I'm a tech Product Manager, builder of things made of pixels.

[enricotartarotti]

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[MichelePonte]

As an Italian, I am happy to see another Italian telling this story here on YouTube!
Grazie Enri' :)

[sabinajoh]

My dad has a Olivetti printer and we’ve never had to refill any colors in the over 5yrs we’ve had it

[deadhead]

Thanks for the amazing story, never heard of this before. Italy as today's Silicon Valley would be such a dope alternate timeline.

[gauloise]

I kind of like how in Italy paying with cash is more common than paying with your phone, and how tech isnt in every aspect of your life. I hope it stays this way.

[Frenky_]

The lack of foresight of some Italian entrepreneurs can also be seen in Carlo de Benedetti, who in the 1980s said no to financing milione dollars to Steve Jobs' saying: we can't waste time with these young people, we have more important things to do

[IlDogeIslamico]

It is evident that you really put your heart in this video, awesome in every aspect. It is a shame that this story is mostly forgotten here, but thank you for bringing it up and narrating it with the heart in your hand

[rrigamondi]

My favorite tidbit about the Olivetti Store in San Marco is how after closure and before the museum it became a souvenir shop, one of those ones that plague Venice on every corner with cheap knockoffs for tourists
I find it pretty emblematic for Italy as a whole

[odeaus]

Italy 1940's: 2 months maternity leave required

USA 2020's: 0 months maternity leave required

[slobodanblazeski]

Beautiful and sad ending at 14:32 but unfortunately true, it's very hard to build without supporting environment.

[zibo]

Thanks Enrico, you should make an Italian version of this as, sadly speaking, a lot of Italians don't know anything of this. Such a wasted opportunity with a lot of missed turning points

[KiranKumarBokkesam]

It’s just something with the Italian people, man. I was there this summer and they didn’t even suggest the Olivetti museum to tourists. I am greatly inspired by the older generation of Italian engineers and wish to go and study engineering from them.

[khalidalokaily]

This video is really the top echelon of youtube short documentaries. The topic is so interesting and the editing is perfect. Also your way of storytelling is entertaining and it retains attention.

Thank You. Subscribed

[Ludix]

There are so many similar stories from almost every rich country. Germany once had large tech companies, but they stopped innovating and couldn't keep up with the Americans.

[felipe]

there's a story like this from my country, Colombia, not with tech but movies, the story starts with a revolution in Panama, which at that time was part of Colombia, and the declaration of independence from Colombia, that was in a civil war because we were basically broke because bad financial decisions but one part, that was given a lot of weight was that Colombia had spent a lot of money trying to built a canal to connect the Atlantic and the Pacific and both times the expedition was unsuccessful, so the US sends troops to Panama, pays some fire fighters to pose as rebels that wanted independence and send a war declaration to Colombia if they didn't accepted the independence to Panama, Colombia as stated was in a civil war and never saw that coming, we had to accept but later sued the US and won, the country received a compensation that would be close to 40 billion USD of todays money, and with that money Colombia established it's central bank, that period was known as "la danza de los millones" or "the dance of millions".
then it comes the story, Colombia had a decent, for the time, film industry stablished in Cali, a city in the south, then the movie "garras de oro" (was known as dawn of justice in other countries) was made, it depicted how the US stole Panama, it was really popular in the country at that time and it's believed to be the first ever antiimperialist movie. The US was not happy and this is when people say that the US government sent some people (this is the 20's so no CIA or other agencies) to basically destroy the small film industry in the country, form 1928 to 1940 officially only one movie was made and to stop the movie to be shown, all the copies were destroyed and the movie was found (at least some parts) several years later in the 80's more specifically in the US congress library, now to be clear on the timeline Hollywood was still in it's infancy and several countries produced their own movies and some were shown outside the country in small displays, that 12 year gap coincided with some the "golden ages" of the Argentinian and Mexican film industries. most of the info is in Spanish and is rarely known outside the Colombia

[Photo]

Heading to Italy in a week, neat video to see.

[matticolo]

È diventato il mio video preferito di questo canale. Già in passato avevo visto su YT un altro canale parlare della Olivetti e di come fosse “la Apple del passato”, peccato non ci sia riuscita.

Ah, quali sono le fonti da cui hai tratto la parte riguardante la CIA? Sarei curioso di approfondire

[pietropavesi]

Every time I hear this story I feel depressed for our old Italy. Great work Enrico you’re a spark ⚡️

[amancalledchristian]

Best video ever on your channel. Grande Enrico!

[brunoferretti]

This is my "roman empire" that i think about every day... che grandissimo peccato