Dan Bricklin: Lessons from Building the First Killer App | Learning from Machine Learning #14

On this episode of Learning from Machine Learning, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dan Bricklin, co-creator of VisiCalc - the first electronic spreadsheet and the killer app that launched the personal computer revolution. We explored what five decades of platform shifts teach us about today's AI moment.

Dan's framework is simple but powerful: breakthrough innovations must be 100 times better, not incrementally better. The same questions he asked about spreadsheets apply to AI today: What is this genuinely better at? What does it enable? What trade-offs will people accept? Does it pay for itself immediately?

Most importantly, Dan reminded us that we never fully know the impact of what we build. Whether it's a mother whose daughter with cerebral palsy can finally do her own homework, or a couple who met learning spreadsheets. The mo ...