HausofAsseveration
They sold us the myth that tech was never our lane.
Then Mark Dean rewired the map. ????⚡
Long before Silicon Valley became a buzzword,
a Black engineer at IBM helped build the personal computer as we know it.
Mark E. Dean is a co-inventor of the IBM PC
and holds three of the original nine patents that made modern computing possible.
His most powerful contribution—the ISA bus—is the invisible backbone that lets your keyboard, mouse, printer, and storage devices communicate with your computer.
If the CPU is the brain,
Mark Dean built the nervous system.
But here’s what they don’t teach.
While others were celebrated as “pioneers,”
Dean was often mistaken for support staff.
So he did what visionaries do when history looks away:
He documented.
He patented.
He shipped.
He mentored.
Dozens of patents.
IBM Fellow—the company’s highest technical honor.
A legacy too solid to erase.
???? Here’s the Hmm moment:
Why is it called genius when they do it,
but luck when we do?
???? Why this still matters today:
Because the future is being coded right now—
and whoever builds the systems decides who gets access.
Dean’s life teaches three rules of liberation in tech (and beyond):
• Document your work
• Design systems others can build on
• Insist on credit
Interoperability wasn’t just his engineering philosophy—it was a social one.
Build bridges, not silos.
Leave ladders behind you.
So whether you code, design, teach, lead, or create—
build the thing and build the bridge.
Because five minutes a day keeps the miseducation away.
Stay curious. Stay consistent.
And keep learning what they tried to bury.
???????? Make this a daily ritual with the Black History Flashcards
(one card, one conversation, one mind opened):
Until next time, good people…
Love… Peace… and Power to the People ✊????
