Ellen Ullman wrote her first computer program in 1979, and went on to have a 20-year career as a computer programmer and software engineer. She is the author of two novels: By Blood, a New York Times Notable Book; and The Bug, a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway award. Her memoir, Close to the Machine, about her life as a software engineer during the internet's first rise, became a cult classic. Her latest book is Life In Code: A Personal History of Technology, which chronicles the evolution of technology from 1994-2017, and describes the insider culture of those who write the code, and the prejudices that keep others out.