I wonder how many people working on ground-breaking stuff today are doing so unbeknownst to them, without realizing that they are shaping the field that they are working in.
If you're into podcasts, you should check this episode of Debug http://www.imore.com/debug-11-don-melton-and-safari : it's Don Melton's interview, former Engineering Director of Internet Technologies at Apple, talking about open-sourcing Mozilla, building Nautilus, creating WebKit and the Safari browser.
This one is also good, again with Don Melton, http://www.imore.com/debug-111-don-melton-blink-servo-and-mo... about Servo and Blink.
This was pretty good writing too. I was able to easily imagine what it would be like working at 10pm for Microsoft in the 90s. I begin to wonder if the characters knew if they were shaping the internet. Id like to read something about the first iPhone's Safari team. I bet they had to jump through major hoops to build that browser.