Putting aside the oddity that I’m sharing an article from Sinofsky of Microsoft fame…this is a fabulous read. By 1981 we’re now in a time where I have memories and was using technology. The more distance I get from Steve Jobs life and career the more I realize that I simply didn’t understand the genius of it all.
Watching Jobs at 26 on Nightline is mind blowing…I think I was a complete doofus at 26, thank goodness I lived through it.
My first experience with a computer, my literal FIRST MEMORY of using a computer was an Apple IIe and the program was VisiCalc. My Dad’s business had purchased a computer because someone on their board thought it might be a good idea but after they got it they weren’t sure what to do with it. My Dad brought it home for a time and I vividly remember using VisiCalc first and then a few others. Eleven-year-old me was blown away by pretty much anything on that machine, let alone a spreadsheet.
I had no understand of the market for these things and certainly wasn’t aware of what was happening in the industry for much of the 1980s. My next spreadsheet was Lotus, but that plays into the “rest of the story” which WSJ details quite well.
Hmmmm, I do still have my 5 1/4” disks and a working Apple IIe, maybe I should take a stroll down memory lane?!
Tim Cook recently spoke at Stanford and it’s worth the time to watch. I wonder how often these graduates will go back and reconsider Tim’s comments. There’s some deep, tough talk here.
“Crisis has tempered optimism. Consequences have challenged idealism. And reality has shaken blind faith,” he said. “Our problems – in technology, in politics, wherever – are human problems. From the Garden of Eden to today, it’s our humanity that got us into this mess, and it’s our humanity that’s going to have to get us out.”