You’ve had the fight once or twice. Maybe you chose it, maybe it was thrust upon you. Or maybe it was the unexpected outcome of an innocent question: “So Mac people, what’s the big deal?”
I still don’t know the answer to that. If you can be a moderate in the battle of PCs and Macs, I’m that guy. I’ve always run Windows computers based on convenience – they’re what I’ve had, what my employers sourced, and what my corporate clients needed me to support.
But I’ve always been curious about the other side, shamelessly toying around with iPods and iPads and other shiny things. I’ve enjoyed these dalliances, but I’ve never suffered from pangs of withdrawal while working back on my desktop.
Despite the press, Apple has never done much in the way of sui-generis/ex-nihilo innovation. However, they’ve become adept at locating the nexus of technology and culture, taking what’s possible and making it both practical and cool. But it wasn’t always so.
In this 1996 promo you can feel the effort. You can sense the behind-the-scenes perspiration to become all the things they’d be loved for a decade later. But they haven’t gotten there yet.
I take comfort in that, and you should as well. Your craft, your career, your business might not be where you want it to be, but not long ago neither was Apple’s.
Yes, it’ll take some work. But we can get there too.
