I have just taken a trip back in time to 1984 when the first Macintosh computer was released. I just watched a video of Steve Jobs first demonstration of the Mac to the Boston Computer Society on January 1984.

I opened the video with mild nostalgic interest but not because I was a fan of apple back then.  I only got my first apple computer only two years ago.

I got my first computer in 1979. For those curious it was a Sorcerer with a whopping 8 kilobytes of RAM powered by a Z80 cpu and running CPM.  This was two years before the release of the first IBM PC so I was an early starter and can remember exactly what it was like back in 1984 when the first Mac was launched.

By todays standards that first Mac does not look impressive at all but at the time it was amazing and a profound affect on the personal computer market.

What was really interesting to me was listening to Steve Jobs talking about the future of personal computing. I was able, with benefit of 20/20 hindsight, to go back to 1984 and look at the future as Steve Jobs had done and really appreciate what a visionary he was.

I got something more from watching the video.  I got an incredible sense of déjà vu as I look to the future now from 2014.

Most people wait for change to happen and then get dragged along by it, often kicking and screaming.  There are a few of us that see change coming and try to position ourselves to take maximum advantage of it.

This is exactly what I am trying to do now and I found watching Steve Jobs and the first demonstration of the Mac very inspirational.



http://chrisbennetts.net/back-to-1984