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Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made
There was a time, not too long ago, when the typewriter and notebook ruled, and the computer as an everyday tool was simply a vision. Revolution in the Valley traces this vision back to its earliest roots: the hallways and backrooms of Apple, where the groundbreaking Macintosh computer was born. The book traces the development of the Macintosh, from its inception as an underground skunkworks project in 1979 to its triumphant introduction in 1984 and beyond.
The stories in Revolution in the Valley come on extremely good authority. That's because author Andy Hertzfeld was a core member of the team that built the Macintosh system software, and a key creator of the Mac's radically new user interface software. One of the chosen few who worked with the mercurial Steve Jobs, you might call him the ultimate insider.
When Revolution in the Valley begins, Hertzfeld is working on Apple's first attempt at a low-cost, consumer-oriented computer: the Apple II. He sees that Steve Jobs is luring some of the company's most brilliant innovators to work on a tiny research effort the Macintosh. Hertzfeld manages to make his way onto the Macintosh research team, and the rest is history.
Through lavish illustrations, period photos, and Hertzfeld's vivid first-hand accounts, Revolution in the Valley reveals what it was like to be there at the birth of the personal computer revolution. The story comes to life through the book's portrait of the talented and often eccentric characters who made up the Macintosh team. Now, over 20 years later, millions of people are benefiting from the technical achievements of this determined and brilliant group of people.
The stories in Revolution in the Valley come on extremely good authority. That's because author Andy Hertzfeld was a core member of the team that built the Macintosh system software, and a key creator of the Mac's radically new user interface software. One of the chosen few who worked with the mercurial Steve Jobs, you might call him the ultimate insider.
When Revolution in the Valley begins, Hertzfeld is working on Apple's first attempt at a low-cost, consumer-oriented computer: the Apple II. He sees that Steve Jobs is luring some of the company's most brilliant innovators to work on a tiny research effort the Macintosh. Hertzfeld manages to make his way onto the Macintosh research team, and the rest is history.
Through lavish illustrations, period photos, and Hertzfeld's vivid first-hand accounts, Revolution in the Valley reveals what it was like to be there at the birth of the personal computer revolution. The story comes to life through the book's portrait of the talented and often eccentric characters who made up the Macintosh team. Now, over 20 years later, millions of people are benefiting from the technical achievements of this determined and brilliant group of people.
320 pages, Paperback
First published December 6, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
August 27, 2017
I've read Isaccsons 'Jobs' biography and 'Fire in the valley' before. This book adds quite a bit more insight into the whole story of how the original Macintosh came into being between 1979 and 1985.
Best of all, this book is not Steve Jobs-centric, like so many others are. While he plays a prominent role in the book, most of the essays in the book are about the people that did the dirty work to make the Macintosh happen, their struggles, their sacrifices and their camaraderie. This is a book about a very small group of people who under special conditions were able to achieve something extraordinary and move the industry forward as a whole.
It also contains a lot of interesting insights about how Apple as a company changed over the years when it became a multi-million dollar business and how culture changed when hierarchies were added to the Apple organization.
A little warning: Some of the stories are probably tough to read for a non-technical person, especially when software and hardware problems are depicted.
Here are some fun facts I took away from the book:
* the original mac team was only ~15 people
* most of the engineers on the team were single and between 20 and 30 years old
* some of them started working at Apple the age of 14 and reached expert level knowledge when the project started at 22 years
* all of them were problem solver type of personalities
* most of them worked fully on their own and only got help when they were stuck with something
* they built most of the hardware and software for the Macintosh along the way (think about that, 15 frickin people)
* they more or less lived in the office (90 hour weeks) and in the final phase didn't sleep for days
* their team got bigger at the end of the project (100 people, 300 when they merged with the Lisa team), which ultimately destroyed their team culture
* wrong manager types added to the project (Bellville) accelerated the culture change and where ultimately the reason why core contributors left the company (Herzfeld, Smith)
* the personal toll for this tour de force creation was pretty high, a lot of the core team left Apple over the years or even completely retired from the industry
Best of all, this book is not Steve Jobs-centric, like so many others are. While he plays a prominent role in the book, most of the essays in the book are about the people that did the dirty work to make the Macintosh happen, their struggles, their sacrifices and their camaraderie. This is a book about a very small group of people who under special conditions were able to achieve something extraordinary and move the industry forward as a whole.
It also contains a lot of interesting insights about how Apple as a company changed over the years when it became a multi-million dollar business and how culture changed when hierarchies were added to the Apple organization.
A little warning: Some of the stories are probably tough to read for a non-technical person, especially when software and hardware problems are depicted.
Here are some fun facts I took away from the book:
* the original mac team was only ~15 people
* most of the engineers on the team were single and between 20 and 30 years old
* some of them started working at Apple the age of 14 and reached expert level knowledge when the project started at 22 years
* all of them were problem solver type of personalities
* most of them worked fully on their own and only got help when they were stuck with something
* they built most of the hardware and software for the Macintosh along the way (think about that, 15 frickin people)
* they more or less lived in the office (90 hour weeks) and in the final phase didn't sleep for days
* their team got bigger at the end of the project (100 people, 300 when they merged with the Lisa team), which ultimately destroyed their team culture
* wrong manager types added to the project (Bellville) accelerated the culture change and where ultimately the reason why core contributors left the company (Herzfeld, Smith)
* the personal toll for this tour de force creation was pretty high, a lot of the core team left Apple over the years or even completely retired from the industry
December 25, 2014
Loved this book. It was a most unusual and amazing memoir presented as a group of anecdotes during the development and rollout of the Apple Macintosh computer ... from the inside out.
Given the recent bio on Steve Jobs and related bio on Steve Wozniak and many other related biopics, it was fascinating to read about the project work by the Mac team, how it came into existence and the many minds behind making this computer a real thing which went on to become a legend and foundation for Apple's early success.
Like so many stories with an interesting beginning, the Mac's story begins with Xerox PARC and the minds which migrated from Xerox to Apple and their work on the Lisa and Mac platforms ... and a cast of clever misfits.
If you have an interest in Apple tech and good design philosophy, this is well worth reading.
Given the recent bio on Steve Jobs and related bio on Steve Wozniak and many other related biopics, it was fascinating to read about the project work by the Mac team, how it came into existence and the many minds behind making this computer a real thing which went on to become a legend and foundation for Apple's early success.
Like so many stories with an interesting beginning, the Mac's story begins with Xerox PARC and the minds which migrated from Xerox to Apple and their work on the Lisa and Mac platforms ... and a cast of clever misfits.
If you have an interest in Apple tech and good design philosophy, this is well worth reading.
April 3, 2009
You look at the cover of this and read the title and it's obvious that this book is aimed at people who want to read about how Apple is just super awesome. Normally I don't think books like this are worth reading because it's, well, boring.
I learned that this book would be worth reading because most of the stories in this book are available on folklore.org and this book is basically a printed and expanded version of those stories.
Fortunately, it doesn't tell the story as "the clouds parted and beams of sunshine hit Steve Jobs' face and then great things happened." It's by and about the people who actually helped make something and what they went through to do it.
I learned that this book would be worth reading because most of the stories in this book are available on folklore.org and this book is basically a printed and expanded version of those stories.
Fortunately, it doesn't tell the story as "the clouds parted and beams of sunshine hit Steve Jobs' face and then great things happened." It's by and about the people who actually helped make something and what they went through to do it.
April 16, 2013
Es curioso constatar la gran habilidad con la que se ha convertido en libro lo que en realidad es una página web. En cualquier caso, las 90 historias cortas que componen este libro te introducen de manera magistral en lo que fue la génesis del Macintosh y por tanto de la informática actual. Sobrecoge ver el paralelismo entre este proceso y lo que vamos conociendo de cómo se gestó el iPhone.
July 1, 2011
Macintosh computer is the most iconic computer of all time, and probably one of the most significant consumer electronics products ever. The successors of the original Macintosh have remained aspirational products ever since, and Mac fans are oftentimes known for their cult-like admiration for their computers. One name that immediately comes to mind when Mac is mentioned is that of Steve Jobs, Apple cofounder and a mercurial and controversial visionary that has shaped Apple products for the most of company's history. However, Jobs is a strange bird - a head of a technology company without any concrete technological skills. The bulk of the work on the original Apple computer was done by the other company cofounder (Steve Wozniak) and the team that actually built Mac was composed of largely unknown engineers and technicians who worked on the computer over many years with the utmost passion and dedication. This book is a tribute to that creative and dedicated team. It is written in a form of many anecdotes of crucial events and developments in the process of creating the first Mac. Most of the stories are told from the point of view of Andy Hertzfeld, but there are numerous contributions by other team members as well. The book is filled with images of old hand-written designing notes, pictures of the team members, various Polaroid screen-shots of the development of Mac's GUI, and many, many more moments that elicit a form of nostalgia for those early days of the computer industry. The whole book is in fact a tribute to those more innocent days when idealism was a much more potent motivator than money and stock options. It also paints a picture of Silicon Valley when it was possible for young fresh-out-of-college engineers to find meaningful work and live in places like Palo Alto. Whether you are a Mac fan or someone with a curiosity about the first-hand accounts of the early personal computer industry, you will find a lot in this book to keep you interested. It's a homage to the real nerd inside of all of us.
June 3, 2012
Very nearly a five star review for this one, and I'd say that if you haven't read any of the stories on the brilliant folklore.org, you should add a star. I was depressed to discover while reading this book that I'd made my way through more of folklore.org than I'd thought while casually browsing - a visit over there is as bad as a night-long Wikipedia or TVTropes trawl for me - and as a result I'd read perhaps 90% of the material in the book. The fact that I enjoyed the book as much as I did is a testament to the quality and subject matter of the stories.
Revolution can be a frustrating read due to its anecdotal nature - these are snippets of recollections bundled together into roughly grouped time frames, and as a result the book can feel disjointed. There are times during which the superior notion of hypertext is readily apparent - nearly every story contains a reference to other stories and images on the site, which is part of what makes folklore.org so addictive - and yet that weakness is also the book's strength, feeling less like an edited and cohesive story and more like sitting with a group of friends who are recalling the most interesting stories from a singular time in their lives. Without the pressure to fill in details about less interesting but historically important points in the Macintosh's development, every anecdote is relevant, interesting, and almost without exception humorous.
If you've read Kidder's Soul of a New Machine (and if you haven't, go away and read that first) and have been looking for another book that invokes the same spirit, you've found it.
Revolution can be a frustrating read due to its anecdotal nature - these are snippets of recollections bundled together into roughly grouped time frames, and as a result the book can feel disjointed. There are times during which the superior notion of hypertext is readily apparent - nearly every story contains a reference to other stories and images on the site, which is part of what makes folklore.org so addictive - and yet that weakness is also the book's strength, feeling less like an edited and cohesive story and more like sitting with a group of friends who are recalling the most interesting stories from a singular time in their lives. Without the pressure to fill in details about less interesting but historically important points in the Macintosh's development, every anecdote is relevant, interesting, and almost without exception humorous.
If you've read Kidder's Soul of a New Machine (and if you haven't, go away and read that first) and have been looking for another book that invokes the same spirit, you've found it.
October 8, 2018
Oh boy, this book is the most fun i've had reading and reminiscing in quite a while. Based on the web site Folklore.org (https://www.folklore.org/), Revolution in The Valley is a collection of "anecdotes about the development of Apple's original Macintosh, and the people who made it". Most of the Mac developers are contemporaries of mine, and reading their stories, and especially their technical tales of hardware and software in the late 1970s and early 1980s so resonated with the time and way i learned computers and programming back in the early 80s. The hardware, the software, the chips, the hacks, the clever solutions to challenges all took me back to an earlier day when computers were hands on, both in the hardware and the code.
I was given one of the first Macs (128k RAM) by a friend back around 1990 that had died - would not power on or boot up. After some research and ordering some parts, i was able to refurbish the analog board (that had died) resulting in a working Mac to play with. After some more research, i was able to add a decoder chip and replace the memory chips to yield a 512k Mac (an optional upgrade left in the digital board by the sneaky and clever design team, which is actually mentioned in this collection of stories). I could go on and on, but this book was really a trip back in time to the time i first discovered personal computing, both hardware and software, and was able to dabble in the rosin smoky world of hardware hacks and hand coded software. What a great, wonderful trip down memory lane! Loved this book!
I was given one of the first Macs (128k RAM) by a friend back around 1990 that had died - would not power on or boot up. After some research and ordering some parts, i was able to refurbish the analog board (that had died) resulting in a working Mac to play with. After some more research, i was able to add a decoder chip and replace the memory chips to yield a 512k Mac (an optional upgrade left in the digital board by the sneaky and clever design team, which is actually mentioned in this collection of stories). I could go on and on, but this book was really a trip back in time to the time i first discovered personal computing, both hardware and software, and was able to dabble in the rosin smoky world of hardware hacks and hand coded software. What a great, wonderful trip down memory lane! Loved this book!
October 9, 2021
I loved this book! It was a great history of how the Mac came to be, and since I'm a Mac fan, I'm interested. Everyone knows the Mac was Steve Jobs' baby, and true technical people had to develop it and Andy Hertzfeld was one of the critical developers to put it together. This book is a mostly linear anecdotal history of the Mac, starting at the beginning and ending with the ejection of Jobs from Apple and the leaving of numerous key developers due to managerial incompetence. Pretty sad. Still, the book is cool. It's got pictures of hex-based pages of notes detailing programming sequences, great photographs, and some stills of the new Mac GUI as it was being developed. Certainly recommended for any Mac fan as well as anyone simply interested in personal computers.
April 26, 2020
Insanely great!!
Read
January 30, 2022how the frick did we come up with coding actually
Read this with my Dad! <3
Read this with my Dad! <3
March 25, 2018
Un libro entretenido que te explica la historia del nacimiento del primer Mac de forma muy amena. Es fácil y rápido de leer porque no es una historia contada de principio a final, sino una serie de anécdotas explicadas por diversas personas. Las fotos que incluye además no tienen desperdicio xD
No esperes encontrar en él una biografía de Steve Jobs. Es la historia de todo el equipo de trabajo que consiguió sacar adelante este ordenador en una época fascinante para el desarrollo de los ordenadores personales. Jobs sale, por supuesto, pero no es más que otro protagonista más del libro.
En la parte negativa, a veces abusa de tecnicismos (si no estás un poco puesto en informática, no te enteras de nada), y las continuas referencias a otros capítulos se pueden hacer un poco pesadas. Esto último es una herencia directa del origen del libro, que es una adaptación de las anécdotas recopiladas por su autor en una página web (y claro, allí enlazaba a otros sitios).
En resumen, una lectura muy recomendable para todos los fans de Apple.
No esperes encontrar en él una biografía de Steve Jobs. Es la historia de todo el equipo de trabajo que consiguió sacar adelante este ordenador en una época fascinante para el desarrollo de los ordenadores personales. Jobs sale, por supuesto, pero no es más que otro protagonista más del libro.
En la parte negativa, a veces abusa de tecnicismos (si no estás un poco puesto en informática, no te enteras de nada), y las continuas referencias a otros capítulos se pueden hacer un poco pesadas. Esto último es una herencia directa del origen del libro, que es una adaptación de las anécdotas recopiladas por su autor en una página web (y claro, allí enlazaba a otros sitios).
En resumen, una lectura muy recomendable para todos los fans de Apple.
September 20, 2015
You might not have heard of Andy Hertzfeld, but you’ve probably heard of the product that he co-created, the Apple Macintosh. Andy was on the team that built the system’s software, and one of the key contributors in the creation of the machine’s new user interface software, which signaled a radical change in the way that machines were designed and used.
Revolution in the Valley, then, is Hertzfeld’s inside story of that exciting time in history when Steve Jobs’ innovation was at its greatest, and what originally began as a website filled with anecdotes eventually evolved in to the book that I have in front of me. It’s a real artifact, one of several books that I own which I just get out and flick through every now and then, just to spend some time with it.
That probably sounds weird, but the fact of the matter is that it’s just so aesthetically pleasing that you won’t want to put it down, from the glossy cover and the unusual size of the pages to the high quality of the photographs that are reproduced inside. It even includes some of the original diagrams that the team made, and it’s a fascinating insight in to how the team of innovators really worked.
Some of Hertzfeld’s personality shines through in his writing too, and he seems like a genuinely nice guy – despite the pivotal role that he played in the development of the personal computer, he’s humble. It makes this a delightful read, particularly if you’re anything like me and you’re interested in computers, and like geeking out on the development of the machines we use today. I’m glad that Macs evolved, though.
Revolution in the Valley, then, is Hertzfeld’s inside story of that exciting time in history when Steve Jobs’ innovation was at its greatest, and what originally began as a website filled with anecdotes eventually evolved in to the book that I have in front of me. It’s a real artifact, one of several books that I own which I just get out and flick through every now and then, just to spend some time with it.
That probably sounds weird, but the fact of the matter is that it’s just so aesthetically pleasing that you won’t want to put it down, from the glossy cover and the unusual size of the pages to the high quality of the photographs that are reproduced inside. It even includes some of the original diagrams that the team made, and it’s a fascinating insight in to how the team of innovators really worked.
Some of Hertzfeld’s personality shines through in his writing too, and he seems like a genuinely nice guy – despite the pivotal role that he played in the development of the personal computer, he’s humble. It makes this a delightful read, particularly if you’re anything like me and you’re interested in computers, and like geeking out on the development of the machines we use today. I’m glad that Macs evolved, though.
June 17, 2020
A worthwhile reread, definitely right there among my all time favorites. It's the story of how the original Macintosh was designed by a small group of brilliant engineers lead by the legendary Steve jobs. Burrell smith, Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld and Steve Capps especially stood out for their engineering wizardry and creativity.
Some favorite quotes and excerpts:
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it" - Alan Kay
Steve started critiquing the layout on a purely esthetic basis. “That part’s really pretty,” he proclaimed. “But look at the memory chips. That’s ugly. The lines are too close together.”
George Crow, our recently hired analog engineer, interrupted Steve. “Who cares what the PC board looks like? The only thing that’s important is how well it works. Nobody is going to see the PC board.”
Steve responded strongly. “I’m gonna see it! I want it to be as beautiful as possible, even if it’s inside the box. A great carpenter isn’t going to use lousy wood for the back of a cabinet, even though nobody’s going to see it.”
“Well, Steve, I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set only to find that you had already stolen it.” - Bill Gates to Steve Jobs
Highly recommended to young engineers and computer scientists at the start of their carriers.
Some favorite quotes and excerpts:
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it" - Alan Kay
Steve started critiquing the layout on a purely esthetic basis. “That part’s really pretty,” he proclaimed. “But look at the memory chips. That’s ugly. The lines are too close together.”
George Crow, our recently hired analog engineer, interrupted Steve. “Who cares what the PC board looks like? The only thing that’s important is how well it works. Nobody is going to see the PC board.”
Steve responded strongly. “I’m gonna see it! I want it to be as beautiful as possible, even if it’s inside the box. A great carpenter isn’t going to use lousy wood for the back of a cabinet, even though nobody’s going to see it.”
“Well, Steve, I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set only to find that you had already stolen it.” - Bill Gates to Steve Jobs
Highly recommended to young engineers and computer scientists at the start of their carriers.
September 30, 2009
Fantastic book, and you don't have to be a Mac or Apple "fanatic" to enjoy it. It is a collection of stories, nearly all by Andy Hertzfeld (but with several by other contributors), that describe the development of the Macintosh, as well as life at Apple Computer in the early '80s.
The unique glimpses of Mac development, of the atmosphere at Apple, and of the people involved are quite interesting and even inspiring. I remember when the Mac came out, and being amazed at its graphic interface. (My friend's dad had one of the first Macs. In fact, I tried to implement something like the GUI on my ...ahem...Timex/Sinclair 2068. I think I was 10.) Anyway, the book has some great photos of both the team and old notes on development, including some that show the progression of the UI in various versions towards the one that most of us are familiar with (at least in some fashion, even if only because of Windows!)
Note that the stories are also available at Andy's site, www.folklore.org (but I much prefer a book to sit down with).
The unique glimpses of Mac development, of the atmosphere at Apple, and of the people involved are quite interesting and even inspiring. I remember when the Mac came out, and being amazed at its graphic interface. (My friend's dad had one of the first Macs. In fact, I tried to implement something like the GUI on my ...ahem...Timex/Sinclair 2068. I think I was 10.) Anyway, the book has some great photos of both the team and old notes on development, including some that show the progression of the UI in various versions towards the one that most of us are familiar with (at least in some fashion, even if only because of Windows!)
Note that the stories are also available at Andy's site, www.folklore.org (but I much prefer a book to sit down with).
February 19, 2023
The greatest personal computers of the late seventies were personal visions: the Apple II was pretty much the vision and work of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. Radio Shack’s TRS-80 Model I was, for entirely different reasons, pretty much single-handedly designed by Steve Leininger.
In the eighties, these same computers were designed by massive corporate teams, from later iterations of the Apple II and its failed successor, the Apple III, and of course the TRS-80, to the quintessential corporate PC, the IBM-PC.
The Macintosh was in many ways an accident of history. Apple had its big project, the Lisa; completely separately, Jef Raskin had the idea that Apple should make a less expensive, more turnkey system for the average consumer, not just cheaper than the Lisa but cheaper than the also-expensive Apple II line. He set up an often-canceled team within Apple to design it around Motorola’s 6809 chip.
The 6809 was, and is, a great chip—it’s the chip at the center of Radio Shack’s Color Computer, for example—but it was designed for the needs of the present, not the needs of the future; Radio Shack had to go to great lengths just to get it to address more than 64 kilobytes in their Color Computer 3.
Raskin, according to this book, was dead set against designing his new Macintosh around Motorola’s far more advanced 68000, and even against using anything other than the keyboard to manipulate the computer. If it had been up to him, the Macintosh would have neither sported its iconic graphic design nor its iconic mouse input device.
But if there was one critical ingredient that Raskin added to Macintosh development, it was to choose brilliant engineer-programmers who didn’t pay much attention to authority. Burrell Smith did up a 68000-based design anyway, and it caught the attention of Apple Chairman Steve Jobs.
Jobs changed just about everything about Raskin’s vision except (a) the turnkey nature of the computer, and (b) the pirate nature of a close-knit team.
The Macintosh ended up being designed not by one or two individuals, nor by a corporate team, but by a band of kids, brilliant, hero-worshipping (Burrell Smith had no college degree, and on his media resume put down “Steve Wozniak University” as his education), and untamable, but chosen because they shared a vision of a kind of computer that was technically impossible.
And they were all kids. Many of the stories sound like the antics of college and high school students. Even Steve Jobs comes across as a kid in these reminiscences about the early days of the Mac, which is probably why they were able to build a computer that was forwardly anachronistic. A couple years earlier, and they couldn’t have made it at all. A couple of years later, and it would have been made by a corporate team that recognized (as Apple itself did with the iPhone) that technology had caught up with the vision.
Instead, it was built by a bunch of individuals who recognized that it was impossible and then said, but wait, I might be able to to it this way. They embodied the early personal computer “what if” mindset that made computer programming in that era so much fun.
That does mean that they missed a few things. Programmers complain today that the Macintosh deliberately eschewed that early programming mindset where the user was automatically also a programmer. I’ve made the same complaint. But it wasn’t really deliberate. The first Mac was meant to contain a version of BASIC designed specifically so that amateur programmers could write applications from the get-go that integrated the Mac’s new user-friendly interface.
It’s tempting to speculate what the Mac would have become if that project had finished in time to include with the initial launch. Instead, Microsoft wrote their own BASIC for the Mac that was purely console-based and whose programs didn’t look like Mac programs. Microsoft then leveraged Apple’s need to keep providing Microsoft BASIC with the Apple II line to kill MacBASIC—and at the same time “get a perpetual license to the Macintosh user interface.”
As it was, “the Beta version was widely pirated”, enough so that “Two books on MacBASIC were eventually published and sold well”.
I never saw Microsoft’s BASIC for the Mac in the wild. The first time I saw user-level programming on the Macintosh was Bill Atkinson’s HyperCard.
All of the stories are very short. Most were written by Andy Hertzfeld, but a handful were contributed by other members of the early team: one each by Bruce Horn, Susan Kare, Donn Denman, and Steve Capps. The book is also filled with photos of the team but also with ephemera from the design, such as programmer to-do-lists written on graph paper, screen captures of early designs, and examples of documents created using in-development versions of MacPaint on an in-development Mac. This is a beautiful book.
It’s all extraordinarily nostalgic, but also an important lesson in what can be done by a small team with vision and brilliance, the right combination of focus and experimentation, and very hard work.
In the eighties, these same computers were designed by massive corporate teams, from later iterations of the Apple II and its failed successor, the Apple III, and of course the TRS-80, to the quintessential corporate PC, the IBM-PC.
The Macintosh was in many ways an accident of history. Apple had its big project, the Lisa; completely separately, Jef Raskin had the idea that Apple should make a less expensive, more turnkey system for the average consumer, not just cheaper than the Lisa but cheaper than the also-expensive Apple II line. He set up an often-canceled team within Apple to design it around Motorola’s 6809 chip.
The 6809 was, and is, a great chip—it’s the chip at the center of Radio Shack’s Color Computer, for example—but it was designed for the needs of the present, not the needs of the future; Radio Shack had to go to great lengths just to get it to address more than 64 kilobytes in their Color Computer 3.
Raskin, according to this book, was dead set against designing his new Macintosh around Motorola’s far more advanced 68000, and even against using anything other than the keyboard to manipulate the computer. If it had been up to him, the Macintosh would have neither sported its iconic graphic design nor its iconic mouse input device.
But if there was one critical ingredient that Raskin added to Macintosh development, it was to choose brilliant engineer-programmers who didn’t pay much attention to authority. Burrell Smith did up a 68000-based design anyway, and it caught the attention of Apple Chairman Steve Jobs.
Jobs changed just about everything about Raskin’s vision except (a) the turnkey nature of the computer, and (b) the pirate nature of a close-knit team.
Enthusiasm is contagious, and a product that is fun to create is much more likely to be fun to use.
The Macintosh ended up being designed not by one or two individuals, nor by a corporate team, but by a band of kids, brilliant, hero-worshipping (Burrell Smith had no college degree, and on his media resume put down “Steve Wozniak University” as his education), and untamable, but chosen because they shared a vision of a kind of computer that was technically impossible.
And they were all kids. Many of the stories sound like the antics of college and high school students. Even Steve Jobs comes across as a kid in these reminiscences about the early days of the Mac, which is probably why they were able to build a computer that was forwardly anachronistic. A couple years earlier, and they couldn’t have made it at all. A couple of years later, and it would have been made by a corporate team that recognized (as Apple itself did with the iPhone) that technology had caught up with the vision.
Instead, it was built by a bunch of individuals who recognized that it was impossible and then said, but wait, I might be able to to it this way. They embodied the early personal computer “what if” mindset that made computer programming in that era so much fun.
The goal… was to do the greatest thing possible, or even a little greater.
That does mean that they missed a few things. Programmers complain today that the Macintosh deliberately eschewed that early programming mindset where the user was automatically also a programmer. I’ve made the same complaint. But it wasn’t really deliberate. The first Mac was meant to contain a version of BASIC designed specifically so that amateur programmers could write applications from the get-go that integrated the Mac’s new user-friendly interface.
It’s tempting to speculate what the Mac would have become if that project had finished in time to include with the initial launch. Instead, Microsoft wrote their own BASIC for the Mac that was purely console-based and whose programs didn’t look like Mac programs. Microsoft then leveraged Apple’s need to keep providing Microsoft BASIC with the Apple II line to kill MacBASIC—and at the same time “get a perpetual license to the Macintosh user interface.”
This probably was the single worst deal in Apple’s history, executed by John Sculley in November 1985.
As it was, “the Beta version was widely pirated”, enough so that “Two books on MacBASIC were eventually published and sold well”.
I never saw Microsoft’s BASIC for the Mac in the wild. The first time I saw user-level programming on the Macintosh was Bill Atkinson’s HyperCard.
All of the stories are very short. Most were written by Andy Hertzfeld, but a handful were contributed by other members of the early team: one each by Bruce Horn, Susan Kare, Donn Denman, and Steve Capps. The book is also filled with photos of the team but also with ephemera from the design, such as programmer to-do-lists written on graph paper, screen captures of early designs, and examples of documents created using in-development versions of MacPaint on an in-development Mac. This is a beautiful book.
It’s all extraordinarily nostalgic, but also an important lesson in what can be done by a small team with vision and brilliance, the right combination of focus and experimentation, and very hard work.
November 21, 2018
Beautifully detailed essays of their historic time building the Mac
Andy Hertzfeld and Co have yo be given a massive amount of credit - not only for being the true 10x engineers that they were, but also for the excellent and detailed semi technical account in the book here.
I hope the world remembers them along with Steve Jobs for this epic moment in history. If ever Woz needed great engineers to follow his genius, then these guys have a reasonably strong claim to it: With Bill Atkinson, Hertzfeld and Burrell Smith being at the forefront.
I could feel the thrill of being along with them in their when they were at the peak of their creative abilities. The first person nature of the account helps maintain this tight connection between the reader and the author.
Andy Hertzfeld and Co have yo be given a massive amount of credit - not only for being the true 10x engineers that they were, but also for the excellent and detailed semi technical account in the book here.
I hope the world remembers them along with Steve Jobs for this epic moment in history. If ever Woz needed great engineers to follow his genius, then these guys have a reasonably strong claim to it: With Bill Atkinson, Hertzfeld and Burrell Smith being at the forefront.
I could feel the thrill of being along with them in their when they were at the peak of their creative abilities. The first person nature of the account helps maintain this tight connection between the reader and the author.
August 12, 2017
I love reading about the 70's/80's era of Silicon Valley and Apple, and Andy's essay format worked well. My only real critique is that most fans of the subject have already heard the majority of these anecdotes at Apple Computers. If you've read a Steve Jobs bio, or iWoz than the majority of the stories will sound like re-runs, although told from a different perspective. That said, I still enjoyed the book. Pictures of Andy's design notebooks were particularly inspiring, and make me wish I had experienced that place and time where so much innovation was possible as a computer programmer.
July 13, 2023
It reads very similar to Make Something Wonderful (2023). It’s a collection of short stories from the Macintosh project. Reading about a journey of a group of individuals coming together to create something extraordinary is always a super enjoyable reading experience for me.
It’s worth picking up just to get a sens of how day-to-day looked like in startup-ish culture in the 80s. It was interesting to see that almost 40 years later, people face the same issues when scaling organizations.
Go and pick it up. It should be a fun read, even if you’re not interested in Apple folklore!
It’s worth picking up just to get a sens of how day-to-day looked like in startup-ish culture in the 80s. It was interesting to see that almost 40 years later, people face the same issues when scaling organizations.
Go and pick it up. It should be a fun read, even if you’re not interested in Apple folklore!
April 9, 2023
Revolution in the Valley is a masterful journey through the birth and growth of the most iconic tech company in history, as seen through the eyes of the pioneers who made it happen. This captivating narrative weaves together the story of Apple's genesis and the personalities that shaped it, capturing the essence of innovation and the true spirit of the Silicon Valley.
December 28, 2017
Andy Hertzfeld's compilation of stories around the development of the Macintosh is an amazing piece of Silicon Valley history. It amazes me how much of the modern PC industry was driven by these crazy talented engineers.
August 17, 2018
Great selection of stories that can still teach something today about team dynamics, and how great ideas are born. Often fun, and I really appreciated how Hertzfeld shared his ideas about other people, with honesty and respect.
November 14, 2019
Insanely great collection of anecdotes about the early days at Apple that lead to the creation of Macintosh, as told by actual core team members.
One of those books that I had trouble finishing, not because it was dull, but because I didn't want it to end.
One of those books that I had trouble finishing, not because it was dull, but because I didn't want it to end.
August 1, 2020
An interesting but somewhat boring read
This is a good book but unless you really interested in all the various details, it can be quite boring. There are lots of interesting stories but it can be laborious to get though.
This is a good book but unless you really interested in all the various details, it can be quite boring. There are lots of interesting stories but it can be laborious to get though.
August 6, 2020
A series of perspectives on the creation of the first Macintosh computer. Many incredibly talented people came together to bring this masterpiece to fruition, mistakes included. I really liked reminiscing with the author Andy Hertzfeld, and a few other contributors. Fascinating.
October 3, 2020
This book is one of a kind; it tells a compelling story of how the first Macintosh was created in the engineers point of view. Small chunks of stories is laid out in 5 chapters, depicting the journey of a rascal research project that changed the world.
February 28, 2023
"Revolution in The Valley" is a fascinating and captivating insider's account of the creation of the original Macintosh computer. Andy Hertzfeld's writing is engaging and insightful, providing a unique glimpse into the groundbreaking work of the Apple team during the 1980s.
April 9, 2018
inspiring
July 5, 2019
👏👏👏👏
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 18, 2021
A good book if you like to know about innovation and Apple's culture.
Robert Fire
www.robertfire.com
@irobertfire (US)
@frobertfire (ESP)
Robert Fire
www.robertfire.com
@irobertfire (US)
@frobertfire (ESP)
April 18, 2021
Interesting snapshot of early Apple computer. Also ruthless business practices.
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