Perceived Value

The year was 1984. November 1984 to be more specific. I was working for a small but growing computer retailer in San Jose, California, as an Assistant Inventory Manager, which meant that I was given all of the “fun” tasks that the Inventory Manager didn’t want to handle himself. The interesting part of the deal, however, was that I was pretty much okay with the arrangement. One of the cool parts of my job during this time was that I got to drive our company van to pick up inventory at one of the early Apple warehouse locations. I enjoyed my job, but more important, I was in the middle of a small but revolutionary time in the history of Silicon Valley.

The “Test Drive a Mac” promotion came on the scene in November 1984. By about February of 1985 I was somehow able to convince my wife to allow me to scrape together the funds to purchase a Macintosh computer through this program. Since I was an employee of an Apple retailer at the time (we sold Apple IIE and IIC computers, as well as IBM PC XT and PC Jr. machines), I qualified for the promotional pricing for Apple retailers, and only had to prepay the taxes and for any accessories I wanted with the computer. I was able to secure the computer, a second external single sided floppy disk drive (a whopping 400 KB disk no less), and a slick, khaki colored canvas carry bag. In addition, I purchased an Apple Imagewriter printer. I was set!

This early tech goldmine opened many doors for me. I immediately began to “geek out” (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/geekout#English) on understanding what a GUI interface really was, how the technology worked in terms of memory, speed and function, what applications were and how to use them (rev 1 versions of Microsoft products such as Excel and Word), Apple MacWrite and MacPaint, and later Aldus Pagemaker (remember that one?). I spent every opportunity to try and integrate my beloved Macintosh into everyday activities, printing documents, diagrams and anything else I could produce on it. A little later in my career, while working for my father’s printing company, I would have a chance to convince my dad to purchase his first computer for the business (and a fax machine too)- trust me, it took some convincing!

The downside of this adventure, if there was one, was really only that it was painfully expensive from a financial aspect- cha-ching! The Macintosh sold for $2500 at launch, and for 1984, those were real dollars (by 2021 standards, that would be nearly $6500 for a computer). I didn’t earn a bunch of money in those days, just starting out in my early 20’s, so it really was a pretty big commitment to something that was relatively new to both culture and personal experience. But I wasn’t fearful about making the decision, partly because I was working in an environment where I had a front row seat to the explosion in tech that was happening at the time. As a relatively “early adopter” I was all in, and to this day I’ve never regretted my leap of faith.

I went on to use computers in both my tech and non-tech careers immensely. Technology has generally been my friend, and to be honest I am still passionate about new tech, advancements in tech, and the integration of technology into our everyday lives. I’m a little more wary these days about how we choose to use or not use technology with topics such as privacy, artificial intelligence and data mining at the forefront for us all.

Understanding (“appreciating”?) technology opened doors for my career, giving me great jobs with many great companies which all form the mosaic that represents a “lifetime” lived in Silicon Valley. I’ve truly been fortunate, blessed, lucky...whatever term you prefer. Looking back, I really wasn’t just buying a computer back then. It was much more than just my first Macintosh, and the value of that early experience, what it meant for me and where it took me in many ways far outweighs the price tag at the time of the transaction!

-Tim

P.S.- Sometime remind me to tell you where that Mac is today….