Reviews and Comments

I'm sure it is true for all of the different renditions but my Bookshop.org version of the book is very thick of wonderful pen drawings

If you approach this book on the history of WordPerfect up through the author's ousting as its CEO as a series of blog posts or stream of consciousness then you will find the book enjoyable. The bulk of this was written shortly after Peterson was unceremoniously kicked out. It is 100% his point of view in a time where he is still smarting from the whole episode. So while any narration in this style should always be considered just one point of view it is especially true here as well.

I don't want to get into the various agreements/disagreements I have with him on management style, management philosophies, et cetera. I will say that at least as of 1993 he still seemed to lack all self awareness about his hypocricies and shortcomings. At best he gets to the "maybe my vision wouldn't have been better but who knows." I do know that even if I interpret his point of view as charitably as possible I would not want to work in an organization that he was helming.

You may get the impression from the title of the book that this is going to be one of those usual books that has Apple as the center of the early computer universe and yet another story about how the singular genius of Steve Jobs (and maybe Steve Wozniak gets a mention) single handedly created the personal computer industry. You would be 100% wrong. This book is about looking at the birth and early growth of the personal computer market from a different lens, one that doesn't center it around the humble beginnings by some boy tech genius (or geniuses) who self started with nothing more than coffee money in their pocket but saw the foregone conclusion that computers would be everywhere and took a chance. It instead explores the societal, cultural, and financial mileau around which many of these upstarts were growing out of. It explores how the personal computer's supposed inevitability was very much not that. It was a lot of trial and error and effort by lots of people and organizations to capitalize on the socioeconomic anxieties of the time with this new technological savior made ever more practical and real as the technology became more powerful.

Why the title then? First, it's not meant to be an encyclopedia but exploring a through line of a multi-decade birth of an industry. The Apple II's sweet spot was right in the middle of it was a pretty stable platform from 1977 to 1987. In the middle of that period it was the platform with the largest installed software base because of it. Because of some of its technological advances in the early part of the error it was also the early trail blazer in the microcomputer living up more to the vision of what it could be being presented by the industry. So it allowed an insight into the industry and its changes in a unique way. The book is actually only partly about the Apple II. The other part is on the burgeoning software industry of that era as well covering major facets of the industry from the business side (VisiCalc) to home software (Print Shop) to games (Snooper Troopers).

As someone who bought into the bootstrapped hero myth of the early computer industry put out by MSM and pop culture I have long since soured on the notion. Having an exploration of the counter-narrative was refreshing. It was in some places overwrought in how it pointed out privilege points of many of these early computer pioneer's history, many being straight white men who just so happened to have unusual access to very expensive and hard to come by computer resources, but it was a handful of places of style issues not issues with the overall point. The same can be true in their popping the "I'm just doing this to change the world" narrative we are constantly fed with pointing out how this was substantially about making a lot of money as well. It's good to recognize their greenwashing away of the profit motive for what it was but again it was done in some points in a bit heavy handed way. These instances are pretty few and far between though so doesn't detract from the book over all and, again, it is a bit of a stylistic issue not a fallacy of the underlying point.

As someone who has read countless books and articles on computer history much of the history was not new to me at all, neither was the stripping away of the mythology around the titans covered in the book. What I enjoyed even more than the book presenting the counter-narrative in a way approachable to people with more casual interest in the topic was the exploration of the history of programs I never explored before. I never knew about the history of The Print Shop or Snooper Troopers. I never even heard of the latter even. As someone that not only likes history but has had a career in software development and entrepreneurship I love reading project development history and company origin stories, especially when it is a more grounded exploration of it.

I was introduced to WoT by the TV show. A lot of my visuals for main characters comes from it. I didn't read it with expectations of it following the books too closely though. In fact the very beginning of the book followed it much closer than I thought possible. The longer the book goes on the further the two diverge. Though you can see the essences the show was trying to bring. This is my first Robert Jordan book. Upon starting his verbosity was concerning to me. I had the quip the Dowager Countess on Downton Abbey used once going through my mind, "He never uses one word when ten will do." Even though his verbosity didn't abate his writing does have a good readable flow about. I found the book to be a very engaging read. Like with almost any work of fiction there are some eye rolling pieces of the book. They were few and far enough between to not detract from the overall piece. Based on how the book wraps up you can tell that he wrote this book expecting to write many more in this series. I'm looking forward to starting the second book in the near future.

About 20% of the way in, a quote from the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey keeps coming to mind as I read this book, "He never uses one word when ten will do." But it is working for me.

Another detective story of the future that allowed Asimov to explore the Three Laws of Robotics, the peculiarities of the individual Spacer Worlds, and their comparison to the people still living on Earth. I will say that the Elijah character and his Colombo/Sherlock Holmes persona is feeling a bit tired at this point. As much as I enjoyed this book and its exploration of these various topics I am hoping that either it is the last I see of Elijah or that the next time it's not yet another whodunit.

In my very amateur opinion his is a pretty solid cursory look at how to "Platinum Hike" and a good reference list for stops of various kinds and rating. Think of it like a travel guide for the AT. I do wish they spelled out some of the more complicated steps a little more explicitly, such as how to handle the drop offs and luggage transfers, etc. However I imagine the reason they didn't is the very unsatisfactory "it depends", so there is not much more they can go into that.

On to the next book in Asimov's Foundation Series reading list...