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Posted on October 6, 2011

I grew up in SW Missouri on a farm and went to a very rural city with a population just under 1100. At a time when computers were not in the classroom and the concept of a computer lab was still unheard of, my fourth grade teacher insisted that we have one in our classroom. She convinced her husband that she needed to put 20-25% of her salary that year into a CD because a local bank was giving away an Apple IIe to anyone that did so. She also insisted that any student could checkout the Apple IIe for a weekend if they wanted. I was on that list multiple times needless to say. I don’t remember if my first lines of code were in Logo (a language where you instruct a turtle to draw shapes on your screen) or in MS-Basic (before Microsoft wrote an operating system) but I do know that it was on that Apple IIe. I read the offline transcripts from a Drew Barrymore interview that was originally given online through a BBS. The idea that text was a series of bits that I could read in rural Missouri also opened my mind that people could interact with each other “online”. I realized in fourth grade that only your imagination can limit what you create and achieve. Programming also taught me if you don’t like something then change it. My career and most of my life have been directly influenced by Steve Jobs and devices that he has created. I’m writing this post on my MacBook Pro while listening to music on my iPhone4 which is streaming through my Apple AirPort Extreme to my AppleTV so I can fill my room with music. When I head to work, I’ll plug my headphones into my iPhone and it will continue playing without ever missing a beat. The geek in me appreciates that this “just works” whereas the engineer in me is amazed at the work, precision, and details that it takes to achieve this. It’s one thing to match expectations but it’s another to exceed expectations to a level that creates wonder yet feels magical. Thank you Mrs. Dawsom and thank you Steve Jobs.

I grew up in SW Missouri on a farm and went to a very rural city with a population just under 1100. At a time when computers were not in the classroom and the concept of a computer lab was still unheard of, my fourth grade teacher insisted that we have one in our classroom. She convinced her husband that she needed to put 20-25% of her salary that year into a CD because a local bank was giving away an Apple IIe to anyone that did so.

She also insisted that any student could checkout the Apple IIe for a weekend if they wanted. I was on that list multiple times needless to say. I don’t remember if my first lines of code were in Logo (a language where you instruct a turtle to draw shapes on your screen) or in MS-Basic (before Microsoft wrote an operating system) but I do know that it was on that Apple IIe.

I read the offline transcripts from a Drew Barrymore interview that was originally given online through a BBS. The idea that text was a series of bits that I could read in rural Missouri also opened my mind that people could interact with each other “online”. I realized in fourth grade that only your imagination can limit what you create and achieve. Programming also taught me if you don’t like something then change it.

My career and most of my life have been directly influenced by Steve Jobs and devices that he has created. I’m writing this post on my MacBook Pro while listening to music on my iPhone4 which is streaming through my Apple AirPort Extreme to my AppleTV so I can fill my room with music. When I head to work, I’ll plug my headphones into my iPhone and it will continue playing without ever missing a beat. The geek in me appreciates that this “just works” whereas the engineer in me is amazed at the work, precision, and details that it takes to achieve this. It’s one thing to match expectations but it’s another to exceed expectations to a level that creates wonder yet feels magical.

Thank you Mrs. Dawsom and thank you Steve Jobs.

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