I searched on “computers in 1975”, the year I went pro, going from student to cub sales guy for IBM and, to my horror, this is what I got.
How long ago was that? And what does that number mean in human and computer years?
How long ago? It would be another 18 months before I got a personal computer because literally, all the first ones did was store your recipes and balance your checkbook. Two things not important to me.
Can you imagine? Paying the equivalent of a car for a personal computer that would store your recipes (after you input EVERY SINGLE ONE) and balance your checkbook! But, the story went, there are all these cool things coming because computers can do SO MUCH. A computer in your home was pretty exotic and full of promise.
So in computer years, 1975 was a long time ago. An IBM 5100 Portable Computer, that sleek beauty in the picture, cost $8,995 that year, or $42,000 in today’s dollars. Today, your $42K buys a new, tricked out Audi A3. Plus you’d have enough left to come home with six decent Dell laptops in your trunk.
In human years it was just yesterday. So much has happened. If you pay attention there’s a lot to learn. Sometimes it serves you well, other times it gets in the way of what’s different and new. But it taught me a few important lessons. Things move fast but the important ones don’t. Human communication changes, but human nature hasn’t.
I’m collecting all the lessons I’ve learned about the nature of humans that doesn’t change as they look for and buy things. Lessons that apply to you regardless of what you sell, as long as sell to humans.
You won’t learn how to use Facebook or TikTok or Clubhouse, to mention three fast-moving things that are relevant this week. I teach what to do to connect with and engage other humans hopefully making your content, wherever it is, actually connect with and engage, you know, other humans.
So stay tuned. If you want to read a chapter or two free, while they’re still being edited, send me an email with “Book” in the subject line.
