Insanely Great
The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything
by Steven Levy · first published 1994
80% recommend20% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Well-reported history of the original Macintosh project, with a readable narrative of the people and decisions behind it. Readers find it inspiring and a good read for anyone curious about early personal computing.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Welcome to Mac" – with those words, a new era was born. From the moment the public met Macintosh – introduced by an apocalyptic commercial that had a nation rubbing its eyes in astonishment – it was clear that there had never been anything like it. Its creators had been commanded to devise a personal computer that was not just good, not just great, but "insanely great" – so great that it would change the world. And it did. Macintosh won over a fanatic cult audience with its friendly interface, its attention to aesthetic detail, and what could only be called its quirky personality. It invaded
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…(Google Translate: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&u=https:/... ) is the best intro that I'm aware of, though there are some additional, important bits of information in Steven Levy's Insanely Great ch. 9 ( https://books.google.ie/books?id=Y6ZQAAAAMAAJ&dq=insanely+gr... ) and the Isaacson bio's ch. 13 ( https://books.google.ie/books?id=JT6FCgAAQBAJ&printsec=front... ). TFA links to some of these,…
on “So what is the deal with A/UX anyways?” ↗Insanely Great - Steven Levy. About the building of the original Macintosh. Extremely inspiring and interesting.
on “Best Books For a Startup?” ↗Steven Levy's book about the creation of the original Macintosh is also wonderful. http://www.amazon.com/Insanely-Great-Macintosh-Computer-Ever...
on “Dev stays without pay to finish Mac Graphing Calculator as skunkworks project” ↗…https://www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com/JPP/telechargeables/f... Does God Play Dice - The new mathematics of Chaos by Ian Stewart. Artificial Life - The Quest for a New creation by Steven Levy Screw it, Just do it by Richard Branson. Insanely Great: The Life and Times of the Macintosh - the computer that changed everything by Steven Levy Manual of the Warrior of Light by Paulo Coelho. Every book written by Jules Verne, especially 20000 leagues…
on “Ask HN/YC: Please suggest me some good books I can gift a 8 year kid” ↗I've always liked Steven Levy's book about Apple, Insanely Great. (He released an updated version not too long ago.) I also thought he did a great job with the profiles of historic computing pioneers in Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. (One of the few…
on “Walter Isaacson Goes Inside the Mind of Leonardo Da Vinci” ↗…Katie Hafner, Soul of a new Machine by Tracey Kidder, The Dream Machine. There are histories of Apple, Microsoft, and many smaller (and now gone) companies and/or projects. Showstopper (Windows NT), Insanely Great (Macintosh), Defying Gravity (Apple Newton), In the Plex (Google), Hackers (by Steven Levy), Ghost in the Wires. More philosophical type stuff In the beginning was the command line Dreaming Code, Coders…
on “Ask HN: Books about programmers and programming culture?” ↗Someone else already mentioned, "Hackers" by Steven Levy, which was great. Levy's "Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything" was also a vey good read (and only $4.99 for Kindle edition!). https://www.amazon.com/Insanely-Great-Macintosh-Computer-Eve...…
on “Ask HN: Best computer history book for curious teenager?” ↗Steven Levy is a good writer. I read pretty much anything he puts out. His books "Crypto" and "Insanely Great" are good also, Crypto is the better one.
on “Ask HN: Books on Computer History” ↗…"Direct from Dell" (Michael Dell), "Inside Intel" (Tim Jackson), "The Innovator's Dilemma" and "The Innovator's Solution" (Clayton Christianson), "Good to Great" and "Built to Last" (Jim Collins), and "Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh" and "Hackers" by Steven Levy.
on “What startup/VC/tech/internet blogs do you read ?” ↗"Insanely great" is something that Steve Jobs used to say. It became a Mac ad campaign [1] and a book was written with that title [2]; I haven't read it. [1] http://robert.accettura.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/20090...…
on “Build an Insanely Great Web Service” ↗…behavior before reintroducing it when habits have changed). Best example: the original Mac had no cursor keys (to force developers to build mouse-based UIs). Steven Levy writes about it at length in "Insanely Great".
on “iPad Pro” ↗