During the impressionable years of my early teen years (way back in the ’70s!), friends and I would frequent the local record stores. They used to carry those black-light posters that were so popular then and one in particular stuck in my mind.
It was supposed to be a definition of “defiance” and had an eagle swooping down to grab a tiny mouse in its talons. The rodent was, well, giving the bird to the bird. In obvious defiance of his impending fate, the little mouse was flying one large middle finger at his enemy. Strange what stays with us from our youth, eh?
Guy Kawasaki is like that mouse, a defiant voice among such computer giants as Apple, IBM and Microsoft. Guy calls it as he sees it. And he usually sees it the way it is.
Kawasaki worked for Apple in the earlier ’80s and when Macintosh debuted during the 1984 Super Bowl, he was in charge of talking software makers into writing code for the silly-looking but intriguing little bucket of silicon.
Kawasaki first came to the public’s attention in the late ’80s when he wrote The Macintosh Way, an eye-opening book that gave an inside look at the computer industry and showed how Apple and other industry leaders did things the right (Macintosh) way and their way. Since then, he’s written three other books: Selling the Dream, Database 101 and, just published, The Computer Curmudgeon.
Since leaving Apple, Kawasaki’s Silicon Valley adventures have taken a few turns. He’s run a software company (ACIUS), been a featured MacUser columnist and turned his attention to product endorsement (“I endorse, therefore I am”).
But his favorite pastime is taking shots at his former Cupertino employer, a company that had the vision to create a computer that was more than just plastic and wires, but a company that couldn’t keep the faith.
Apple, Microsoft and Windows are Kawasaki’s target and The Computer Curmudgeon is his soapbox.
Curmudgeon is a collection of wacky computer definitions, with liberal doses of his best MacUser columns. Together, they take a caustic view of everything. He even starts with the title: “I wanted to call this book The Macintosh Curmudgeon but the marketing weenies thought this might sell more books. I hope that we won’t dupe too many IBM PC owners with this title. On the other hand, they probably bought Windows and thought it was a Macintosh, so they’re used to getting duped.”
Inside, he spends much of his time aiming his arrows at Apple. A sampling:
“Nanosecond: Apple’s attention span.”
“Apple management: The unqualified, doing the unnecessary, for the unappreciative. See also Oxymoron.”
We quickly get the idea that while Kawasaki loves his Macintosh, he has little use for the company that builds it. And he has even less affection for Microsoft (“Over the course of owning any Microsoft product, you will spend twice as much on upgrades as you did for the product” and “Look and feel: What Bill Gates would start suing over if anyone ever copied Microsoft’s software.”)
While the definitions are enjoyable, the column reprints are my favorite part of Curmudgeon.
When Kawasaki began to write a monthly column for MacUser, I was overjoyed, having read The Macintosh Way three or four times; now I had two reasons to pick up MacUser: Kawasaki and fellow curmudgeon John Dvorak (serious MacUser readers always read the last page first). As a matter of fact, when it comes to complaining, Dvorak makes Kawasaki look downright wimpy. But if there was any question as to which magazine to subscribe to, Kawasaki’s monthly presence made MacUser the easy choice over Macworld.
In addition to some of his best MacUser columns (including my favorite on e-mail manners), he also throws in a chapter from The Macintosh Way on dating and marriage and columns from other magazines, including NeXTWORLD and MacHome Journal.
The Computer Curmudgeon isn’t Kawasaki’s best book, but only because The Macintosh Way is the best computer book ever written. Therefore, buy copies of both for yourself, then buy copies as gifts for your favorite computer nerds (especially your MS-DOS friends; it’ll drive ’em nuts!).
Reprinted from The Finder, monthly newsletter of the Mid-Columbia Macintosh Users Group. Nonprofit computer user groups have permission to reprint this article as long as the author and the Mid-Columbia Macintosh Users Group in Tri-Cities, Wash., are fully credited and a copy of the newsletter in which the article appears is sent to:
