[Hnrobert42]

Sometimes I think a lot of myself. Sometimes I don't. During the times I do, I console myself about my lack of success by thinking that I have never been in the right place at the right time.

But had I been in that place at that time, I would not have invented the digital camera. That guy Sasson was clearly capable far beyond the rest of us.

[doug_durham]

He is an exceptional engineer. In 1986 I developed an instant messaging system that worked across the internet on X Windows. It was very popular at HP where I worked. It ran on X Windows and had many of the features of modern messaging systems like WhatsApp. I didn’t think twice about it. A few years later I saw how these apps took the world by storm once the internet became popular. I think I had caught lightning in a bottle but didn’t appreciate it. It’s kind of the opposite of Sasson. However in both cases we were lousy evangelists. Also I’m not an exceptional engineer.

[JKCalhoun]

That's a poignant observation. There are "times and places" for things. And whether you or I would have been "the right person" at that time is hard to know.

I consider Wozniak (obvious example) who was at the "right time and place" in the early 1970's. He at the engineering capital of the U.S. (Silicon Valley — already known by that name at the time) knowing adults in engineering fields that could get him otherwise expensive and new for the time microprocessor chips… just as the chips were becoming more affordable—just as Don Lancaster's "TV Typewriter" and the "Altair 8800" began to grace the cover of Popular Electronics…

Woz seemed to flounder, or be overwhelmed somewhat, a decade later when hacks with a 555 Timer chip, a few NAND gates or NTSC timing hijinks to get color was not where the industry was going. He took a back-seat on the engineering side.

At the same time, not to diminish Woz's skills in 1975, there were a lot of other smart kids in the "Valley" then that did have their home-brew computers become a product.

(And then so much more to unpack when you allow for Job's contributions, U.S. schools purchasing Apple computers, etc.)

[kragen]

The Apple's technical quality was head and shoulders above the other PCs of the epoch. It did much more with less hardware than its contemporaries like Altair, IMSAI, Osborne, Kaypro, TRS-80, Heathkit, the PET, the Atari 400, the TI-99/4, Datapoint's products, and the VT100, which contained all the hardware needed for a PC without being programmable. That's a big part of why those other smart kids' companies mostly failed: their products were uncompetitive with things like the Apple and the Commodore 64.

Woz had a serious brain injury in a plane crash in February 01981 (https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/220512), and I think that's when he lost his technical edge. Also, though, he was more interested in flying planes and organizing rock concerts at that point. You could imagine an alternate history where Apple took CPU design in-house in 01981 instead of 02011 or whenever.

Burrell Smith was using PALs in the first Macintosh prototypes in 01979, and the eventual Macintosh was built around the so-called Integrated Burrell Machine (replaced with more expensive but less risky PALs for the final design), which was critical to getting a competitive product out the door. The Apple III that year did have a custom "Integrated Woz Machine", not designed by Woz, and while its hardware design was disastrous, that was in spite of the IWM, not because of it. There was still plenty of opportunity for Woz's specialty of ultra-efficient digital logic design to provide a competitive edge.

[Hnrobert42]

I am curious why you write years with a leading zero. Future proofing?

[kragen]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46257598

[dotancohen]

It's also interesting to note _why_ Sasson thought that an electronic camera with no moving parts was possible: Star Trek. That was his literal inspiration for the camera that was intended to annoy mechanical engineers by having no mechanical parts.

[Hnrobert42]

That's great! I often measure technological progress by how close we are to TNG. Like, there is a new lithotripsy wand that breaks up kidney stones with ultrasound. That feels like something you would see Beverly Crusher use in sick bay.

Side note, the wand was developed to solve for: trip to Mars -> bone density loss -> minerals in blood -> debilitating kidney stone 1 year from a hospital.