Excerpt from:
MacDevCenter.com…: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac was Made — An Interview with Andy Hertzfeld
When I first flipped through the pages of Andy Hertzfeld’s Revolution in The Valley, I realized that I was not merely stepping back into the history of the Macintosh, but into the genesis of personal computing itself. Regardless of what you think about Apple Computer — its personalities, hardware, or approach to design — there’s no denying that Apple engineering and marketing had a profound impact on the evolution of the PC.
Andy jumped in with both feet in 1978 when he spent his life savings on an Apple II. The price tag was $1,295 plus tax. By August 1979 he was an Apple employee. In 1981 he joined the engineering team that designed the Macintosh, which was introduced in January 1984 with arguably the most remembered Super Bowl ad of all time.
During his years in Cupertino, Andy worked closely with, and befriended many Apple employees who are now legends in personal computing history. But it’s not easy to write a book about those who had confided so freely with you as a coworker, not a historian. As a result, only recently has Andy felt comfortable telling the stories that shaped many of our lives.