The reason there’s a Macintosh today is not because of some brilliant flash of engineering genius, as many revisionists like to believe. It’s because Apple had the audacity to make a few big mistakes first, and learn from them. The main reason I wasn’t escorted out of those first computer conferences, even though they typically displayed signs that expressly forbade anyone under 18 from entering, was because I looked the part of someone older who knew what he was doing.