I started my first publishing business in 1990.

At that time, you simply couldn’t do graphic design with a PC. After doing my research, I took the plunge into the world of Apple by spending $4500 for a used Mac IIcx with 8MB of Ram and a 40MB hard drive, and a brand new Laserwriter IInx for $5500. It seemed like a better investment than renting a computer to do marketing materials and then paying $7500 for the printer to design and print out the proofs for the coupon book we intended to sell.

With our Christmas sales season destroyed by Gulf War I and a recession (and a couple of those unasked and unanswered questions about things you don’t know that you don’t know), the business went under, but the computer and printer remained.

In the spring of 1991, my wife was teaching a “Five is Fun” class for little kids (including one of our sons) and she asked me to do a flyer for her. Her boss, the park director, liked it and asked me to do flyers for all the classes at the park.

Through completely dumb luck I started a career as a graphic designer at the beginning of the desktop publishing revolution.

I’m not just a Fanboi, I’m an apostle of Apple.

Without Apple, I would not have found the career that provided for my family, put the kids through school and bought my first house.

But I still don’t subscribe to Apple Music and have no intention to pay for Apple News+.

The difference between traditional publishing and Medium is like the difference between going to a supermarket produce department and your garden. In the former, you will see a consistently uniform quality that doesn’t match the flavor of something home grown, while in the latter, you have to sort through the bad apples and rotten tomatoes to find the freshest, most delicious fruit.

Here’s to Medium and all the bad apples and rotten tomatoes who cultivate friendships on this platform.

Signed,

A bad apple