091 The Macintosh, the Internet & the Unexpected Beginning of Zehr.net

Some of the biggest changes in our lives do not begin with a plan.

They begin with someone saying, "You should try this."

That is essentially how my relationship with the Macintosh began—and, looking back, how the path toward Zehr.net began too.

1984: An Interesting Commercial

Like millions of other people, I saw Apple's famous Macintosh commercial during the 1984 Super Bowl.

I remember thinking it was interesting and wondering what this new computer was all about. I had read George Orwell's 1984, although at the time I did not really put together all of the references in the commercial or its positioning against the established computer world.

Then I basically forgot about it.

A few years later, the Macintosh came back into my life in a much more important way.

"What's the Mac?"

It was around 1987. I was working on a scientific paper and using a computer with WordStar.

A friend who was an engineer walked by and asked what I was doing. We also played squash together occasionally, so this was just a normal conversation between friends.

I told him I was working on a paper.

He said, "You should use the Mac."

I asked, "What's the Mac?"

His answer was simple:

"Come up to the library. I'll show you now."

That was it.

By the next day, I was working on the paper using the Macintosh.

The Mac Changed More Than the Words

What impressed me was not simply that I could write the paper on the Mac.

I could also create the graphs and figures.

During my years in medical research, preparing a scientific paper often meant meeting with an illustrator to have figures professionally created for publication. That was simply part of the process.

The Macintosh changed that relationship.

Suddenly I had tools that allowed me to create and refine much of the material myself.

I could write, organize, graph, illustrate, revise, and experiment.

The computer was no longer simply a machine for entering text or performing calculations. It became a creative tool.

The Mac gave me new ways to use things I already knew.

Becoming the Mac Guru

I learned quickly.

Before long, I became one of the people others came to when they had Macintosh questions. I purchased a Mac laptop about a year after first discovering the platform, and Macs gradually became part of both my professional and personal life.

Over the years that spread to family, friends, coworkers, and eventually clients.

I did not set out to become "the Mac guy."

It just happened because I enjoyed learning what the technology could do—and helping other people use it.

Then Came This Thing Called the Internet

Years later, while I was working in research, the director asked me to join a group investigating something that was beginning to attract a lot of attention.

The Internet.

By then I was already known as the Mac guru, so having me involved with the technology side made sense.

We were going to connect using a 14.4K modem.

For anyone accustomed to today's broadband and wireless connections, 14.4 kilobits per second sounds almost unimaginable. At the time, however, connecting a computer to a worldwide network from an ordinary location felt remarkable.

Thursday Night: Nothing

We tried to connect on Thursday night.

It did not work.

That was hardly unusual in those days. Getting computers, modems, communications software, and networks to cooperate could involve a considerable amount of experimentation.

Something needed to be changed for the Macintosh connection.

Friday Night: We Were Online

By Friday night, a setting had been changed.

This time the Mac connected.

Amy and I spent some time browsing the Internet.

There was no modern web filled with streaming video, social networks, online shopping, cloud applications, and billions of pages. But what I saw was enough.

I went to bed thinking about it.

Saturday Morning: I'm Making a Website

After sleeping on it, I had made a decision.

I was going to build a website.

I did not have a client.

I did not have a web design business.

I did not have years of website development experience.

I had curiosity.

And I had a Mac.

ClarisWorks became my first website editor.

I started experimenting, learning how pages worked, figuring out the code and structure, testing ideas, making mistakes, correcting them, and continuing.

By Sunday night, I had built a website.

Monday Morning: "Look What I Made"

On Monday, I showed the website to the group.

I thought of it as an experiment—a demonstration of what this new technology could do.

The marketing department apparently saw something slightly different.

They became concerned that I was planning to put the site live on the Internet.

I wasn't.

It was a test.

I had simply wanted to see whether I could build one.

But that reaction told me something important.

This new thing mattered.

"You Should Do Websites for Businesses"

A couple of months later, a friend suggested that I should start offering websites to businesses.

My immediate reaction was to begin thinking about everything that would have to happen.

"But then I need to..."

Before I could build the entire list of obstacles, he stopped me.

His advice was simple:

"Just take one step at a time."

That turned out to be very good advice.

One step became another.

I learned more about website development. I worked with businesses. I learned about domains and hosting. Servers became part of the work. Programming became more important. Security became more important. Search engines arrived and changed. Mobile devices changed website design. Accessibility became increasingly important.

Eventually, what started as curiosity about the Internet became Zehr.net.

I Didn't Have a Master Plan

Looking back, it would be easy to turn the story into a carefully planned career progression.

It wasn't.

I did not discover the Macintosh in the 1980s and think, "Someday this will lead me to start an Internet company."

When I built that first website over a weekend, I was not writing a business plan.

I was learning.

I was curious.

I saw something interesting and wanted to understand it.

Then one opportunity led to another.

The Tools Keep Changing

WordStar gave way to Macintosh software.

ClarisWorks helped me build early websites.

HTML evolved. CSS arrived. Programming languages changed. Databases became part of websites. Dial-up connections became broadband. Desktop computers were joined by laptops, smartphones, and tablets. We moved from simple web hosting to managing Linux servers, security systems, databases, email authentication, and increasingly sophisticated online services.

Today, another technology is changing the way I work.

Artificial intelligence.

And something about it feels familiar.

AI Reminds Me of the Early Mac

The Macintosh did not replace what I knew about scientific research.

It gave me better tools for expressing and publishing that knowledge.

The Internet did not replace the need to understand information.

It created an extraordinary new way to distribute and discover it.

Artificial intelligence does not replace decades of experience.

It gives us new ways to apply that experience.

AI can help research unfamiliar subjects, explore ideas, analyze information, troubleshoot code, develop content, compare alternatives, learn new technologies, and approach problems from directions that previously would have required considerably more time.

But just like every tool before it, someone still needs to decide what problem is worth solving.

Experience + New Tools

One of the most exciting things about new technology is what happens when it meets old experience.

A person does not start over every time a new tool appears.

The research skills remain.

The problem-solving skills remain.

The understanding of people remains.

The mistakes and lessons from earlier projects remain.

The new technology simply gives us another way to use all of it.

The most important technologies in my life have not replaced what I know. They have given me new ways to use what I know.

One Step at a Time

I still think about the advice my friend gave me when I started listing all the things I would need to do before I could offer websites to businesses.

"Just take one step at a time."

That advice helped lead to Zehr.net.

It is still good advice today.

You do not have to understand an entire new technology before exploring it.

You do not need to know exactly where an idea will lead before taking the first step.

You can learn something.

Try something.

Build something.

See what happens.

Thursday night, the Internet connection did not work.

Friday night, it did.

By Sunday night, I had built a website.

And a couple of months later, someone said:

"Just take one step at a time."

More than three decades later, I still am.