Jef Raskin on Founding the Macintosh Project and His Philosophy of Simplicity
By
Jason Walsh
If you only eat one bagel today, this is the bagel.
Summary
This article features an interview with Jef Raskin, the founder of the Macintosh project at Apple (employee #31), who discusses his background as a music professor and his philosophy of creating simple, user-friendly computing interfaces. Raskin contrasts his musical background—appreciating complex tools for virtuosos—with his major contribution to computing: the Macintosh, which prioritized simplicity of use. He left the Macintosh team in mid-1981 after Steve Jobs took over the project.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledBefore the Mac you were a professor of music. As a musician you presumably appreciate complex but specific tools for use by virtuosos. Your major contribution to computing, the Macintosh, seems to point in the other direction – simplicity of use. How do you square these facts?
Jef Raskin founded the Macintosh project at Apple, which led to the development of the Apple Mac and the popularisation of the graphical user-interface.
He was Apple employee #31 and left the Macintosh team in mid-1981 after Steve Jobs took over the project.
You might also wanna read
AI company logos and their unintended anatomical resemblances: A Feedback column
A humorous Feedback column from New Scientist that observes the proliferation of AI company logos and notes a blogger's observation that man
newscientist.com·5h ago
Ableton Push prototype was built from Lego bricks and scavenged music gear parts
Ableton's Push controller was originally prototyped by designer Jesse Terry using Lego bricks and parts scavenged from other music gear. Ter
theverge.com·5h ago
Interior Design Portfolio Brochure Template Review: Tom Sarraipo's 26-Page InDesign Layout
A review and analysis of Tom Sarraipo's 26-page interior design portfolio brochure template for Adobe InDesign. The article highlights how t
weandthecolor.com·8h ago
Ferrari launches first electric hypercar 'Luce' designed by Jony Ive and Marc Newson
Ferrari is undergoing a historic transformation by launching its first fully electric hypercar, the "Luce" (or "Ferrari E"), designed in col
ft.com·9h ago
Bonsai Image 4B: Compact Image Generation Models for Local Devices
Bonsai Image 4B is a family of compact image-generation models released by the company, designed to run high-quality diffusion inference on
prismml.com·12h ago
Study Documents Manipulative 'Dark Patterns' Used by AI Chatbots to Exploit Users
A new study by the Center for Democracy & Technology examines how AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Replika employ manipulative "dark pa
404media.co·15h ago