A lot has been said about Apple’s 50th anniversary. Stories shared. Favorites ranked. Contributions celebrated. But it turns out that I also have feelings to share. 

As I reflect on why we even care that a computer company has been around for five decades, I keep coming back to the fabled challenge that Steve Jobs gave to John Sculley as he tried to woo him into becoming Apple’s CEO:

Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?

Somehow — I sure couldn’t have — Sculley turned him down, at least at first. But eventually he, and thousands of other people — developers, engineers, marketers, retail staff, artists — answered that call to put a dent in the universe.

Through their contributions as employees, app developers, evangelists, and executives, they’ve made some wonderful things. Products that have changed the world. That help us connect and build, that democratize access to information and to privacy, that entertain and watch out for us.

Apple’s not a perfect company. I’ve been less enthused by some of its actions and inactions in its latest years. I hope they do better. But as a whole, I still find myself inspired by the products they make.

No, actually, that’s not quite right. I’m not inspired by the products. I’m inspired by the attention to detail, the exquisite taste, the enormous effort, and the giving a damn by the people who make them.

Sure, they just make computers. Hardware, software, and services melded together into computers of different shapes and sizes. But what attracts me to Apple’s computers is that they — unlike the computers from nearly every other company in the market — carry with them the spirit, or DNA as Jobs would say, of the people that built them.

From the iPod nano, to the iMac and macOS, to the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch and AirPods, and, yes, the Vision Pro. There’s something about each of these products that ignited curiosity in me. What could I do with them? I sit here, typing these words on a MacBook in my car while traveling across a lake on a ferry, connected to the internet through Wi-Fi (which Apple helped birth) tethered to my iPad. I’ll publish it to the World Wide Web (invented on Jobs’ NeXTSTEP, which would serve as the foundation for Mac OS X) on a website themed and named to pay tribute to Apple.

I spent my youth expanding my taste with an iPod and iTunes. I took notes and studied in college with an iPad. I launched my business and keep it running with a Mac. I track my runs and pay for almost everything using my Apple Watch. My favorite TV shows are the ones that Apple produces. If Apple made shitty things, I would look elsewhere. But, so far, they keep making wonderful things.

It’s been fun to look back at how far Apple has come — from two guys selling 50 computers to their local Byte Shop, to one of the largest and most successful companies with billions of devices in use by people across the globe. But now I’m most excited to see what they’ll do in the next 50 years. 

I’ll update this post with quotes from other articles and retrospectives that make me smile as I come across them. Hope you enjoy them too.

Apple doesn’t settle for fine, functional, or good enough in its hardware (and thanks for your incredible work on that). We love making and using products that aren’t just great, but greater than they need to be, always raising the bar of greatness for its own sake. Software, services, revenue sources, and world impact need to be held to that same standard.

HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts, shortcuts, wallpapers, scripts, or anything — please consider leaving a tip, checking out my store, or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated!

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