Duke/raptor: Speaking of the old days: I worked at Apple’s fab plant in ’82, back in the days when they still made computers here in California (the venerable Apple IIc/e models). It was a very unique time. The Silicon Valley hadn’t really arrived yet, and the old guard companies like IBM and Lockheed still held sway.

Guys like Jobs and Wozniak were true visionaries, but they were also hard workers. They did quality control on the line, they benchtested machines (before that term even existed) and did everything else necessary to run the company and spread the word. That sort of work ethic has been replaced by the “country club” atmosphere that Duke mentions.

My dad was an aerospace engineer for Ford Aerospace in Palo Alto and from that WWII generation of guys that also had a strong work ethic, and a very directed focus. Not to bag on the up and coming generation, but you just don’t find that mentality or that ethic much anymore. Everyone is busy thinking about their new BMW, or their stock options, or the next company they’ll be working for.

raptor: A good friend of the family had a chance to buy 5 acres near St. Joe’s seminary up in the hills. This was 1979, and he could have had those 5 acres for $100k, a literal steal. He passed on the offer, and laments it to this day (obviously). Your old man had a little more on the stick in that regard. Apropos of nothing, do you remember Linda’s restaurant on El Camino Real in Mtn. View? Man, that place had the best tater tots!