General Magic

Over the 4th of July I watched a great documentary that covered the secretive Silicon Valley startup called ‘General Magic’ which spun out of Apple in 1990 to reinvent computing and shipped the first handheld personal communicator in 1994. (https://www.generalmagicthemovie.com/)

It was incredible to see the talent that Marc Porat, the CEO of General Magic assembled. The team consisted of legendary Macintosh team veterans like Andy Hertzfeld and Joanna Hoffman as well as then junior engineers who went on to have meteoric careers, like Tony Fadell (iPod/iPhone), Andy Rubin (Android) and Megan Smith (CTO of U.S.A) as well as several others. 

I was really intrigued by Marc Porat’s ability to communicate a clear compelling vision of the future that didn’t yet exist. In the documentary he shares what he wrote in 1989, “This is a very personal object. It must be beautiful. It must offer the kind of personal satisfaction that a fine piece of jewelry brings. It will have a perceived value even when it’s not being used. It should offer the comfort of a touchstone, the tactile satisfaction of a seashell, the enchantment of a crystal.”

Throughout the documentary Porat and others reference a big red book where the plans for the “Pocket Crystal” the codename for the project are revealed. After seeing several sketches of the proposed device and key notes I really wanted a copy of the “Pocket Crystal Red Book” but a few google searches turned up no luck. If someone can find me one please LMK. 

Also cool to see Hadi Partovi, Axon Board Member cameo'd in the film when POTUS does Code.org session.

Snapshot: The ideas that dominate the tech industry and our day to day lives were born at General Magic, a secretive Silicon Valley start-up that shipped the first handheld personal communicator (or "smartphone") in 1994. While the device and company ultimately failed, the team behind General Magic has gone on to change the lives of billions. Featuring legendary members of the original Macintosh team, along with the creators of the iPod, iPhone, Android, and eBay, the film combines rare archival footage with contemporary stories of the "Magicians" today. This is the story of what happens when those who have a dream to change the world fail, fail again, fail better, and ultimately succeed.

General Notes & Quotes (Italics indicate direct quote from film):

• Marc Porat’s Vision: We have a dream of improving the lives of many millions of people by means of small, intimate life support systems that people carry with them everywhere. These systems will help people to organize their lives, to communicate with other people, and to access information of all kinds. They will be simple to use, and come in a wide range of models to fit every budget, need, and taste. They will change the way people live and communicate.
• There was no questioning of ‘could I be wrong?’ None. Because that’s what you need to break out of earth’s gravity. You need an enormous amount of momentum and that momentum comes from suppressing introspection about the possibility of failure.
• I have yet to work somewhere that came close to that cohesiveness, and yet to find a place that had such grand and, to my mind, honorable ambitions (no matter how naive we were about the dark side of technology). It was a special place and a — forgive me — magical time.
• The reason you should care about the story of General Magic is that it involves something fundamental and that is: Failure isn’t the end, failure is actually the beginning… Did it fail? I mean, the company itself failed. The ideas didn’t fail. The people who worked there didn’t fail. So was it a failure?”