This is one for the memory scrap books…
Earlier, I had mentioned I worked at Bell Labs.
So. Picture it. Bell Labs. Big brains. Bigger terminals.
And someone, somewhere, decided that our merry band of command-line conquerors needed a user guide for the shell language we whipped up called Xksh.
(Spoiler: It did cool stuff. It was also mildly evil in the best way.)
Now guess who got picked to write that puppy?
Moi.
Why? Probably because I was the default script-wrangler for every office skit, holiday play, and those “Hey let’s add glitter to a whiteboard marker” fiascos in the building. Go away, General Hospital – we have the makings of a NEW soap opera upscaled for the times!
And just like that – bam – I had unknowingly created my very first digital product. Cue the choirs of geeky angels.
Now hold onto your floppy disks, ‘cause this was back in the days of Interleaf and FrameMaker. Ah yes. The OG document brawlers. I still remember the glossary shade each company threw at the other:
- Interleaf? Nicknamed InnerGrief.
- FrameMaker? Rebranded as FrameBreaker.
(‘matter of fact, in the FrameMaker glossary, the word Interleaf WAS there… but the definition was “See FrameMaker.”)
Ahhh, nerd feuds. So elegant. So petty. So poetic.
Anywhos, I churned out the whole thing – 120 pages of glorious command-line chaos – in about 3 days, fueled by caffeine and a probable lack of adult supervision.
And because I’m me, I got clever and used one of the Xksh commands to generate the chapter listings… then slapped that onto the cover art like the geeky mic drop it was.
And boom. That’s how I fell headfirst into the wondrous world of product creation.
Wild, right?
You don’t see it at the time, but as ol’ Steve Jobs once said:
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward…”
But looking back? Oh heck yes.
And let me tell you – these dots?
They’re absolutely magnificent.
I highly recommend you take a walk down memory lane… it really can be fun!
Enjoy.
