Dear Tim,

I have been loyal to Apple all my life. My parents raised me on a Mac, and I have been a (MacBook) Pro user for the better part of my life. That used to be something special. It meant I was the creative kid. But now that everyone is creative, how can the Mac be the computer for the rest of us?

I’m in the middle of graphic design grad school at Yale to become more Pro. Freelancing wasn’t working out, so I thought another degree would help. But in the end, we are all Pros, and we all graduate with the same degree and the same computer. I just feel so fungible. Meanwhile, Zoomers are raking it in with NFT’s made in Midjourney. Tim, there is too much access to tools. The manuals are on YouTube and AI is knocking on the door. It’s terrible. Can you promise me that I won’t become obsolete before my laptop?

You know it didn’t used to be like this. We had MUGs, there was the AUGC, and you had evangelists listening to our needs. Maybe you remember. I got excited for a moment when I found out that right here at Yale we had the Yale Macintosh User Group. But like many other groups, this one doesn’t exist anymore. Apple.com/usergroups looks completely forgotten. Are we, the users, no longer your concern?

Maybe you prefer us as individuals rather than organized into groups. Sorry, I’m still a little riled up. We just formed a student workers union here at Yale. Pro’s are a group of users with special interests. And in order to survive, we need to act and be seen as a group. I think it’s like Ed Seidel – Vice President of Yale MUG at that time—wrote in his open letter to the group in 1984: “The mission of our group, then, is to explore the possibilities of the Macintosh. This process can be frustrating or impossible for the single user, but as a group our efforts can be fruitful and enjoyable”.

Faithfully,
Paul

PS: If you have anything planned that will make us special again, could I get a beta invite?