Bill Atkinson

1951 - 2025

Today is the first anniversary of Bill Atkinson’s passing. Right after he died, I wrote down some personal memories of Bill based on my time working with him at General Magic. I decided not to share it widely back then. Now that some time has passed, I’m posting it here.

As an Apple employee and fan, I knew that Bill Atkinson (along with Andy Hertzfeld) invented much of what made the original Macintosh what it was. But I never met Bill until 1990, when I interviewed at his new company, General Magic. I had to prepare myself to be calm because I was going to be interviewed by these legends, Bill and Andy. Bill brought a model “Teletouch” device to the interview and showed me his vision for the product - really not so different from an iPhone, but 15+ years sooner. Bill was so enthusiastic that I was confused at first and actually asked him if it was a working device (it wasn’t). Bill talked about how personal messaging was the heart of the device. He said you’d be walking down the street with the device in your pocket. You’d hear a sound and think “Ah, I got a telecard!” as a message “dropped out of the sky.” It was a thrilling vision!

I imagined that working at General Magic would be like getting to hang around The Beatles as they formed their next band, with more amazing folks joining them. It was Bill and Andy creating the next great platform. When I started working there, Bill immediately grabbed me to show me his new ideas and ask my opinions. I wasn’t special, just a new unspoiled person to see and try his work. After a couple of days of this I remember him introducing me to other folks as “a talented designer.” I think Bill knew I wasn’t really a designer. He was just being gracious.

Bill would frequently vanish from the office for a couple of days. The word went out that Bill was at home coding. He told us that at home, he would write code for hours, then start a software build. He put his head down on the desk and slept while the project built on his Mac. When it was done, the Mac made a sound (IIRC it was a recording of his daughter saying “Good morning, Daddy!”), and that woke him up so he could continue working. He worked like this for a couple of days at a time, sleeping and eating little. Then he would come to the office. Everybody gathered and he would show us what he’d done in the few days he was out. Feature after feature after feature. Amazing vision and invention.

General Magic and the Magic Cap platform didn’t succeed commercially. But Magic Cap was an incredible technical tour de force, with Bill and Andy surpassing their work on the original Macintosh, in my opinion. And their brilliant work inspired so much of what we now use every day in our mobile devices and computers.

Bill talked about phases of development: inhale, when you take in all the new and sometimes crazy ideas and try them out, and exhale, when you keep what’s great and get rid of what’s not right or doesn’t fit.

Bill said code should be simple; then bugs have nowhere to hide.

Bill loved simplicity in design. He had the rare skill of making himself a novice so he could find usability problems. He could shut off his genius and use products as if he were a typical user. He would find bugs and problems this way that everyone else had missed.

Bill wasn’t “just” a great coder. He was a designer, tester, artist, scientist, photographer, philosopher, and more.

His family wrote “He was fascinated by consciousness, and as he has passed on to a different level of consciousness, we wish him a journey as meaningful as the one it has been to have him in our lives.” Bill himself wrote “I know for certain that my consciousness and memories will continue after I leave my physical body. I have no existential fear of death. Actually more anticipation and curiosity.” That’s Bill.