The First Remote Worker

In response to my post A Broken Way of Working, Perry Metzger left a comment pointing me at a podcast about the first remote developer. That would be Paul Lutus, who, among other things, wrote Apple Writer for the Apple II. That doesn’t sound too exciting until you hear the whole story.

For various reasons, which are described in the podcast, Lutus was living in a cabin in the Oregon woods. Before he got the Apple II in 1976, he didn’t even have electricity—he had to run what amounted to a 1,200 foot extension cord to a construction box that he talked the utility company into installing.

Every once in a while he would travel to Apple. Later, after he made some money from Apple Writer, he had an airplane and would fly to California for the meetings but he still rode his bicycle to and from the airport at both ends. Still, he did all his work in his cabin.

Among the vignettes that Lutus recounts, his backup system was to bury floppy disks of his work in an ammo can at his cabin. He started doing that after a lightning strike reset his computer while he was working. There’s a bunch of other amusing stories as well.

You can either listen to the podcast or read the transcript. The podcast is 41 minutes, 41 seconds so plan accordingly if you plan to listen.

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