Way back when employed at Shorey’s Bookstore, I would very often stumble across various assorted items of obscure historical interest. There among the stacks of this vast repository for informative ephemera, I once found several back issues of an old in house periodical, enigmatically just titled: “THINK”

Originally, the “THINK” motto was coined by Thomas J. Watson in 1911, during his tenure as manager of the National Cash Register Company. Then in 1914, he brought this motto with him to the Computing Tabulating Recording Company, where under Watson their industrial capabilities were greatly expanded. So then in 1924, the company was appropriately renamed International Business Machines, or IBM. Apparently, during these years the International Time Recording Company was publishing an small internal magazine named ‘Time’ for their own employees and customers. So in 1935, when IBM acquired this periodical, Watson promptly rebranded the magazine under the new name ‘THINK’ Perhaps mostly out of an adherence to tradition, IBM continues to use this century old motto as their trademark, including the naming its own personal laptop line of computers ‘ThinkPads’

In recent years, along comes Steve Jobs, Apple Inc, and their “Think Different” slogan. Generally considered a direct affront to IBM’s own THINK campaign, the die was clearly cast in this Apple Super Bowl ad from 1984. The true “Think Different” campaign actually began in 1997, with countless print advertisements appearing, as well as TV tie-in promos for various Apple products.

So for myself… Alt-Think reflects a natural curiosity for those less traveled paths of knowledge, peering into dark mental alleyways most reasonable folks wisely avoid. I actually enjoy delving into subjects rational minds treat with derision, or ideas ostracized from polite society. From my perspective, it’s only when pulling at those tattered fringes of ordinary thinking, do we discover thinking which becomes truly interesting!

Think Magazine 1935

“Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of ‘crackpot’ than the stigma of conformity.”

Thomas J. Watson ~ IBM

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