Without studies, he came to work with NASA and became a millionaire with software for Apple, of a forest cabin

Paul Lutus generally does not go out too much, because he lives isolated, but if he did it, no one would recognize him. However, it is One of the most important developers in Apple's history For having created a program without which computers would be very different today. Although the best thing about this story is how such a feat came to achieve.

This man does not even have university studies. So as not to have, I didn't even have a house when he loved computer science. It was a synthesis in the city of San Francisco, but his affection for electronics led him to become famous among citizens as “the street electrician”. Until his ingenuity takes him even further, working for NASA and, later, to close a millionaire company with Apple.

They threw him out of the house and lived in the streets of San Francisco

Almost 80 years ago in the Massachusetts well known Cambridge, Paul Lutus was born. From his childhood, what he said in various interviews or videos is known, but we know that it was not simple and that there was a moment that would forever change his life: When he left studies. He did it in seventh year, motivated by obtaining knowledge by himself, because he did not believe that he was going to teach anything relevant.

SO, He began to develop technical skills in itself. He bought a microscope which, although he recognized that he was very bad, served to find other interests that never promoted to school. He even created a radio transmitter using old televisions.

However, Lutus' life gave a radical change in the early 1960s, Her parents threw him out of the house. He never revealed the exact reasons, but since he was barely 17 years old, he seems at least a difficult story.

Given the situation and, as he explained, “was always in fashion”, has become a vagabond in the city of San Francisco. Far from living it as a trauma, he was part of the counter-culture that lived during this decade of the Californian city, flooded with the hippie movement.

To repair the radios to hire by NASA

Living in the street, Lutus has become famous among pedestrians thanks to his knowledge of electronics. It was common for him to come to repair the radio and television transistors in exchange for a few pieces which, in any case, served to earn “enough money” together.

Lutus himself said as “without having been officially hired by anyone”, had started to develop the profession of street electrician. And all this without neglecting his vein yourself, because he tried to continue to learn electronics.

For more than a decade, Lutus tried to survive in the city of San Francisco with these small works. Until the NASA arrived in 1973 … He had directed his voice on the good ingenuity of this street electrician and who was to arrive in a way to the aerospace agency, because he obtained a job there without even having the title of secondary education.

Lutus remembered how NASA's interviewer was disagreement when he saw that university studies were not included in his study program. At that time, anyone would expect not to continue in the process, but Lutus showed him a schematic diagram that he had designed and ended up being hired to Design the fluorescent lights of the space ferry NASA.

Apple II arrived and its first great success is developing

Once this work at NASA is finished, Lutus was tired of San Francisco. I no longer lived in the street, but it was Tired of living in a city with so many people and rental incomeHe therefore decided who, once again, would mark his life: isolate himself in a forest.

It was in 1977 and Apple already took off with its second computer, Apple II. Lutus learned that and, knowing the advantages of this revolutionary team, decided to buy it. Although he had a problem and not small precisely: In the forest house, I had no electricity. He cooked with fire and illuminated the place with lamps of Querosene. The use of Apple II was impossible without electricity.

However, Lutus was convinced of wanting to Apple II. His passion for computer science was in full peak and, far from getting rid of the idea, invested all his savings on the computer and asked the electric company to throw a cable of more than 350 meters to bring electricity to the cabin where he lived.

Already with Apple II at home, and faithful to its enthusiasm for oneself, Lutus began to develop programs for Apple II. The first was “Apple World”, software that made it possible to design three -dimensional houses. And here is his first big offer.

One day, Paul Lutus received a letter with the origin of New York in which he was offered $ 33,000 to take the rights of the program. Given its economic insufficiency after having invested all its savings in Apple II, Lutus accepted without negotiating a single figure. In the end, it would be a bad business, but it allowed him to support time. Enough to give your second final ball.

Apple's first text processor is yours

A year after this first company and having Apple II with him, Paul Lutus came to a magazine to write an article on the relativity of Albert Einstein. It was a problem that dominated, but obviously needed to have certain information at hand and to have ordered it as clear as possible.

It was then that he thought To what extent it would be useful to be able to order your notes in Apple IIHe therefore began to develop software capable of carrying out this task. It was like that “ Apple Writer '' was bornA minimalist text processor, but which perfectly filled the function that Lutus was waiting for.

Little by little, this software improved and included more features, but never with the idea of ​​selling it to third parties and not much less in Apple. However, He ended up capturing the interest of the Californian company. It was the moment when, contrary to what happened with Apple World, Lutus wanted to negotiate more coherent long -term conditions.

Sent a flexible By mail to the company so that they can see it and think that at best, maybe they would give it $ 100. He was wrong … and for good. Apple offered him $ 7,500 and negotiated an assignment of partial rights This would allow Lutus to keep 25% of the fees.

Thank you to his ingenuity and having known better, Paul Lutus He ended up winning $ 15 million Over the years, being the architect of software that has ended up being artificial with the birth of advanced text processors such as Microsoft Word or, already in the 2000s, Apple Pages.

A genius far from the business world

If there is a word that defines Paul Lutus well, it is loyalty. Fidelity to their own values ​​and principles. Despite all his successes, his awards and his money, thanks to the knowledge acquired in a self-supported manner, he remains with his feet on the ground. So much He is never part of a large company Like Apple.

We do not know if they were tempted at some point, but given his good Tino with the world of apples, then with the “apple writer”, it would not have been surprising that he ended up being part of the 70s apple. However, preferred to follow a simple life far from the big cities.

Actually, Continue to live in a cabin in the forestDevelop applications and talk about development in general via your YouTube channel. His life is proof that it is not necessary to be in the system to change it from the outside.

Via | Genbeta

Sources | Paul Lutus (YouTube) | Corecursive | UNOCERO | The Confidential | Hackaday | University of Waterloo | Atarichive

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