You see -- I run the Reality Distortion Field.

Yes, that one.

The RDF has a long history at Apple. It was invented by Steve Wozniak one rainy sunday in 1982 when he was trying to extract a stuck piece of toast from a toaster, and forgot to unplug the thing. At first, he didn't realize what he had; when he woke up, he took it to a repair shop. There, the repairman offered to fix it for half price -- and Wozniak realized something strange was going on.

Soon, he and Steve had figured out what was going on -- the RDF affects brainwaves of those within it's effect field. It's a really interesting effect: it doesn't influence how a person thinks, and it can't make a person change their mind or believe something they know to be false: it merely reduces a person's prejudices and preconceptions, and makes them more amenable to new ideas. To, well, thinking different. But ultimately, and this it a crucial point -- whether you accept an idea is up to you. It just enhances your willingness to listen. If you aren't; nothing happens.

The original RDF was obviously an analog system. It had all of the problems analog systems tend to have: it was sensitive to environmental conditions, it was hard to set up so it would work reliably, it's field of effect was limited (and impacted by the square of the distance, meaning you needed to be very close to the source for it to be very effective), and operating the beast took a skilled hand. Most people couldn't get the field to operate at all, much less operate over a wide area.

Steve, of course, was a natural.

As Apple grew, however, the RDF struggled to keep up.

It took more and more people to operate the machine.

It used more and more energy.