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Bicycle for the mind
A walking human sits low on that list compared with other animals. A human on a bicycle jumps up and becomes more efficient than any of them. What he was creating, Jobs explained, was a bicycle for the mind.
A computer works the same way for a person, taking someone from slow-footed human to the most efficient animal on the planet. The pitch left out bits, bytes, and RAM. It described what happens after someone uses the product, and that picture made people want a computer because it would make them more efficient.
Where did the condor chart come from?
The chart came from a 1973 Scientific American article titled Bicycle Technology, by S. S. Wilson. It compared the energy that animals and machines use to travel a given distance per unit of body weight. The condor ranked first among animals, while a walking human sat about a third of the way down the list, and a human on a bicycle beat them all. Jobs told this story in the 1990 documentary Memory and Imagination.
Why is a bicycle so efficient?
A walker lifts and drops the body's weight with every step and spends energy slowing and restarting the legs. A bicycle's wheels roll with very little resistance, and its gears let the legs turn at a steady, efficient pace. At ordinary riding speeds, air resistance becomes the main force a cyclist works against.
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