The original ThinkPad

Was chatting with a client about good swag to give away at a trade show. Lord knows there are enough tote bags in the world. (Yet our collection continues to grow.) Got me to remember a little notepad Mom picked up (she used to work at an antique store). Its leatherette cover had the word THINK embossed with a nice chonky serif and it was a perfect size for most any pocket. Originally given to associates and customers at IBM, this notepad would be one of the first manifestations of branded corporate culture. The Smithsonian has a solid deep dive into the matter: How a Five-Letter Word Built a 104-Year-Old Company. IBM founder Thomas Watson would be quoted, “The trouble with every one of us is that we don’t think enough!” Which is a little ironic as his name would later become the moniker for software that would beat Ken Jennings on Jeopardy — way before the robots really got loquacious and even more thinky! Anyway, this notepad would inspire the name for IBM’s popular laptop. And…