Valuable. Doable. Mine.
"If the GUI (Graphical User Interface) is destined to die, let us first return to its birthplace to witness the cruelest lesson it taught us about 'choice'."
The Ghost of Palo Alto
In 2023, foundational LLM models burst onto the scene, and the curtain on a new industrial revolution was brutally pulled open. Overnight, everyone stated with absolute certainty: the future of interaction belongs to LUI (Language User Interface), and the traditional GUI is obsolete.
In this moment of anxiety, I want to take you back to Palo Alto, California, in 1979. It was not only the birthplace of the GUI but also the stage for a commercial tragedy regarding "What is valuable, What is worth doing, and What is worth me doing." A lesson that remains a prerequisite for every entrepreneur today.
That place was Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center).
At the time, PARC housed the world's most brilliant computer scientists. In a black-and-white world filled with command lines, they created a miracle: the Alto. It was the world's first personal computer with a graphical interface. It had a mouse, windows, icons, and even Ethernet.
This is the First Filter: What is Valuable? Undoubtedly, the GUI was valuable. It drastically lowered the threshold for human-computer interaction, transforming the computer from a scientist's toy into a tool for the common person. It was an invention that changed the course of human civilization. The geniuses at PARC achieved this.
Next is the Second Filter: What is Worth Doing? (Is it Doable/Viable?) From a commercial logic standpoint, this was absolutely worth doing. It was the embryo of a trillion-dollar market. If someone could bring this technology to the masses at the time, the returns would be astronomical.
But the story fractures here.
When the well-dressed executives from Xerox headquarters flew in from the East Coast to inspect this epoch-making machine, they looked at it and asked a question that broke the engineers' hearts: "How does this help us sell more toner and copiers?"
You see, this is the Third Filter: What is Worth Me Doing? (Is it Mine?) Xerox was a copier company. In their DNA, the business model was "sell expensive machines, then make money endlessly through consumables." The vision of the "paperless office" brought by the GUI and personal computers was, in essence, a revolution against Xerox's own lifeblood. For Xerox, although the GUI had earth-shattering value and was worth doing for humanity, it was not worth Xerox doing. It ran completely contrary to their core strengths, business model, and organizational DNA.
We all know the ending. A young man named Steve Jobs walked into PARC. He didn't carry the baggage of "selling toner." He saw a "bicycle for the mind." For Jobs and Apple, the three points aligned perfectly:
- GUI was Valuable (Disruptive experience);
- GUI was Worth Doing (Vast commercial prospects);
- GUI was Worth Apple Doing (It fit Apple's DNA of pursuing extreme usability and challenging IBM's hegemony).
Thus, Xerox invented the future, but Apple owned it.
Your LUI Moment
Back to today, in 2025. When you look at the new wave of AI, at those dazzling LUI applications and intelligent Agents, do not just see the Value of the technology. Yes, the tech is impressive—it can write poetry, paint, and code.
Do not just see that it is Worth Doing. Yes, AI will indeed reshape countless industries, just as the GUI did.
The question that truly determines your life or death is the one the Xerox executives faced but failed to answer: Is this worth you doing?
In this era full of noise, where everyone is chasing tailwinds, the greatest courage is not daring to do it, but daring to admit, "This is a goldmine, but it is not my goldmine."
May you see the direction of the tide, but more importantly, see your own course. Do not be the Xerox starving while guarding a treasure, and do not blindly become cannon fodder for the next Steve Jobs. Find that intersection where the ability to change the world meets the burning of your soul and talent. That is your legend.
