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I, Woz
theodp writes "In a Q&A session, Steve Wozniak discusses his forthcoming autobiography, how HP not only passed on his Apple design but also nixed his pleas to work on an HP computer, and the perks of being an Apple co-founder - free 65W AC adapters!"
It'll be nice to get an autobiography from Woz, but the problem with many autobiographies is that they show you just one side of a person, and in the tech industry that can be dull. I think that gossipy histories like Apple Confidental 2.0 are superior, as they present a whole range of viewpoints and better show a person in context with other historical actors.
Still, I'm curious if Woz will write anything about the challenges he faced at early Apple from rude coworkers. He wasn't exactly treated fairly by Jobs and the company in its fledgling days, and a personal perspective would be interesting.
Both Gates & Jobs are grand bullshit artists, but I don't think Gates has the personality to achieve the same status as Jobs has. I suspect that if he did, the perception of Microsoft wouldn't be nearly as bad as it is now. The other interesting thing is that Jobs started out with questions like "How can I change the world?" while Gates' was "How can I make a lot of money?" Jobs & Gates might have both ended up at the same point, with the bank balances to prove it, but Jobs seems to have had a lot more fun getting there. Gates has been more single minded, but doesn't seem to have the love for his work that Jobs does.
I'd better disclaim myself: I am not an Apple or Microsoft share holder, and I've never owned a Mac or any other Apple product.
Even writing printer drivers can lead to great things. After all, it was a printer problem that spurred Richard Stallman towards development of GNU, which of course became the foundation for the later flourishing of Free Software and the open source development model. (Sam William's biography Free as in Freedom published by O'Reilly gives the whole story of the printer problem.) You don't need to hook up with a charismatic individual with a reality distortion field to change the world. If a controversial eccentric like Stallman can do great things from a hermit-like AI lab, then Woz would have had opportunities even without Jobs.
I see that you have a nice list of your friends web pages on your site which is great, including the link to Kevin Mitnick's site which is nice because he was in jail and everything but now it redirects to Kevin's new business which I don't have any problem with either, except that Mitnick has actualy spent time in jail for doing bad things to people and their systems and now seems to make money advising people how to steer clear of people like himself.
I'm not making any suggestions or anything, just pointing that out.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
2) Bill Gates doesn't hold a visionary candle to Jobs
I don't think that's true really, they just had different visions. Bills vision from a while back has been "a computer on every desk and in every home" and that has certainly happened, and almost all of those computers are running Windows.
Jobs and Gates are different kinds of geniuses, but I agree that they are probably both much more rare than the Wozniak kind of genius. There are a lot of techies so skilled at something it feels like they can control it with their minds, but who - like Woz apparently - think about getting a job in a small room in a corporate concrete bunker rather than changing the world.
I used to do tech support for Apple (outsourced). The official policy (from Apple) was "If Woz calls, give him whatever he wants and don't ask any questions." And one day I got him on the phone, he read me a list of SNs for out-of-warranty PowerBooks he needed repaired (he does something with PBs and disabled kids--or at least did in 1995), and I sent him the appropriate number of Airborne Express boxes for them to be pulled into NY for repair. It was one of the coolest calls I handled, cooler than when Howard Stern called for his friend who couldn't speak English. Both guys, BTW, were really really nice.
I woz truly blown away by this statement.
Most real entrepreneurs want to make a product or perfom a service first, make money second. Money is what makes it all possible.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
the one who was not under the delusion that he could run a corporation
Um, we're being ironic here, right?
Woz and Jobs are definitely yin and yang, but they do have one thing in common: they know what's important to them. And that gives them a kind of power that verges on the spiritual. They don't, like most of us, blunder through the life taking the path of least resistance and rationizing their decisions after the fact. They have "purpose driven lives".
As to who is happiest of the two Steves, I'd have to say that while Jobs probably feels the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat more intensely, I'd much rather be Woz, because he seems to be the kind of person who can find find satisfaction in each day's work. The thing that makes Jobs a bit creepy is that if you ever had his attention, you'd always wonder if it was because he had a use for you in some agenda. Woz is the kind of guy who just wants to do what he's good at, like a Shaker furniture maker. Because his motivations are simpler, you'd naturally feel more comfortable with him.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
"Xerox was ahead of its time."
It was the pure R&D outfit that Xerox funded which was ahead of its time, not Xerox itself.
"Steve was merely a good salesman that recognized something good when he saw it"
Which was more than Xerox did, hence the fact that more than one of the computer visionaries at PARC left to work for Apple.
I'm not going to change your sheets again, Mr. Hastings.
Woz, was and is a brilliant engineer. But there are hundreds like him. But there aren't many like Steve Jobs.
... Also note in this is an industry where salesmanship has a pretty heavy influence.
... Of course Jobs differs from MacArthur in that Jobs is not a genius.
I'm sorry but you have that backwards. Exceptional engineers are far less common than exceptional saleman.
Steve Jobs IS Apple. Look what they did without him. 12 years of absolutely nothing. Steve Jobs launched the Macintosh.
Jobs is the PR face of Apple and the Mac. The brilliant innovation started at Xerox and continued with the very talented engineers at Apple. Jobs is merely a good saleman who recognized a good thing when he saw it at Xerox. Like Woz, the Xerox and Apple engineers who deserve the real credit are overshadows by the PR face.
Then he started NeXT which was a decade ahead of its time.
Actually in business school they study NeXT as an example of how to royally f' up.
Then he brought Apple back from near extinction. Can you think of another corporation that can yield such influence over an industry while having less than 10% market share?
Actually what saved Apple were the big developers say "NO" to Jobs and forcing Jobs to put backwards compatibility into Mac OS X. Jobs return and the surrounding PR machine was like the Microsoft cash investment, it was reassuring, it bought the Apple engineers some more time.
Oh, and somewhere in his spare time, he bought a little animation studio and turned it into a force.
Again salesmanship, again a PR face overshadowing the real talent,
Jobs is like World War II's General MacArthur. "I" rather than "We", camera crew filming his wading ashore and dominating the newsreels,
One thing that really impressed me about Woz was that he answered an email I sent, unsolicited, and sent more than a cursory form mail response. He had jjust appeared on The Screen Savers a couple years ago and I thought, "waht the hell, I'll drop him an email and see what happens..." I just simply thanked him for his work and told of a couple ways that it had positively impacted my life and that I was appreciative. He responded with a very long email and related a couple anecdotes and was very open and witty. Seems like a genuinely good guy.
I agree. I heard him speak at the 5th HOPE a couple of years ago. Great guy.
I have to admit I was disappointed to find out that he drove a %^&*ing Hummer, though.