I'm glad they mentioned NeXT and how much of a failure it was. There's a meme developing where people treat Jobs like he lived a charm life of constant victories but that really isn't the case. When I started High School people were telling Steve Jobs jokes in Usenet. He was the fallen genius who never lived up to his potential (the Mac was all but dead at this point and Apple was licensing the OS in a desperate attempt to save it)
In that way I think the story of Steve Jobs is one of the most inspirational for people. Almost everything people associate with Jobs today are things he did after his 40th birthday. Even the Mac (OSX is really NextSTEP repackaged)
In an industry that obsesses over people in their 20s there's a lesson to be learned there.
What wouldn't I give to have my own failure of the magnitude of NeXT. As a business they merely survived, but to create as much system software value as they did (and during the dark ages of operating system monopoly, no less) and be able to use that value to acquire the dying husk of Apple for a negative 430 million or thereabouts...not bad, really.
I wonder if NeXT was really that much of a failure, considering that ultimately today we use many of it's software technologies. I used to be a NeXT programmer and am always amazed how much of it is still there today in OS X..
“He was not filtered with his input. If he was in a meeting that was boring him, he would be blunt. He’d say, ‘I don’t need to see this, let’s move on.’ And we would. He didn’t suffer a fool.”
Uhm, that's considered being blunt? I would call that being good at leading a meeting. Saying when information (or so detailed information) is not needed is crucial and necessary in order to keep meetings tight amd relevant.
a : abrupt in speech or manner
b : being straight to the point : direct
So yeah, that's exactly what blunt means.
Don't be confused by all the people who think bluntness is automatically rude. It's not. Those people just have really tender feelings and can't handle the truth. They need to have it sugar coated.
Unfortunately the corporate world has become frequent, long, useless meetings. It is rare that anything is accomplished during them, more and more people attend them, and no one questions them (everyone complains in private). The best skill to have in the modern corporate world is getting along with other people, not getting things done.
Depends on what the meeting is about, and what was boring him. If it was something crucial that needed to be discussed, that's crap. But if the purpose of the meeting is to inform him about something, then of course - skip the parts that don't matter.
Not only this, but I've read stories that in the early days of his return, you could get into an elevator with him and not have a job any more when you got out. If he asked you what you did and you said marketing, you were out. If you were an engineer on a misguided technical project, also out.
Jobs had respect for the engineers who had slogged over many years, squeezing all the life and functionality they could out of the classic Mac OS under the direction of misguided marketers who innovated by writing a feature list then implementing it, rather than by seeing if it was technically feasible then writing it.
He had no respect for the marketing people who came up with these bullshit feature lists and bullshit adverts and bullshit product lines and encouraged ridiculous R&D projects. (Taligent, Copland, HyperCard 3, etc.)
Being close to any "VIP" type executive, politician, etc is often awkward.
I had the bad fortune of being in an environment where I found myself in the sights of a psychotic, two-bit political appointee from time to time. Not fun.
Since Jobs was gone from Apple in 1985 what was his role in the Macintosh II, which didn't come out for 2 more years? Not a question that should be left to suspension of disbelief. And the iMac came out in 1998, but Steve was working on it at Apple in 1985 – in the Macintosh II building? To paraphrase Col. Kurtz: "Journalism? I don't see any journalism here."
And one more thing™, Dhuey is the one with a tin ear if he doesn't understand that fans are anathema to Jobs' aesthetic.
> A little known-fact Dhuey recalls is that Jobs has hearing loss.
> “When we did the iPod we had to make sure it would be loud enough for Steve to hear the music,” says Dhuey. “We had to balance his need for volume with a French law against things that were too loud."
Well, that explains a lot. It's a pity that Jobs needing to have music louder to be able to hear it has led to a generation of people who are getting hearing loss from having their music turned up too loudly.
Uh, no. That problem predates Apple's entry into the space by decades.
If you want to get down to the real root cause, the root problem is biological; the human ear's damage threshold is significantly lower than its pain threshold. That's not an easy problem to solve.
[+] [-] TomOfTTB|14 years ago|reply
In that way I think the story of Steve Jobs is one of the most inspirational for people. Almost everything people associate with Jobs today are things he did after his 40th birthday. Even the Mac (OSX is really NextSTEP repackaged)
In an industry that obsesses over people in their 20s there's a lesson to be learned there.
[+] [-] pohl|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] syncopate|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] steveb|14 years ago|reply
1980: Apple III released, bombs and is killed in 1984
1982: Jobs is kicked out of the Lisa Project, joins the Macintosh project
1984: Mac released. It is overpriced and has tepid sales.
1985: Kicked out of Apple
1989: First NeXT cubes released. They are overpriced and see slow sales
1991: NeXTStation released. NeXT still has tepid sales.
1993: NeXT hardware cancelled, OS ported to multiple other platforms with little success. Only the Intel port survives. Releases OpenStep for Windows.
1996: NeXT is bought by Apple.
For over a decade he had a string of public failures to match every success.
Nowadays Apple hits home run after home run and disrupts multiple industries. Imagine how much he learned from each failure.
[+] [-] fabulous|14 years ago|reply
What are you so smug about?
[+] [-] ugh|14 years ago|reply
Uhm, that's considered being blunt? I would call that being good at leading a meeting. Saying when information (or so detailed information) is not needed is crucial and necessary in order to keep meetings tight amd relevant.
[+] [-] wccrawford|14 years ago|reply
So yeah, that's exactly what blunt means.
Don't be confused by all the people who think bluntness is automatically rude. It's not. Those people just have really tender feelings and can't handle the truth. They need to have it sugar coated.
[+] [-] jrockway|14 years ago|reply
My solution is to just not go to meetings. The recap at my desk later will contain as much information and will only take 30 seconds.
[+] [-] absconditus|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pavel_lishin|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dpkendal|14 years ago|reply
Jobs had respect for the engineers who had slogged over many years, squeezing all the life and functionality they could out of the classic Mac OS under the direction of misguided marketers who innovated by writing a feature list then implementing it, rather than by seeing if it was technically feasible then writing it.
He had no respect for the marketing people who came up with these bullshit feature lists and bullshit adverts and bullshit product lines and encouraged ridiculous R&D projects. (Taligent, Copland, HyperCard 3, etc.)
[+] [-] lurker14|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dvdhsu|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Duff|14 years ago|reply
I had the bad fortune of being in an environment where I found myself in the sights of a psychotic, two-bit political appointee from time to time. Not fun.
[+] [-] chulipuli|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WalterBright|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] idlewords|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joely|14 years ago|reply
And one more thing™, Dhuey is the one with a tin ear if he doesn't understand that fans are anathema to Jobs' aesthetic.
[+] [-] sorbus|14 years ago|reply
> “When we did the iPod we had to make sure it would be loud enough for Steve to hear the music,” says Dhuey. “We had to balance his need for volume with a French law against things that were too loud."
Well, that explains a lot. It's a pity that Jobs needing to have music louder to be able to hear it has led to a generation of people who are getting hearing loss from having their music turned up too loudly.
[+] [-] jerf|14 years ago|reply
If you want to get down to the real root cause, the root problem is biological; the human ear's damage threshold is significantly lower than its pain threshold. That's not an easy problem to solve.