SUMMARY

In a rediscovered 1995 interview, journalist Bob Cringely speaks with Steve Jobs about his early encounters with computers, founding Apple, innovations like the Macintosh, corporate challenges, and a visionary perspective on technology's role in human creativity and communication.

STATEMENTS

• Steve Jobs first encountered a computer at age 10 or 11 through a time-sharing terminal at NASA Ames Research Center, finding it thrilling to program and execute ideas.
• Jobs called Bill Hewlett at age 12 for spare parts, leading to a summer job at Hewlett-Packard that shaped his view of a company valuing employees.
• At Hewlett-Packard, Jobs attended Tuesday night meetings at the Palo Alto Research Labs and fell in love with the HP 9100, the first desktop computer.
• Jobs met Steve Wozniak at age 14 or 15, bonding over electronics and starting projects together.
• Inspired by an Esquire article, Jobs and Wozniak built blue boxes to make free phone calls by mimicking AT&T tones, learning they could control vast infrastructure.
• Their first blue box call accidentally woke someone in Los Angeles, but they succeeded in routing calls worldwide, including a prank to the Vatican posing as Henry Kissinger.
• The blue boxing experience taught Jobs and Wozniak that small inventions could influence giant systems, directly influencing the creation of Apple.
• Necessity drove Jobs and Wozniak to build a terminal for free time-sharing access, evolving into the Apple I as an extension with a microprocessor.
• They built Apple I computers by hand for themselves and friends, scavenging parts, which took 40 to 80 hours each.
• To save time, they created printed circuit boards, selling them to friends after Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak his calculator.
• Jobs sold the remaining boards at the Byte Shop, leading to an order for 50 fully assembled units, prompting them to secure parts on credit.
• They assembled and sold 50 Apple I units to the Byte Shop, paid suppliers on time, and began seeking more stores to realize profits.
• Mike Markkula joined as an equal partner after investing money and expertise, helping design and tool the Apple II for higher ambitions like color graphics and packaged systems.
• The Apple II debuted at the West Coast Computer Faire in 1977, stealing the show with advanced graphics and attracting dealers.
• At age 21, Jobs learned business by questioning "why" practices, discovering many were folklore without deep thought.
• Jobs implemented real-time cost tracking in Macintosh factories, eliminating antiquated accounting like standard costs.
• Computers teach thinking like a liberal art, similar to law school, and everyone should learn programming.
• Jobs became worth over $100 million by age 25 but prioritized company, people, and products over money.
• At Xerox PARC in 1979, Jobs saw the graphical user interface and recognized its inevitability for all computers.
• Xerox failed by promoting sales over product people, rotting innovation like "toner heads" ignoring PARC's genius.
• IBM's entry scared Apple, but their strategy of vesting interests in partners improved their initial poor product.
• Apple struggled with HP-recruited staff not grasping GUI vision, leading Jobs to outsource mouse design cheaply and quickly.
• Companies confuse process with content, leading to downfall like IBM's; great products come from content experts.
• The Lisa project mismatched Apple's market, costing $10,000 and failing due to poor leadership alignment.
• After losing Lisa leadership to John Couch, Jobs formed a Macintosh team to save Apple, reinventing manufacturing and distribution.
• Macintosh development involved visiting 80 Japanese factories, building the first automated computer factory, and negotiating cheaper chips.
• Great ideas require craftsmanship; Jobs likened team passion to a rock tumbler polishing ideas through friction.
• Success stems from A-players who self-polish and hire only equals, creating dynamic ranges far beyond 2:1 in software/hardware.
• Jobs directly critiqued work to refocus talent, admitting wrongs quickly for team success.
• Apple pioneered desktop publishing with the first U.S. Canon laser printer engine, partnering with Adobe despite internal resistance.
• Jobs' 1985 "Macintosh Office" announcement diluted focus, a major marketing blunder.
• Leaving Apple in 1985 was painful; Jobs blamed hiring John Sculley, whose survival instincts scapegoated him during recession.
• Apple's post-departure values eroded, leading to stagnation; by 1995, it was on a glide path to death with eroded differentiation.
• Microsoft succeeded via IBM boost and opportunism but lacks taste, producing spiritless, pedestrian products like McDonald's.
• NeXT focused on object-oriented software, enabling 10x faster development and infiltrating business as a competitive weapon.
• The web fulfills computers as communication tools, not just computation, enabling direct sales and equalizing small/large companies.
• Humans amplify abilities with tools like the bicycle; computers are the ultimate, ranking top in inventions.
• Direction comes from taste, stealing great ideas from arts; Macintosh team included diverse liberal arts talents.
• Jobs identifies as a hippie, seeking life's deeper side beyond materialism, infusing products with spirit that users love.

IDEAS

• Early exposure to computers at NASA sparked Jobs' fascination, turning abstract mystery into tangible thrill for a child.
• Calling Hewlett directly at 12 bypassed norms, revealing open access in the pre-unlisted number era.
• HP's employee perks like donut breaks modeled a company as a caring entity valuing human capital.
• The HP 9100's self-contained design without trailing wires symbolized portable computing's future allure.
• Blue boxing demystified phone networks, empowering teens to hack billion-dollar infrastructure with ingenuity.
• Pranking the Vatican as Kissinger highlighted youthful audacity blending technology with mischief.
• Building devices to control giants taught that innovation scales impact beyond creators' scale.
• Necessity birthed the Apple I terminal, merging free access with personal processing dreams.
• Hand-assembling computers fostered deep hardware intimacy, but inefficiency spurred professionalization via PCBs.
• Selling to the Byte Shop unexpectedly shifted from hobby to business, embracing assembly demands.
• Credit from distributors on net-30 terms bootstrapped operations without capital, a high-stakes gamble.
• Markkula's addition brought business acumen, transforming garage tinkering into venture-ready product.
• Apple II's packaging democratized computing for software hobbyists, not just hardware experts.
• Questioning business folklore uncovered inefficiencies, like standard costing masking poor controls.
• Programming as a liberal art mirrors thought processes, enriching cognition like legal training.
• Wealth accumulation felt secondary to product impact, freeing focus on long-term vision.
• Xerox GUI's flaws didn't obscure its revolutionary inevitability, blinding Jobs to other innovations.
• Monopolies promote sales over products, eroding genius through "toner heads" ignorance.
• IBM's ecosystem strategy turned weakness into strength via partnerships.
• HP veterans' resistance to mice and fonts revealed cultural inertia in engineering mindsets.
• Process institutionalization confuses means with ends, dooming companies like IBM.
• Lisa's high price alienated Apple's core, mismatching innovation with market reality.
• Macintosh as "mission from God" reinvention saved Apple through total system overhaul.
• Team friction polishes ideas like rocks in a tumbler, yielding beauty from conflict.
• A-players' 50-100x superiority in tech creates self-sustaining excellence pockets.
• Direct feedback hones talent without ego coddling, prioritizing work over harmony.
• LaserWriter's shared networking overcame price resistance, birthing desktop publishing.
• Sculley's Pepsi background ill-suited tech's rapid iteration, fostering survival over vision.
• Apple's 10-year lead evaporated from stagnation, not competition alone.
• Microsoft clones without soul, missing cultural depth like proportional fonts from books.
• Object-oriented tech at NeXT revolutionized software creation, amplifying business warfare.
• Web equalizes visibility, turning smallest firms into giants via direct channels.
• Bicycle analogy elevates computers as human amplifiers, outpacing natural efficiencies.
• Taste guides nudges in tech's vector, stealing from arts for enlightened products.
• Hippie ethos infuses tech with transcendent spirit, beyond mere utility.
• Diverse team backgrounds—poets, artists—brought liberal arts vitality to computing.

INSIGHTS

• Innovation thrives when personal curiosity intersects with accessible technology, transforming children into creators.
• Companies succeed by humanizing operations, treating employees as core value rather than cogs.
• Hacking systems reveals power asymmetries, empowering individuals to reshape infrastructures.
• Bootstrapping demands bold risks like credit gambles, turning scarcity into scalable ventures.
• True leadership questions entrenched practices, exposing folklore to foster efficiency.
• Graphical interfaces inevitably humanize machines, prioritizing intuition over commands.
• Monopolistic complacency corrupts from within, elevating sales over substantive progress.
• Ecosystems amplify flaws into strengths through collaborative interests.
• Cultural transplants hinder vision; fresh perspectives accelerate breakthroughs.
• Content mastery trumps procedural rigidity, birthing enduring products.
• Market misalignment dooms even brilliant ideas without aligned execution.
• Passionate teams refine through adversity, emerging polished and potent.
• Elite talent clusters self-perpetuate, magnifying outputs exponentially.
• Candid critique sustains excellence by refocusing without undermining confidence.
• Pivotal partnerships, like Adobe's, redirect trajectories toward dominance.
• Survival instincts in crises scapegoat innovators, fracturing unity.
• Stagnation erodes leads; continuous evolution defines longevity.
• Opportunism leverages boosts, but taste elevates from pedestrian to profound.
• Software's potency lies in enabling uncharted services, reshaping economies.
• Communication eclipses computation, fulfilling computing's social promise.
• Tools amplify humanity's essence, positioning computers as pinnacle inventions.
• Aesthetic discernment steers progress, borrowing from humanities for depth.
• Transcendent pursuits infuse artifacts with lovable spirit, transcending functionality.

QUOTES

• "It was an incredibly thrilling experience um so I became very um captivated by by a computer."
• "We could build something ourselves that could control billions of dollars worth of infrastructure in the world."
• "I don't think there would have ever been an Apple computer had there not been blue boxing."
• "If we could if we only had one of those we could sell them to all our friends for you know as much as it cost us to make them and make our money back."
• "In business a lot of things are I I call it folklore they're done because they were done yesterday and the day before."
• "I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer should learn a computer language because it teaches you how to think."
• "It was obvious you could argue about how many years it would take you could argue about who the winners and losers might be but you couldn't argue about the inevitability of it."
• "The people at Xerox Park used to call the people that ran Xerox toner heads uh and they just had these toner heads would come out to Xerox Park and they just had no CL clue about what they were seeing."
• "It's not process it's content so we had a little bit of that problem at Apple and that problem eventually resulted in in the Lisa which had its moments of Brilliance."
• "A team of people doing something they really believe in is like is is like when I was a young kid um there was a um a widowed man that lived up the street and uh he he was in his 80s uh he's a little scary looking and and I got to know him a little bit um I think he might have paid me to cut his mow his lawn or something and one day he said come on into my garage I want to show you something and he pulled out this Dusty old rock tumbler."
• "I've built a lot of My Success off finding these truly gifted people and not settling for B and C players but really going for the a players."
• "When you say is someone's work is you really mean I don't quite understand it would you please explain it to me."
• "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste they have absolutely no taste and and and what that means is I don't mean that in a small way I mean that in a big way in the sense that they they don't think of original ideas and they don't bring much culture into their product."
• "Software is becoming an incredible force in this world um to provide new goods and services to people whether it's over the Internet or you know what have you software is going to be a major enabler in our society."
• "The web is going to be the defining technology the defining social uh um the defining social moment for computer and um I think it's going to be huge."
• "The personal computer was the bicycle of the mind and I believe that with every bone in my body."
• "Good artists copy great artists steal and we have you know always been Shameless about stealing great ideas."
• "There's something more going on there's another side of the coin that we don't talk about much and and and and we experience it when there's gaps when we kind of just aren't really when everything's not ordered and perfect when there's kind of a gap you experience this inrush of something."

HABITS

• Regularly question established business practices by asking "why" to uncover inefficiencies and folklore.
• Seek direct access to experts, like cold-calling company founders for parts or advice.
• Attend informal research meetings to immerse in cutting-edge technology and network.
• Build prototypes by hand, scavenging parts to deeply understand hardware limitations.
• Collaborate intensely with skilled peers on projects, iterating through trial and error.
• Prioritize content and craftsmanship over rigid processes in product development.
• Assemble diverse, liberal arts-influenced teams to infuse creativity into technical work.
• Visit global factories and competitors to benchmark and inspire manufacturing innovations.
• Provide direct, clear feedback on work quality to refocus talent without ego damage.
• Admit errors quickly and pivot based on evidence for team success.
• Steal and adapt great ideas from arts, history, and other fields shamelessly.
• Focus on long-term product impact over short-term financial gains.
• Infuse personal passions, like seeking life's deeper meanings, into professional endeavors.

FACTS

• In 1971, no unlisted phone numbers existed, allowing a 12-year-old Jobs to call Bill Hewlett directly.
• The HP 9100, suitcase-sized, featured the first small CRT display in a self-contained desktop computer.
• Blue boxes mimicked AT&T's 2600 Hz tone, exploiting voice-band signaling flaws in the phone network.
• Apple I boards reduced assembly time from 40-80 hours to a few hours via etched fiberglass.
• The Byte Shop ordered 50 assembled Apple I units in 1976, launching Apple's business.
• Apple II debuted at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire, showcasing pioneering color graphics.
• Xerox PARC demonstrated GUI in 1979, but the company failed to commercialize it effectively.
• Jobs had a mouse designed in 90 days for $15, countering engineers' 5-year, $300 estimates.
• Macintosh factory was the world's first fully automated computer production line in 1984.
• By 1985, Apple was the world's largest printer company by revenue via LaserWriter.
• Jobs was worth over $100 million at age 25 after Apple's 1980 IPO.
• IBM's PC in 1981 was initially poor but saved by open architecture vesting interests.
• Object-oriented programming at NeXT enabled 10x faster software development.
• The web shifted 15% of U.S. catalog/TV sales to online, tens of billions in value.
• Humans on bicycles expend calories per kilometer more efficiently than condors.

REFERENCES

• Triumph of the Nerds TV series by Robert X. Cringely.
• Esquire magazine article on Captain Crunch and blue boxing.
• AT&T Technical Journal from Stanford Linear Accelerator Center library.
• HP 9100 desktop computer from Hewlett-Packard.
• Apple I and Apple II computers.
• Xerox PARC innovations: graphical user interface, object-oriented programming, networked Alto computers.
• Lisa computer project at Apple.
• Macintosh computer and its automated factory.
• LaserWriter printer with Canon engine and Adobe software.
• NeXT object-oriented software platform.
• Scientific American article on locomotion efficiency.
• Picasso's saying: "Good artists copy, great artists steal."
• Bill Atkinson quote on critiquing work.
• MCI's Friends and Family billing software.
• PepsiCo's product cycle and Sculley's background.

HOW TO APPLY

• Start with personal curiosity: Encounter technology early, like using a time-sharing terminal, to build foundational fascination.
• Network boldly: Cold-call industry leaders for parts or advice, turning outreach into opportunities like summer jobs.
• Collaborate with superiors: Partner with electronics experts like Wozniak to co-create projects blending skills.
• Prototype necessities: Design and build tools for unmet needs, such as terminals for free computing access.
• Professionalize efficiency: Shift from hand-assembly to printed circuit boards to scale production time dramatically.
• Bootstrap financing: Sell personal assets like vehicles or calculators to fund initial manufacturing artwork.
• Pitch unexpectedly: Approach stores with prototypes, adapting to demands like full assembly to ignite sales.
• Secure credit wisely: Negotiate net-30 terms with suppliers to assemble and sell before payment deadlines.
• Recruit expertise: Bring in partners like Markkula for business acumen to refine designs for market ambitions.
• Showcase innovations: Debut products at fairs with demos like projection TVs to attract distributors.
• Question norms: Probe "why" behind practices to eliminate folklore, implementing real-time tracking instead.
• Diversify teams: Assemble A-players from varied backgrounds, fostering friction to polish ideas through passion.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Steve Jobs' journey reveals that blending hippie-inspired passion with technological ingenuity creates tools amplifying human potential and creativity.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Learn programming early as a liberal art to sharpen logical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Build small devices to grasp how they control larger systems, fostering innovative confidence.
• Question business conventions deeply to innovate beyond inherited folklore and inefficiencies.
• Visit pioneering labs like Xerox PARC to absorb revolutionary ideas and adapt them swiftly.
• Assemble diverse teams of top talents from arts and sciences for multifaceted product development.
• Prioritize content mastery over processes to avoid institutional pitfalls in growing companies.
• Provide direct feedback on work to elevate quality without coddling egos.
• Partner strategically, like with Adobe, to leverage external strengths in core weaknesses.
• Focus marketing on killer apps like desktop publishing rather than diluted visions.
• Infuse products with cultural depth and taste, borrowing from books and arts.
• Nudge technology's trajectory toward communication over mere computation via tools like the web.
• Seek life's transcendent sparks to embed spirit into creations, making them lovable.
• Bootstrap ventures through bold risks like credit and asset sales for rapid scaling.
• Recruit A-players exclusively to create self-sustaining excellence ecosystems.
• Admit errors promptly and pivot on evidence to ensure team successes.
• Automate production inspired by global benchmarks to achieve cost efficiencies.
• Democratize technology by packaging for non-experts, expanding user bases.
• View computers as mind bicycles, amplifying innate abilities for human flourishing.
• Commercialize overlooked ideas like object-oriented tech for software revolutions.
• Equalize opportunities online, enabling small entities to rival giants directly.

MEMO

In 1995, as the personal computing world churned under Microsoft's shadow, journalist Bob Cringely unearthed a lost interview with Steve Jobs, capturing the Apple co-founder's raw charisma just a year before his prodigal return. Conducted amid Jobs' exile at NeXT, the conversation traces his improbable path from a 10-year-old mesmerized by a teletype terminal at NASA Ames to hacking AT&T's phone empire with homemade blue boxes alongside Steve Wozniak. These teenage exploits, blending mischief and mastery, crystallized a profound lesson: two kids could commandeer billions in infrastructure with ingenuity alone, foreshadowing Apple's disruptive ethos.

Jobs' early foray into Hewlett-Packard's world at age 12—cold-calling Bill Hewlett for parts and landing a job—imprinted a humanistic corporate ideal, where donut carts symbolized employee value. This evolved into nightly pilgrimages to HP labs, where the suitcase-sized 9100 desktop computer ignited his obsession with self-contained machines. Meeting Wozniak at 15 sparked collaborative sparks, from frequency counters to global pranks like posing as Henry Kissinger to rouse the Vatican. Necessity then birthed the Apple I: a scavenged terminal fused with a microprocessor, hand-built in garages to access free time-sharing. Selling boards to the Byte Shop in 1976, on net-30 credit after liquidating a bus and calculator, catapulted them into business, realizing profits through nationwide outreach.

The Apple II's 1977 debut at the West Coast Computer Faire, with pioneering color graphics and plastic packaging, democratized computing for software tinkerers, not just hardware hobbyists. Mike Markkula's investment and expertise professionalized the venture, but Jobs learned running a company demanded relentless "why" questions, dismantling folklore like quarterly cost variances for real-time precision. Xerox PARC's 1979 revelations—especially the graphical user interface—blinded him to networking and objects but convinced him of bitmapped displays' inevitability, a vision HP transplants at Apple resisted, forcing Jobs to outsource a $15 mouse in 90 days.

Corporate pitfalls loomed as Apple ballooned post-IPO, with Jobs amassing $100 million by 25 yet fixated on products over wealth. The Lisa's $10,000 mismatch alienated markets, while clashes with CEO John Sculley—hired from Pepsi's slow cycles—exposed tech's peril: monopolies elevate "toner heads" over innovators, rotting Xerox-like geniuses. Sculley's recession-era survival instincts scapegoated Jobs in 1985, exiling him despite pleas for a research role. The Macintosh "mission from God" team, however, reinvented Apple: touring Japanese factories, building the first automated line, and slashing chip costs for a $2,500 powerhouse that polished ideas through frictional passion, like rocks in a tumbler.

Desktop publishing crowned the Mac via the LaserWriter—America's first Canon engine paired with Adobe software—despite internal revolt, briefly making Apple the top printer firm. Yet 1985's "Macintosh Office" blunder diluted focus, and post-departure, Apple's 10-year lead ossified, gliding toward obsolescence by 1995 as Microsoft opportunistically cloned without taste, producing "McDonald's" software bereft of enlightenment. Jobs lamented this pedestrianism, arguing true progress ratchets humanity via cultured tools spreading subtlety.

At NeXT, object-oriented tech promised 10x software speed, arming businesses like MCI's billing wars. Peering ahead, Jobs hailed the web as computing's social pivot: not computation but communication, fulfilling catalog sales migrations and equalizing small firms against behemoths. The bicycle of the mind analogy encapsulated his creed—computers as ultimate amplifiers, outpacing condors in efficiency—steered by taste, shamelessly stealing from Picasso and poets.

Ultimately, Jobs embodied the hippie-nerd fusion: seeking life's ineffable "inrush" beyond materialism, channeling it into products users adored for their spirit. His team of musicians, artists, and zoologists infused liberal arts vitality, proving computers as mediums for shared feelings. This lost interview, rediscovered in a garage, honors a vector still unfolding, where early nudges toward beauty and connection promise profound human flourishing.