SUMMARY

Robert X. Cringely interviews Steve Jobs in 1995, recounting his early fascination with computers, Apple's founding, innovations like the Macintosh, leadership challenges, and visions for software and the web's transformative potential.

STATEMENTS

• Steve Jobs first encountered a computer at age 10 or 11 through a time-sharing terminal at NASA Ames Research Center, sparking his lifelong passion.
• At 12, Jobs called Bill Hewlett of Hewlett-Packard for parts to build a frequency counter, leading to a summer job that shaped his view of a great company.
• Hewlett-Packard treated employees exceptionally well, recognizing their true value through small gestures like daily coffee and donut breaks.
• Jobs met Steve Wozniak around age 14 or 15, bonding over electronics and collaborating on projects inspired by the Captain Crunch story.
• Jobs and Wozniak built blue boxes to make free phone calls by mimicking AT&T signaling tones, learning they could control vast infrastructure with simple devices.
• The blue box project taught Jobs that two young people could build something to influence billions in global systems, laying groundwork for Apple's creation.
• Necessity drove the shift to personal computers; Jobs and Wozniak built a terminal for free time-sharing access, evolving it into the Apple I.
• The Apple I was hand-built in a garage, taking 40-80 hours each, initially for personal use but sold to friends who lacked assembly skills.
• To save time, Jobs and Wozniak sold their possessions to fund printed circuit boards, enabling faster assembly and sales to friends.
• Jobs sold the remaining Apple I boards to the Byte Shop, the world's first computer store, marking Apple's entry into business.
• They convinced parts distributors for 30-day credit, built and sold 50 units, paying suppliers just in time and realizing profits in unsold inventory.
• Mike Markkula joined as an equal partner after retiring from Intel, providing funding and expertise to tool the Apple II design.
• The Apple II debuted at the West Coast Computer Faire with advanced color graphics, stealing the show and attracting distributors.
• At 21, Jobs learned to run Apple by persistently asking "why" about business practices, uncovering unnecessary folklore.
• Jobs viewed computer programming as a liberal art that teaches structured thinking, recommending everyone learn it like law school.
• Becoming rich young—over a million at 23, $100 million at 25—didn't motivate Jobs; the company, people, and products mattered more.
• Visiting Xerox PARC in 1979, Jobs was mesmerized by the graphical user interface, foreseeing all computers would adopt it.
• Xerox's failure stemmed from sales and marketing leaders prioritizing market share over product innovation, eroding creative genius.
• IBM's entry scared Apple, but their initial poor product succeeded due to ecosystem partners with vested interests.
• Implementing Xerox ideas at Apple required overriding resistant engineers from Hewlett-Packard backgrounds, leading to innovations like a cheap, reliable mouse.
• Companies falter by institutionalizing processes over content, confusing replication of success with innovation itself.
• The Lisa project mismatched Apple's culture, priced at $10,000 for a market expecting affordability, leading to its failure.
• After losing leadership of Lisa, Jobs formed a small Macintosh team on a mission to save Apple with affordable, revolutionary tech.
• Macintosh development reinvented manufacturing, distribution, and marketing, launching at $2,500 after building the world's first automated computer factory.
• Great products emerge from craftsmanship between idea and execution, involving daily trade-offs and 5,000 interconnected concepts.
• Jobs likened passionate teams to a rock tumbler, where friction polishes raw ideas into beautiful results through collaboration.
• Success in tech comes from A-players who self-select and propagate excellence, unlike most fields' 2:1 dynamic range—software offers 50:1 or more.
• Motivating teams involves direct feedback on work quality without ego-stroking, focusing on puzzle pieces for shared goals.
• Apple pioneered desktop publishing by partnering with Adobe and Canon for the LaserWriter, becoming the world's top printer revenue company.
• Jobs' departure from Apple in 1985 was painful, blaming CEO John Sculley for destroying the company's values through survival instincts over vision.

IDEAS

• Early exposure to computers demystified powerful machines, turning abstract mystery into tangible thrill for a child.
• Calling industry leaders directly as a kid reveals naivety's power in accessing opportunities without barriers.
• Blue boxing demonstrated how simple inventions could hijack complex global systems, empowering individuals over giants.
• Building devices from scavenged parts fosters self-reliance, evolving personal tools into commercial products.
• Selling personal assets to fund prototypes shows bootstrapping's risks and rewards in nascent industries.
• Credit from suppliers without collateral highlights trust's role in scaling from garage to business.
• Ambition for packaged computers targeted non-hobbyists, democratizing tech beyond elite tinkerers.
• Questioning business "folklore" uncovers inefficiencies, allowing rapid learning without formal training.
• Programming mirrors thought processes, refining logical structures like a mental gym.
• Wealth accumulation feels secondary when driven by creation, not money, preserving intrinsic motivation.
• Graphical interfaces intuitively transform user interaction, making inevitability obvious upon first sight.
• Monopolies breed complacency, elevating sales over innovation and rotting product sensibility.
• Ecosystem partnerships amplify weak starts, turning potential failures into dominances.
• Resistance from traditional engineers underscores the need to bypass incumbents for breakthroughs.
• Process obsession kills creativity, mistaking bureaucracy for the essence of success.
• Affordable reinvention via automation and volume pricing rescues companies from stagnation.
• Team friction, like tumbling rocks, refines ideas through intense collaboration.
• Elite talent pools create self-sustaining excellence, far outpacing average performers.
• Direct, work-focused feedback sustains high standards without coddling.
• Partnerships with innovators accelerate markets, as seen in laser printing's rise.
• Survival instincts in leadership can derail visionary trajectories during crises.
• Stagnation erodes leads; constant evolution prevents catch-up by competitors.
• Opportunism combined with persistence turns platforms into empires.
• Taste infuses products with cultural depth, elevating utility to inspiration.
• Object-oriented software revolutionizes development speed and quality.
• The web fulfills computing's communication destiny, enabling egalitarian distribution.

INSIGHTS

• Personal computers evolved from playful hacks like blue boxing, proving small innovations can disrupt vast infrastructures.
• Bootstrapping demands relentless questioning of norms, turning folklore into optimized realities.
• True company value lies in employee-centric cultures that inspire loyalty and creativity.
• Graphical interfaces weren't inventions but inevitable evolutions, blinding observers to broader networked potentials.
• Monopolistic inertia favors marketers over makers, systematically eroding innovative cores.
• Elite teams self-perpetuate through mutual attraction, amplifying outputs exponentially.
• Product greatness demands bridging ideas with craftsmanship amid endless trade-offs.
• Leadership vacuums during downturns amplify internal fractures, prioritizing survival over strategy.
• Wealth serves as a tool for ideas, not an end, sustaining long-term vision.
• Software's potency as a competitive weapon underscores its infiltration into all societal layers.
• Taste, drawn from liberal arts, distinguishes pedestrian tech from enlightened tools.
• The web democratizes commerce, making scale irrelevant and innovation boundless.
• Hippie ethos infuses products with transcendent spirit, beyond mere functionality.
• Object technology accelerates software creation tenfold, mirroring hardware's past revolutions.
• Bicycles amplify human limits; computers do the same for intellect, reshaping history.

QUOTES

• "It was an incredibly thrilling experience... that you could write a program... and actually this machine would sort of take your idea and execute your idea and give you back some results."
• "We could build a little thing that could control a giant thing and that was an incredible lesson."
• "I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer... because it teaches you how to think."
• "Money is a wonderful thing because it enables you to invest in ideas that don't have a short-term payback."
• "Within 10 minutes it was obvious to me that all computers would work like this someday... you couldn't argue about the inevitability of it."
• "The product sensibility... that brought them to that monopolistic position gets rotted out by people running these companies who have no conception of a good product."
• "Designing a product is keeping 5,000 things in your brain... and fitting them all together."
• "It's through the team... bumping up against each other... that they polish each other and they polish the ideas."
• "In software... the difference between average and the best is 50 to 1, maybe 100 to 1."
• "When you say someone's work is shit... it means their work is not anywhere near good enough."
• "I don't really care about being right... I just care about success."
• "Microsoft's just McDonald's... their products have no spirit of enlightenment about them."
• "The personal computer was the bicycle of the mind."
• "Good artists copy, great artists steal."
• "A hippie... wanted to find out what that was about... there's something more going on."

HABITS

• Persistently ask "why" to uncover reasons behind business practices and eliminate unnecessary traditions.
• Build personal prototypes from scavenged parts to test ideas without external dependencies.
• Collaborate closely with talented peers on ambitious projects to accelerate learning.
• Visit factories and competitors globally to benchmark and innovate manufacturing processes.
• Assemble small, elite teams of A-players focused on shared missions for intense productivity.
• Provide direct, specific feedback on work quality to maintain high standards without ambiguity.
• Expose oneself to diverse fields like art and history to infuse technology with broader taste.
• Steal and adapt great ideas from other domains shamelessly to enhance product design.
• Prioritize content and craftsmanship over rigid processes in organizational decisions.
• Maintain passion for creation by viewing money as a means to fund visionary ideas.

FACTS

• Jobs was 12 when he cold-called Bill Hewlett, securing parts and a job at Hewlett-Packard.
• Blue boxes allowed free global calls by emulating AT&T tones, including a prank call pretending to be Henry Kissinger to the Pope.
• Apple I boards were funded by selling Jobs' Volkswagen bus and Wozniak's calculator.
• The Byte Shop ordered 50 assembled Apple I units, launching Apple's business model.
• Jobs became worth over $100 million by age 25 after Apple's IPO.
• Xerox PARC demonstrated GUI, object-oriented programming, and networked systems in 1979.
• Macintosh mouse was designed in 90 days for $15, countering engineers' $300, five-year estimate.
• Apple built the world's first automated computer factory in California for Macintosh production.
• LaserWriter made Apple the largest printer revenue company globally by 1985.
• Jobs left Apple in 1985 after a board-backed conflict with CEO John Sculley during a recession.
• NeXT specialized in object-oriented software, becoming the largest supplier by 1995.
• About 15% of U.S. goods and services were sold via catalogs pre-web, poised for digital shift.

REFERENCES

• Triumph of the Nerds television series.
• NASA Ames Research Center time-sharing terminal.
• Hewlett-Packard 9100 desktop computer.
• Bill Hewlett.
• Steve Wozniak.
• Esquire magazine article on Captain Crunch.
• AT&T technical journal from Stanford Linear Accelerator Center library.
• Byte Shop in Mountain View, first computer store.
• Paul Terrell.
• Mike Markkula, former Intel executive.
• Don Valentine, venture capitalist.
• West Coast Computer Faire.
• Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center).
• Alto computers.
• Adele Goldberg.
• John Sculley, former PepsiCo executive.
• Macintosh project.
• Lisa project.
• John Couch.
• LaserWriter printer.
• Canon laser printer engine.
• Adobe software.
• NeXT company.
• Object-oriented programming from Xerox PARC.
• World Wide Web.
• Scientific American article on locomotion efficiency.
• Condor and bicycle comparison in efficiency.
• Picasso's saying on artists copying and stealing.

HOW TO APPLY

• Encounter technology early through accessible terminals to spark curiosity and demystify computing.
• Cold-call experts for advice and resources, leveraging openness in pre-digital eras.
• Bond with skilled collaborators on exploratory projects to combine strengths.
• Research and replicate system vulnerabilities like phone tones to understand infrastructure control.
• Design and build custom tools from necessity, evolving them into marketable products.
• Scavenge components and hand-assemble prototypes to minimize costs and gain expertise.
• Sell assets to fund essential manufacturing steps like printed circuit boards.
• Pitch assembled products to early retailers, adapting to demands for full builds.
• Secure supplier credit on short terms to scale production without upfront capital.
• Recruit experienced partners for funding and operations to professionalize ventures.
• Debut innovations at trade shows with compelling demos to attract distributors.
• Question every business practice deeply to eliminate folklore and optimize efficiency.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Steve Jobs' journey reveals innovation thrives on curiosity, elite teams, and blending art with technology.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Learn programming early to sharpen logical thinking across any career.
• Prioritize A-players in teams for exponential productivity gains.
• Question industry norms relentlessly to innovate beyond conventions.
• Infuse products with liberal arts influences for cultural depth.
• Build ecosystems with partners sharing vested interests.
• Focus on craftsmanship between ideas and execution for superior outcomes.
• Use direct feedback to elevate work without ego barriers.
• Steal great ideas ethically from diverse fields to enhance designs.
• Automate manufacturing for affordability and scale.
• Champion communication over computation in tech evolution.
• Embrace web's potential for direct, egalitarian distribution.
• Cultivate hippie-like curiosity for transcendent purpose in work.
• Avoid process traps; emphasize content in growing organizations.
• Partner with innovators like Adobe to accelerate market entry.
• Nudge technology's vector early for profound long-term impact.

MEMO

In 1995, as tech pioneers reflected on the personal computing revolution, Steve Jobs sat for a rare, unfiltered interview with journalist Robert X. Cringely. Conducted amid the "Triumph of the Nerds" series, this lost footage—rediscovered in a garage—captures Jobs at NeXT, a decade after leaving Apple. At 40, he recounts his improbable path from a 10-year-old tinkering with a NASA terminal to co-founding a billion-dollar empire, blending boyish wonder with sharp critique.

Jobs' origin story begins in Silicon Valley's garages, where mystery surrounded computers as cinematic behemoths. His first encounter via a teletype printer ignited a thrill: writing code in BASIC or Fortran and watching ideas execute. By 12, he boldly phoned Hewlett-Packard's Bill Hewlett for parts to build a frequency counter, landing a job that imprinted a humane company ethos—coffee breaks underscoring employee value. This foundation propelled him to HP's labs, where the suitcase-sized 9100 desktop computer captivated him, foreshadowing portable power.

Teaming with Steve Wozniak, Jobs embraced mischief and mastery. Inspired by an Esquire tale of "Captain Crunch" hacking phone lines, they unearthed AT&T's signaling secrets in a obscure journal. Crafting "blue boxes" to mimic tones, they commandeered the global network for free calls—even pranking the Vatican as Henry Kissinger. This epiphany—that kids could sway billions in infrastructure—crystallized: small inventions yield giant control. From there, necessity birthed the Apple I: a terminal for free time-sharing, extended with a microprocessor, hand-wired in exhaustive hours.

Bootstrapping defined Apple's dawn. Selling a bus and calculator funded circuit boards; pitching to the Byte Shop secured the first order of 50 assembled units. Navigating net-30 credit from wary distributors, they paid bills on the brink, trading liquid cash for inventory profits. Mike Markkula's infusion of capital and savvy professionalized the Apple II—boasting color graphics unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire, where it dazzled and drew dealers. At 21, Jobs learned business not from books, but by dissecting "why" behind practices, deeming most mere folklore.

Xerox PARC's 1979 demo revolutionized Jobs' vision. Blinded by the graphical user interface, he overlooked networking and objects, yet grasped inevitability: all computers would intuit via mouse and windows. Xerox squandered this through "toner heads"—sales-driven leaders blind to innovation—ceding dominance. Back at Apple, Jobs battled HP alumni resistant to the paradigm; he outsourced a $15 mouse in 90 days, proving doubters wrong. Yet pitfalls loomed: process idolization eclipsed content, birthing the ill-fated $10,000 Lisa, mismatched for Apple's affordable ethos.

Defeat on Lisa spurred Macintosh's salvation. Ousted from leadership, Jobs rallied a "mission from God" team, reinventing everything: the first automated factory, slashed chip costs, $2,500 pricing. Craftsmanship bridged ideas to reality—juggling 5,000 concepts amid trade-offs. He likened the team to a rock tumbler: raw talents grinding through friction to polish brilliance. A-players, drawn from diverse fields like poetry and zoology, self-policed excellence in software's 50-to-1 talent chasm, yielding a product with spirit.

Tensions peaked with CEO John Sculley, whose Pepsi-honed survival instincts scapegoated Jobs during 1984's recession. Exiled without role, Jobs departed in 1985, decrying Apple's value erosion. By 1995, he deemed it dying—its 10-year lead squandered on stagnant R&D, market share eroded by Microsoft's opportunistic ascent via IBM's booster. Yet NeXT thrived on object-oriented software, 10x faster development enabling potent business tools. The web, he prophesied, would redefine communication, direct-selling billions and empowering the smallest firms.

Jobs' passion stemmed from humanity's tool-making essence. A Scientific American piece showed bicycles outpacing condors in efficiency—the "bicycle of the mind" amplified intellect. Taste, pilfered from arts, distinguished Apple's enlightenment from Microsoft's pedestrian fare. A self-proclaimed hippie, he sought life's deeper currents, infusing tech with transcendent feeling. As history's vector bends, nudges now promise amplified flourishing—computers not just computing, but connecting souls.