SUMMARY

In a rediscovered 1995 interview, Steve Jobs recounts his early fascination with computers, founding Apple, internal conflicts, and visionary insights on technology's role in amplifying human 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.
• Jobs called Bill Hewlett at Hewlett-Packard at age 12, securing spare parts and a summer job that shaped his view of a company valuing its employees.
• Jobs visited Hewlett-Packard's Palo Alto Research Labs weekly, where he discovered the HP 9100, the first desktop computer, and spent hours programming it.
• Jobs met Steve Wozniak around age 14 or 15, bonding over electronics and collaborating on projects like the blue box for free phone calls.
• Inspired by an Esquire article, Jobs and Wozniak built a blue box after discovering AT&T's technical journal, enabling them to control the phone network.
• The blue box project taught Jobs that young people could build devices to control vast infrastructure, a lesson pivotal to creating Apple.
• Jobs and Wozniak called the Pope pretending to be Henry Kissinger using the blue box, leading to a humorous failed connection.
• Necessity drove the shift to personal computers; they built a terminal for free time-sharing access, evolving it into the Apple I.
• The Apple I was hand-built in garages, taking 40 to 80 hours each, initially for personal use but shared with friends who lacked skills.
• To save time, Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak his calculator to fund printed circuit boards for the Apple I.
• Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop ordered 50 assembled Apple I boards, forcing Jobs and Wozniak to source parts on credit and enter business.
• They sold 50 Apple I units to the Byte Shop in 29 days, paid suppliers on day 30, but faced a profit realization crisis with unsold inventory.
• Mike Markkula joined as an equal partner after retiring from Intel, providing funding and expertise to package the Apple II for non-hobbyists.
• The Apple II debuted at the West Coast Computer Faire in 1977, featuring advanced color graphics that stole the show and attracted distributors.
• Jobs learned business by questioning "why" practices, discovering many were folklore without deep rationale, like standard costing in factories.
• Computers teach thinking like a liberal art; everyone should learn programming to mirror and refine thought processes.
• Jobs became a millionaire at 23, $10 million at 24, and $100 million at 25, but money was secondary to company, people, and products.
• At Xerox PARC in 1979, Jobs saw the graphical user interface, recognizing its inevitability for all future computers despite flaws.
• Xerox failed by promoting sales over product people, eroding innovation; "toner heads" ignored PARC's breakthroughs.
• IBM's entry scared Apple, but their genius was creating vested interests in allies, improving their initially terrible PC.
• Apple's HP-recruited engineers resisted the GUI vision, underestimating mouse feasibility; Jobs outsourced a cheap, reliable design.
• Companies falter by institutionalizing process over content; IBM excelled in process but forgot product essence.
• The Lisa project mismatched Apple's culture with its $10,000 price, alienating customers and distribution channels.
• After losing leadership to John Couch, Jobs formed a "mission from God" team for Macintosh to save Apple.
• Macintosh reinvented manufacturing with the world's first automated computer factory, using high-volume deals for cheaper components.
• Great ideas require craftsmanship; Sculley's error was assuming 90% of work was the idea, ignoring trade-offs and evolution.
• Jobs' rock tumbler metaphor illustrates teams polishing ideas through friction, arguments, and collaboration into beautiful products.
• In most fields, top performers are 2:1 better than average, but in software/hardware, it's 50:1 or 100:1, demanding A-players only.
• The Mac team was intensely demanding, the hardest work for many, yet cherished for its passion and results.
• Jobs directly critiques poor work to refocus talent without questioning ability, prioritizing success over being right.
• Apple pioneered desktop publishing with the first U.S. Canon laser printer engine, partnering with Adobe for LaserWriter software.
• Jobs' 1985 marketing blunder announced the "Macintosh Office" broadly, diluting focus on desktop publishing's success.
• Sculley's survival instinct scapegoated Jobs during 1985 recession, leading to his ousting despite Apple's leadership vacuum.
• Jobs volunteered for a research division post-ouster but was sidelined; Apple's values eroded under Sculley.
• In 1995, Apple was dying from stagnation, with Macintosh barely evolved despite massive R&D spending.
• Microsoft succeeded via IBM's boost and opportunism, dominating apps but lacking taste, culture, or enlightenment in products.
• NeXT focused on object-oriented software, enabling 10x faster development and infiltrating business as a competitive weapon.
• The web fulfills computers as communication devices, enabling direct sales, equalizing small/large companies, and driving innovation sans Microsoft control.
• Humans build tools like the bicycle amplifying locomotion; computers are the mind's bicycle, history's greatest invention.
• Direction in technology stems from taste, stealing great ideas from arts, and infusing liberal arts into engineering.
• Jobs identifies as a hippie, seeking life's deeper spark beyond materialism, which hippies captured and channeled into products like Macintosh.
• Best creators use computers as a medium to transmit feelings, not for computation alone.

IDEAS

• Encountering a computer as a child demystifies its power, turning abstract mystery into tangible thrill through programming.
• Calling industry leaders like Bill Hewlett at 12 reveals accessibility in early tech, fostering mentorship and opportunity.
• Blue boxing empowers youth to hack global systems, proving small inventions can command billion-dollar infrastructures.
• Hand-building computers from scavenged parts democratizes technology, evolving personal necessity into communal innovation.
• Selling personal assets like a bus or calculator to fund prototypes underscores bootstrapping's raw entrepreneurial grit.
• Assembling on credit and rapid sales cycles highlight improvised business models in nascent industries.
• Packaging for non-hobbyists expands computing from elite tinkers to everyday users, scaling impact exponentially.
• Questioning business folklore uncovers inefficiencies, like costing myths, enabling streamlined, real-time operations.
• Programming as a liberal art reshapes cognition, akin to law school, training logical yet creative thinking.
• Wealth accumulation feels secondary when driven by product passion, not financial gain.
• Xerox's GUI demo blinded Jobs to other innovations, yet its inevitability reshaped computing's trajectory.
• Corporate monopolies rot by elevating sales over product genius, sidelining creators for "toner heads."
• Allies with vested interests can salvage flawed entries, as IBM's ecosystem did for its PC.
• Resistance from process-oriented engineers stalls vision; outsourcing breakthroughs like cheap mice accelerates progress.
• Institutionalizing success processes confuses method for essence, dooming giants like IBM.
• Mismatching product price to company culture invites failure, as Lisa's $10,000 tag did.
• "Mission from God" teams revive companies through reinvention in manufacturing, pricing, and marketing.
• Ideas evolve via craftsmanship trade-offs, not static genius; daily discoveries refine the magic.
• Team friction polishes raw ideas like rocks in a tumbler, yielding refined brilliance through conflict.
• Extreme talent disparities in tech demand A-player ecosystems, self-perpetuating excellence.
• Direct feedback on work sustains high standards without ego coddling, prioritizing collective success.
• Pioneering hardware-software partnerships, like LaserWriter with Adobe, unlocks killer apps like desktop publishing.
• Blurring visions during crises leads to scapegoating, eroding foundational values.
• Stagnation post-visionary exit erodes leads; Apple's 10-year Macintosh edge vanished through inertia.
• Opportunism plus persistence turns boosts like IBM's into dominance, though sans cultural depth.
• Object-oriented tech revolutionizes software creation, amplifying business warfare via custom tools.
• Web as communication fulfillment equalizes commerce, birthing a direct-to-customer era.
• Tools like bicycles or computers amplify innate abilities, positioning tech as humanity's pinnacle invention.
• Taste guides innovation by stealing from arts, blending liberal pursuits with engineering.
• Hippie ethos infuses products with transcendent spirit, evoking love beyond utility.

INSIGHTS

• Early hands-on tech exposure ignites lifelong innovation by bridging mystery with mastery.
• Youthful audacity in reaching leaders unlocks doors, shaping corporate empathy and opportunity.
• Hacking infrastructures teaches asymmetric power: small creations wield global control.
• Bootstrapping from necessity fosters resilient entrepreneurship, turning scarcity into scalability.
• Deep questioning dismantles outdated practices, revealing truth beneath business illusions.
• Cognitive tools like programming cultivate abstract thinking, elevating it to essential education.
• True wealth lies in impact, not accumulation, when passion precedes profit.
• Revolutionary interfaces are obvious in hindsight, demanding bold adoption despite imperfections.
• Monopolies self-destruct by prioritizing sales over creation, starving innovation's core.
• Ecosystems amplify weak starts, proving collaboration trumps isolated brilliance.
• Vision resists bureaucracy; external ingenuity often outpaces internal inertia.
• Process obsession eclipses content, leading to hollow successes in scaling entities.
• Cultural misalignment in products dooms even advanced tech to market irrelevance.
• Crisis leadership vacuums breed survival tactics, sacrificing visionaries for stability.
• Team alchemy through friction refines ideas, mirroring natural polishing processes.
• Elite talent clusters create virtuous cycles, excluding mediocrity for exponential output.
• Candid critique preserves excellence, valuing results over harmony.
• Strategic alliances in nascent tech birth industries, like printing revolutions.
• Inertia post-departure erodes legacies, underscoring continuous evolution's necessity.
• Opportunistic persistence leverages windfalls into empires, though lacking soul.
• Software paradigms like objects multiply efficiency, arming underdogs in competition.
• Communication over computation redefines tech's societal role, fostering equality.
• Tool-building epitomizes human progress, with computers as ultimate amplifiers.
• Aesthetic taste, drawn from diverse fields, infuses tech with humanistic depth.
• Transcendent pursuits, like hippie ideals, imbue creations with emotional resonance.

QUOTES

• "Nobody had ever seen one [computer]; they're very mysterious very powerful things that did something in the background."
• "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."
• "We could build something ourselves that could control billions of dollars worth of infrastructure in the world... that was an incredible lesson."
• "I don't think there would have ever been an Apple computer had there not been blue boxing."
• "If we could make... a printed circuit board... we could sell them to all our friends... and make our money back... and everybody be happy."
• "It's not rocket science... if you're willing to... ask a lot of questions and think about things and work really hard you can learn business pretty fast."
• "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."
• "It's not process it's content... the best people... really understand the content and they're a pain in the butt to manage."
• "Designing a product is keeping 5,000 things in your brain... and every day you discover something new."
• "Through that group of incredibly talented people bumping up against each other... they polish each other and they polish the ideas."
• "In software... the difference between average and the best is 50 to one maybe 100 to one."
• "When you say someone's work is shit... it usually means their work is not anywhere near good enough."
• "I don't really care about being right... I just care about success."
• "Microsoft... have absolutely no taste... their products have no spirit of enlightenment about them they are very pedestrian."
• "The web is going to be the defining technology... the defining social moment for computer."

HABITS

• Regularly question established business practices by asking "why" to uncover inefficiencies and innovate.
• Dedicate time to hands-on experimentation, like programming late nights on early machines.
• Build personal networks by cold-calling industry leaders for advice and parts.
• Collaborate intensely with talented peers, embracing arguments to refine ideas.
• Prioritize A-players in teams, fostering self-policing excellence without settling for less.
• Provide direct, clear feedback on work to maintain high standards without ego involvement.
• Expose yourself to diverse fields like arts and history to infuse taste into technical work.
• Work relentlessly on prototypes, scavenging parts and assembling by hand to prototype quickly.
• Visit global factories and competitors to benchmark and reinvent manufacturing processes.
• Steal and adapt great ideas from other domains shamelessly to accelerate innovation.
• Maintain focus on content over process, managing "pain in the butt" experts for superior results.
• Admit wrongs quickly and pivot based on evidence to ensure team success.
• Channel personal passions, like hippie ideals, into products for emotional depth.

FACTS

• Hewlett-Packard provided coffee and donut breaks at 10 a.m. daily, emphasizing employee value in the 1960s.
• The HP 9100 was the first self-contained desktop computer, suitcase-sized with a CRT display, programmable in BASIC and APL.
• AT&T's phone network flaw placed computer signaling in the voice band, enabling blue box hacks.
• Jobs and Wozniak's blue box was all-digital, the world's best, allowing global calls looping five or six times.
• The Byte Shop was the first computer store, later becoming an adult bookstore.
• Apple II's color graphics were the most advanced on personal computers in 1977.
• Xerox PARC networked over 100 Alto computers with email in 1979.
• Jobs had a mouse designed for $15 in 90 days, countering engineers' $300/5-year estimate.
• Macintosh's automated factory was the world's first for computers, built after visiting 80 Japanese facilities.
• Humans rank third in locomotion efficiency, but bicycling surpasses the condor.
• Apple's LaserWriter used the first Canon laser printer engine in the U.S., before HP or Adobe's full involvement.
• MCI's Friends and Family program gained billions from AT&T via superior billing software.
• Object-oriented technology at NeXT enabled 10x faster software building.
• About 15% of U.S. goods/services were catalog/TV-sold pre-web, shifting to online billions.

REFERENCES

• Triumph of the Nerds TV series by Robert X. Cringely.
• Esquire magazine article on Captain Crunch and free phone calls.
• AT&T technical journal from Stanford Linear Accelerator Center library.
• Hewlett-Packard 9100 desktop computer.
• NASA Ames Research Center time-sharing terminal.
• Bill Hewlett's phone call and HP summer job.
• HP Palo Alto Research Labs Tuesday night meetings.
• Steve Wozniak's electronics projects and De Anza Junior College.
• Blue box device with "He's Got The Whole World in His Hands" logo.
• Apple I and Apple II computers.
• Byte Shop in Mountain View, California.
• Mike Markkula from Intel.
• West Coast Computer Faire 1977.
• Xerox PARC demonstrations: GUI, object-oriented programming, networked Altos.
• Lisa computer project.
• Macintosh project and automated factory.
• John Sculley from PepsiCo.
• Adobe software and 19.9% stake.
• Canon laser printer engine and LaserWriter.
• Macintosh Office announcement 1985.
• NeXT object-oriented software.
• World Wide Web and internet.
• Scientific American article on locomotion efficiency.
• Picasso's saying: "Good artists copy, great artists steal."
• Rock tumbler metaphor from elderly neighbor.

HOW TO APPLY

• Start with curiosity: At young ages, seek access to technology like terminals to experiment and program basic ideas.
• Build networks boldly: Cold-call experts for parts or advice, turning outreach into jobs or mentorships.
• Prototype necessities: Design and assemble devices from scavenged parts to solve personal limitations, like terminals for time-sharing.
• Collaborate on hacks: Partner with skilled peers to explore and build tools that interface with large systems, learning control dynamics.
• Fundraise creatively: Sell personal assets to cover prototyping costs, such as boards for scalable production.
• Pitch assembled products: Approach early stores with fully built units, negotiating bulk orders to bootstrap operations.
• Source on credit: Convince suppliers for net-30 terms, assembling and selling rapidly to cycle profits.
• Package for masses: Design user-friendly casings and add-ons to appeal beyond hobbyists, seeking venture partners for tooling.
• Question conventions: Probe "why" behind business practices, eliminating folklore for efficient systems like real-time costing.
• Learn programming deeply: Treat it as a liberal art to refine thinking, applying to design calculations and thought mirroring.
• Hire for content: Assemble A-players who understand essence over process, building self-reinforcing teams.
• Reinvent in crises: Form small, passionate teams to overhaul products, manufacturing, and marketing for revival.
• Foster team friction: Encourage debates and collisions to polish ideas, like rocks in a tumbler, yielding refined outputs.
• Provide direct feedback: Clearly articulate work shortfalls without doubting ability, refocusing on team goals.
• Partner strategically: Scout and acquire superior tech, like software from garages, canceling internal efforts.
• Steal great ideas: Expose to arts and history, blending into tech for tasteful, spirited products.
• Nudge trajectories: At tech's early vector, influence directions through small changes for long-term societal good.
• Infuse spirit: Channel deeper life pursuits into creations, making products emotionally resonant.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Embrace technology as the bicycle of the mind to amplify human potential through passionate, tasteful innovation.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Pursue early tech exposure to ignite passion, demystifying computers through hands-on programming.
• Question business norms relentlessly to innovate beyond folklore and inefficiencies.
• Learn programming as essential education, treating it like a liberal art for sharper thinking.
• Prioritize product content over rigid processes to sustain creative edges.
• Assemble elite A-player teams that self-select for excellence and mutual growth.
• Foster productive friction in collaborations to refine ideas into polished realities.
• Directly address subpar work to uphold standards, focusing on results over egos.
• Steal boldly from arts and diverse fields to infuse taste and spirit into tech.
• Partner with innovators early, acquiring breakthroughs to leapfrog internal development.
• Channel transcendent ideals into products, creating emotional connections beyond utility.
• Nudge emerging tech vectors toward humanistic amplification for societal benefit.
• View software as a competitive weapon, revolutionizing creation with paradigms like objects.
• Embrace the web for equalizing commerce and communication, driving inclusive innovation.
• Avoid corporate rot by elevating creators over sales in leadership roles.
• Bootstrap prototypes from necessity, scaling through clever funding and sales.

MEMO

In 1995, as Silicon Valley hummed with the promise of digital frontiers, Steve Jobs sat for a rare, unfiltered interview with journalist Robert X. Cringely, recounting the improbable origins of his tech odyssey. At just 10 or 11, Jobs stumbled upon a time-sharing terminal at NASA Ames, a teletype printer that executed his first programs in BASIC and Fortran. This thrill of seeing ideas materialize—results matching predictions—captivated him, transforming computers from cinematic enigmas into personal portals of power. By 12, he cold-called Hewlett-Packard's Bill Hewlett, securing parts for a frequency counter and a summer job that imprinted a vision of companies as employee-centric havens, complete with morning donut carts.

Jobs' path intertwined with Steve Wozniak around age 14, their friendship igniting over electronics and audacious pranks. Inspired by an Esquire tale of "Captain Crunch," they dissected AT&T's phone network flaws, building a blue box that generated control tones for free global calls—looping satellites five times or prank-calling the Vatican as Henry Kissinger. This hack revealed a profound truth: two teenagers could command billions in infrastructure. Necessity propelled them to personal computing; unable to afford terminals for free time-sharing, they crafted their own, evolving it into the hand-built Apple I. Scavenging parts in garages, they poured 40 to 80 hours per unit, initially for themselves but soon aiding friends lacking skills.

Entrepreneurship erupted at the Byte Shop, the world's first computer store, where owner Paul Terrell ordered 50 assembled Apple I boards. Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus, Wozniak his calculator, to fund circuit boards, then haggled parts on net-30 credit. Delivering in 29 days, they paid suppliers on time but grappled with unsold inventory—sparking nationwide distribution calls. Intel alum Mike Markkula joined as equal partner, bankrolling the Apple II's plastic packaging and color graphics for non-hobbyists. Unveiled at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire, it dazzled with projections, drawing dealers and catapulting Apple into orbit. Jobs, at 21, learned business not from books but by dismantling "folklore"—questioning costing rituals to forge precise, automated factories.

Xerox PARC's 1979 demo of graphical interfaces blinded Jobs to networked systems and object programming, yet its inevitability was electric: all computers would soon mimic this flawed prototype. Apple's Hewlett-Packard hires resisted, fixating on "soft keys" and deeming mice a five-year, $300 folly; Jobs outsourced a $15 reliable version in 90 days. Process obsession—IBM's curse—threatened to eclipse content, birthing the mismatched $10,000 Lisa. Ousted from its leadership after clashing with John Couch, Jobs rallied a "mission from God" team for Macintosh, reinventing everything: Japan's factory tours inspired the world's first automated computer plant, high-volume chips slashed costs, and a $2,500 price democratized power. Sculley's Pepsi-honed survival instinct scapegoated Jobs amid 1985's recession, exiling him despite his pleas for a research role.

The Macintosh's magic lay in craftsmanship's grind—5,000 concepts juggled daily, trade-offs honing raw ideas. Jobs evoked a childhood rock tumbler: talented teams, through friction and fights, polish ugly stones into gems. Demanding A-players, where talent gaps hit 100:1, self-policed excellence; direct critiques refocused without ego wounds. Pioneering desktop publishing, Apple snagged the first U.S. Canon laser engine, partnering Adobe for LaserWriter—over dead-body objections—unleashing shared networked printing. Yet a 1985 blunder diluted this by touting a broad "Macintosh Office," missing singular focus.

By interview's end, Jobs lamented Apple's "glide slope to die"—a 10-year Macintosh lead squandered in stagnation, R&D billions yielding scant evolution. Microsoft, boosted by IBM, opportunistically dominated via persistent apps, but Jobs decried their "pedestrian" tastelessness, mere McDonald's sans enlightenment. At NeXT, object tech enabled 10x faster software, arming businesses like MCI's billing wars. Peering ahead, the web thrilled as communication's dawn—equalizing small firms with giants, shifting catalog billions online, free from Microsoft's grip.

Jobs' fire stemmed from a Scientific American insight: humans, middling in locomotion, soar on bicycles, outpacing condors. Computers, the "bicycle of the mind," ranked as humanity's pinnacle tool, amplifying abilities at history's vector start. Taste—stolen from Picasso, poets, and zoologists—guided nudges, blending hippie transcendence with engineering. Products like Macintosh pulsed with spirit, loved not for utility but shared feeling, proving tech's soulful potential in an ordered world's gaps.