SUMMARY

In a rediscovered 1995 interview with Robert X. Cringely, Steve Jobs reflects on his early fascination with computers, founding Apple with Steve Wozniak, innovations like the Macintosh, his ouster, and visions for technology's future as a tool for human potential.

STATEMENTS

Steve Jobs first encountered computers at age 10 or 11 through a time-sharing terminal at NASA Ames Research Center, sparking his lifelong passion.
Jobs joined Hewlett-Packard at age 12 after calling Bill Hewlett for parts, shaping his view of companies that value employees.
Jobs met Steve Wozniak at around 14 or 15, bonding over electronics and collaborating on projects like blue boxes for free phone calls.
Blue boxing taught Jobs and Wozniak that young innovators could control vast infrastructure with simple devices, inspiring Apple's creation.
Jobs and Wozniak built their first terminal due to necessity, leading to the Apple I as an extension with a microprocessor.
They soldered Apple I boards by hand for 40 to 80 hours each, initially for friends who lacked skills.
To scale production, Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak his calculator to fund printed circuit boards for Apple I.
Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop ordered 50 assembled Apple I units, forcing Jobs and Wozniak into manufacturing and business.
They secured parts on 30-day credit, assembled and sold boards, realizing profits through additional sales to other stores.
Mike Markkula joined as an equal partner, 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.
Jobs learned business by questioning "why" practices exist, criticizing folklore like standard costing in factories.
Computers teach thinking like law school, making computer science a liberal art everyone should learn.
Jobs amassed wealth rapidly—over $1 million at 23, $100 million at 25—but prioritized company, people, and products over money.
At Xerox PARC in 1979, Jobs saw the graphical user interface, recognizing its inevitability for all future computers.
Xerox failed due to sales-focused leadership eroding product innovation, calling executives "toner heads."
IBM's entry scared Apple, but their alliances with partners improved their initially poor PC.
Apple II engineers from HP resisted GUI ideas like mice, but Jobs prototyped a cheap, reliable one in 90 days.
Companies falter by institutionalizing process over content, as IBM did, forgetting innovation's essence.
The Lisa project mismatched Apple's culture by pricing at $10,000, alienating customers and distribution.
After losing leadership battle for Lisa, Jobs formed a Macintosh team to save Apple with affordable innovation.
Macintosh reinvented manufacturing via Japan's automated factories, using high-volume deals for cheaper components.
Sculley believed great ideas were 90% of the work, ignoring craftsmanship and trade-offs in product evolution.
Teams polish ideas through friction, like rocks in a tumbler, creating beautiful results from talented collaboration.
In tech, the gap between average and best is 50-to-1 or more, so hire A-players who self-select and propagate excellence.
Macintosh team worked intensely, polishing each other into extraordinary output despite exhaustion.
Jobs directly critiques poor work to refocus talent, prioritizing success over being right.
Apple pioneered desktop publishing with the LaserWriter, acquiring Adobe software and Canon engines early.
Jobs' 1985 announcement of Macintosh Office diluted focus, missing desktop publishing's potential.
Sculley's survival instinct scapegoated Jobs during 1984 recession, leading to his ouster amid leadership vacuum.
Apple's values eroded post-Jobs, with stagnant R&D yielding little, eroding lead over Microsoft.
Microsoft succeeded via IBM's boost and opportunism but lacks taste, producing pedestrian products without cultural depth.
NeXT commercialized object-oriented technology, enabling 10x faster software development for businesses.
The web fulfills computers as communication tools, enabling direct sales and equalizing small firms with giants.
Humans amplify abilities with tools like bicycles; computers are the ultimate "bicycle of the mind."
Great products require taste from exposing oneself to humanity's best, stealing ideas like Picasso.
Macintosh team drew from liberal arts—musicians, poets—to infuse spirit into technology.
Jobs identifies as a hippie, seeking life's deeper meaning beyond materialism, channeling it into products users love.

IDEAS

Encountering a primitive teletype terminal at 10 ignited a thrill of executing ideas through code, demystifying computers' power.
Calling Bill Hewlett at 12 for parts led to a job, revealing companies thrive by valuing employees like family.
Blue boxes empowered teens to hack AT&T's network, proving small inventions control global systems.
Building devices from scavenged parts fostered self-reliance, turning necessity into innovation without budgets.
Assembling computers by hand for friends highlighted skill gaps, inspiring scalable printed circuit boards.
Securing credit on naivety launched Apple, showing business acumen emerges from bold experimentation.
Packaging Apple II for hobbyists expanded markets 1,000-fold, democratizing computing beyond experts.
Questioning business "folklore" uncovers inefficiencies, like flawed costing, enabling precise control.
Programming mirrors thought processes, training logical rigor akin to legal training but more universal.
Wealth accumulation felt secondary to building meaningful products that enable human potential.
Xerox's GUI demo blinded Jobs to other innovations, yet its flaws hinted at inevitable evolution.
Monopolies rot innovation as sales "toner heads" sideline product visionaries.
HP engineers dismissed mice as impractical, but rapid prototyping shattered assumptions.
Process obsession kills content; great products stem from talented pains-in-the-butt creators.
Lisa's high price clashed with Apple's accessible ethos, dooming it culturally.
Macintosh as "mission from God" saved Apple by reinventing from manufacturing to marketing.
Ideas evolve through trade-offs; craftsmanship bridges vision to reality amid daily discoveries.
Team friction polishes raw talents into gems, far beyond individual genius.
Tech's 50-to-1 excellence gap demands relentless A-player recruitment for self-sustaining excellence.
Direct feedback on work cuts egos, refocusing on puzzle pieces for collective success.
LaserWriter's network sharing transformed expensive hardware into accessible revolution.
Blending visions caused paralysis; strong leadership unites factions for execution.
Apple's post-Jobs stagnation let Microsoft erode its lead despite massive R&D spend.
Microsoft opportunism via IBM built dominance, but tasteless products lack enlightening spirit.
Object-oriented tech revolutionizes software creation, infiltrating business as competitive weapon.
Web equalizes commerce, shifting catalogs online and breathing life into personal computing.
Bicycles outperform natural locomotion, symbolizing tools' amplification; computers rank supreme.
Taste guides direction: steal from arts to infuse tech with human subtlety.
Hippie ethos seeks life's inrush beyond routine, channeling wonder into loved products.
Computers as medium transmit unspoken feelings, drawing liberal arts souls to innovate.

INSIGHTS

Early hands-on tech access at youth fosters profound innovation by turning abstract mystery into tangible power.
Valuing employees as core asset shapes sustainable companies, contrasting exploitative folklore-driven practices.
Hacking vast systems with simple tools reveals empowering asymmetry between creators and infrastructure.
Necessity-driven invention scales through bold risks like credit gambles, birthing industries organically.
Democratizing tech via packaging unlocks masses, multiplying impact beyond elite hobbyists.
Persistent "why" questioning dismantles inefficiencies, replacing guesswork with precise, real-time mastery.
Programming as liberal art sharpens universal thinking, equating to broadened cognitive horizons.
True wealth lies in product impact, not accumulation, prioritizing long-term human enablement.
Visionary interfaces inevitably reshape computing, despite initial flaws, demanding swift adaptation.
Monopolistic complacency elevates sales over innovation, eroding foundational genius.
Prototyping defies expert skepticism, accelerating breakthroughs in underestimated domains.
Content trumps process; institutionalizing success formulas confuses means for ends.
Cultural mismatches in pricing alienate core audiences, undermining even brilliant tech.
Reinvention via small, passionate teams revives companies through holistic overhauls.
Craftsmanship in trade-offs evolves ideas dynamically, far beyond static ideation.
Collaborative friction among elites yields polished excellence unattainable solo.
Excellence gaps in tech amplify recruitment of top talent into virtuous cycles.
Candid critique sustains high performance by clarifying work's role in greater goals.
Networked sharing turns costly innovations into democratized revolutions.
Leadership vacuums amplify crises, favoring survivalists over visionaries.
Stagnant R&D without direction wastes resources, inviting competitive erosion.
Opportunism leverages alliances for dominance, but cultural voids limit elevation.
Object tech accelerates software's societal infiltration as enabler of novel services.
Web's communication pivot fulfills computing's social destiny, equalizing global reach.
Tools like computers exponentially amplify innate abilities, defining human progress.
Artistic theft infuses tech with taste, drawing diverse minds for spirited creation.
Hippie curiosity beyond materialism inspires products evoking deep emotional resonance.

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 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."
"Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer... because it teaches you how to think."
"I view computer science as a liberal art it should be something that everybody learn."
"Money is a wonderful thing because it enables you to do things... but... it was not the most important thing."
"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."
"Xerox could have owned the entire computer industry today... could have been the IBM of the '90s."
"It's not process it's content... the best people... are the ones that 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 fitting them all together... every day you discover something new."
"A team of people doing something they really believe in is like... rocks in a tumbler... through... friction... come out these beautiful polished rocks."
"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."
"Software is becoming an incredible force in this world... to provide new goods and services to people."
"The web is going to be the defining technology... the defining social moment for computer."
"The personal computer was the bicycle of the mind."
"Good artists copy great artists steal."
"Computers... are the medium that is best capable of transmitting some feeling that you want to share with other people."

HABITS

Persistently question business practices by asking "why" to uncover and eliminate folklore-driven inefficiencies.
Spend hours programming and tinkering with early machines to mirror and refine personal thought processes.
Call experts directly for parts or advice, leveraging openness to build unexpected opportunities.
Collaborate intensely with like-minded talents on projects, embracing friction for polished outcomes.
Visit global factories and labs to absorb cutting-edge techniques, adapting them swiftly.
Hire and surround yourself with A-players, allowing self-policing excellence to propagate.
Provide direct, clear feedback on work quality, focusing on specifics without ego bruising.
Expose yourself to diverse fields like arts and history to infuse taste into technical work.
Read magazines and journals voraciously for inspiration, from Esquire to technical AT&T docs.
Scavenge and build from available parts, turning constraints into innovative designs.
Prototype rapidly against skepticism, outsourcing to experts like David Kelley for quick validation.
Maintain a mission-driven focus, treating projects as existential saves for the company.
Steal shamelessly from great ideas across disciplines, as per Picasso's ethos.

FACTS

Hewlett-Packard brought donuts and coffee carts daily in the 1970s, fostering employee-centric culture.
The HP 9100 was the first desktop computer, suitcase-sized with a CRT display and self-contained design.
Blue boxes used 2600Hz tones to mimic AT&T signals, allowing free global calls via satellites.
Apple I boards took 40-80 hours to assemble by hand, prone to failures from tiny wires.
Byte Shop was the world's first computer store, later becoming an adult bookstore.
Apple II featured the most advanced personal computer graphics in 1977, using projection TV demos.
Xerox PARC networked over 100 Alto computers with email in 1979, pioneering object-oriented programming.
A mouse prototype cost $15 to build and was ready in 90 days, contra HP's $300/5-year estimate.
Lisa priced at $10,000, unaffordable for Apple's hobbyist base expecting low-cost access.
Macintosh factory was the world's first fully automated computer assembly line in California.
Jobs worth over $100 million by age 25 from Apple stock, never selling shares initially.
Apple became the world's largest printer company by revenue when Jobs left in 1985.
MCI's Friends and Family program used custom billing software to capture billions from AT&T in 18 months.
Humans on bicycles achieve locomotion efficiency far surpassing the condor, per Scientific American.
Macintosh team included musicians, poets, artists, and zoologists alongside top computer scientists.

REFERENCES

Triumph of the Nerds TV series by Robert X. Cringely (1995 interview context).
NASA Ames Research Center time-sharing terminal (early computer access).
Hewlett-Packard (HP) company, including Bill Hewlett and Palo Alto Research Labs.
HP 9100 desktop computer (first self-contained machine Jobs used).
Esquire magazine article on Captain Crunch (blue boxing inspiration).
AT&T Technical Journal (revealed phone network tones in Stanford library).
Apple I and Apple II computers (foundational products).
Byte Shop in Mountain View (first computer store, Paul Terrell).
West Coast Computer Faire (1977 Apple II debut).
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) (GUI, object-oriented tech, Alto computers).
John Sculley and PepsiCo (leadership contrast).
Lisa and Macintosh projects at Apple.
LaserWriter printer with Canon engine and Adobe software.
NeXT company (object-oriented software focus).
Microsoft Windows and applications (opportunistic dominance).
MCI Friends and Family billing software (business software impact).
World Wide Web and Internet (future communication revolution).
Scientific American article on locomotion efficiency (bicycle of the mind metaphor).
Picasso's saying "good artists copy, great artists steal."
Rock tumbler metaphor from elderly neighbor.

HOW TO APPLY

Start young: Seek access to computers or tech tools early, even primitives, to experiment with code execution.
Network boldly: Call industry leaders directly for resources, turning curiosity into opportunities like jobs.
Hack ethically: Build devices to understand systems, learning control over infrastructure from small creations.
Collaborate closely: Partner with skilled peers on projects, scavenging parts to prototype necessities.
Scale production: Design printed circuit boards to reduce assembly time, selling to friends for cost recovery.
Assemble and sell: Secure parts on credit, build in batches, and distribute to stores for profit realization.
Package accessibly: Enclose hardware with cases and keyboards for non-experts, expanding user base.
Question norms: Probe "why" behind business processes, eliminating folklore for real-time efficiency.
Learn programming: Treat it as a liberal art course to sharpen thinking across life domains.
Visit innovators: Tour labs like Xerox PARC to absorb ideas, recognizing inevitable trends quickly.
Prototype fast: Override skepticism by outsourcing designs, like mice, to validate feasibility cheaply.
Hire A-players: Recruit top talents who self-select, building self-policing teams of excellence.
Embrace friction: Foster team arguments and noise to polish ideas through collective effort.
Critique directly: Point out specific work flaws clearly, refocusing on team goals without ego attacks.
Reinvent holistically: Overhaul manufacturing, marketing, and distribution for affordable breakthroughs.
Steal wisely: Expose to arts and history, integrating subtle tastes into product design.
Focus visions: Unify factions under strong leadership during crises for decisive execution.
Innovate software: Adopt object-oriented tech to build 10x faster, enabling competitive services.
Leverage web: Shift sales direct-to-customer, equalizing small firms with giants online.
Amplify tools: View computers as mind bicycles, nudging their vector toward human flourishing.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Steve Jobs' journey reveals technology's power to amplify human potential through passionate, tasteful innovation over mere process.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Prioritize hands-on experimentation with tech from youth to cultivate innate innovation instincts.
Build companies valuing employees as true assets, with simple gestures like shared breaks.
Embrace hacking mindsets to understand and control larger systems with minimal resources.
Turn personal necessities into scalable products by prototyping and scavenging creatively.
Question every business practice deeply to dismantle outdated folklore and optimize efficiency.
Mandate programming education universally as a tool for logical, thoughtful decision-making.
Focus wealth on enabling long-term ideas rather than short-term luxuries or sales.
Visit pioneering labs promptly to internalize revolutionary concepts like GUIs.
Avoid monopolistic traps by keeping product visionaries in leadership over sales executives.
Prototype aggressively against doubters, using external experts for rapid, cheap validation.
Champion content over process, hiring difficult but brilliant talents for superior outcomes.
Align products culturally with your audience's expectations to ensure market fit.
Form small, mission-driven teams to reinvent companies during existential threats.
Invest in craftsmanship, navigating trade-offs daily to evolve ideas into realities.
Recruit relentlessly for A-players, fostering environments where excellence self-perpetuates.
Deliver unfiltered feedback on work to keep high-performers aligned and growing.
Pioneer networked sharing to democratize expensive innovations like laser printing.
Cultivate survival instincts wisely, but pair with visionary execution in crises.
Allocate R&D toward directed innovation, avoiding stagnant spending without leadership.
Infuse products with artistic taste, stealing from liberal arts to elevate user experience.
Commercialize software revolutions like objects to empower business competitiveness.
Harness the web for direct, equalizing commerce to redefine personal computing's social role.

MEMO

In 1995, as the tech world buzzed with uncertainty, Steve Jobs sat for a rare, unfiltered interview with journalist Robert X. Cringely, recounting his improbable path from a curious 10-year-old at NASA Ames to the architect of Apple's revolution. Jobs described his first brush with computing—a clunky teletype terminal—as a thrilling privilege, where typing commands in BASIC or Fortran yielded real results, executing his ideas in ways that captivated his young mind. This epiphany, he said, was mysterious and powerful, far removed from Hollywood's flashing lights and tape drives. By 12, Jobs cold-called Hewlett-Packard's Bill Hewlett for parts to build a frequency counter, landing a summer job that imprinted HP's employee-centric ethos—donut carts and all—on his vision of ideal companies.

Jobs' partnership with Steve Wozniak, forged in their teens over electronics pranks, took a audacious turn with "blue boxes," devices that mimicked AT&T tones for free global calls. Holed up in libraries and the Stanford Linear Accelerator, they unearthed the secrets in an old technical journal, building the world's best digital version. Calling the Pope as Henry Kissinger became legend, but the deeper lesson was empowerment: two kids controlling billions in infrastructure. This hacker spirit birthed the Apple I, an extension of a homemade terminal, hand-soldered in garages amid scavenged parts. When Paul Terrell's Byte Shop demanded 50 assembled units, Jobs hustled parts on 30-day credit, paying off debts just in time and stumbling into business.

The Apple II, packaged for everyday users, exploded at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire, its color graphics mesmerizing crowds. Jobs, at 21, learned running a company meant relentless "why" questions, debunking accounting myths like standard costing. He advocated programming as a liberal art, teaching rigorous thinking akin to law school. Wealth piled up—$100 million by 25—but Jobs fixated on products enabling human potential, not riches. Xerox PARC's 1979 demo of graphical interfaces blinded him to other wonders, yet he saw destiny: all computers would evolve that way. Xerox's fall, he lamented, stemmed from "toner heads"—sales drones eroding product genius in monopolies.

Internal strife defined Apple's pivot. HP transplants resisted the Macintosh's mouse and fonts, but Jobs prototyped a $15 version in 90 days. The Lisa flopped at $10,000, mismatched to Apple's accessible roots, while Jobs' ouster after clashing with John Sculley amid recession woes felt like betrayal. Sculley's Pepsi mindset prioritized survival over vision, scapegoating Jobs in a leadership vacuum. Exiled, Jobs founded NeXT, commercializing object-oriented software for 10x faster development, just as the web promised communication over computation.

Yet Jobs mourned Apple's glide to oblivion, its 10-year lead squandered on ineffective R&D as Microsoft, boosted by IBM, opportunistically dominated with pedestrian products lacking taste. He envisioned computers as the "bicycle of the mind," amplifying humanity like no tool before, guided by artistic theft from Picasso's playbook. Drawing hippie seekers of life's deeper inrush—beyond jobs and garages—Jobs' teams of poets and scientists infused Macs with spirit users adored. Transmitting unspoken feelings through code, he believed, elevates us all.

A decade later, this lost interview, unearthed from a garage, reveals Jobs not as icon but humanist, nudging tech's vector toward enlightenment.