Steve Jobs - The Lost Interview (11 May 2012) [VO] [ST-FR] [Ultra HD 4K]

SUMMARY

In a rediscovered 1995 interview, journalist Robert X. Cringely engages Steve Jobs on his early fascination with computers, Apple's founding and innovations, corporate challenges, and his visionary outlook 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, which profoundly captivated him despite its primitive teletype interface.
Jobs called Bill Hewlett at Hewlett-Packard at age 12 to request spare parts for a frequency counter project, leading to a summer job that shaped his view of a company valuing its employees.
Jobs frequented Hewlett-Packard's Palo Alto research labs, where he discovered the HP 9100, the first desktop computer, and spent hours programming it in BASIC and APL.
Jobs met Steve Wozniak around age 14 or 15, bonding over electronics expertise and collaborating on projects inspired by stories like Captain Crunch's free phone call exploits.
Jobs and Wozniak built "blue boxes" to make free long-distance calls by mimicking AT&T's signaling tones, realizing they could control vast infrastructure with simple devices.
The blue box project taught Jobs and Wozniak that young innovators could build tools to influence billion-dollar systems, a lesson pivotal to Apple's creation.
Necessity drove Jobs and Wozniak to build their own terminal for free time-sharing access, evolving into the Apple I as an extension with a microprocessor.
The Apple I was hand-built from scavenged parts, taking 40 to 80 hours each, and initially shared with friends who lacked the skills to assemble them.
To save time, Jobs and Wozniak created printed circuit boards for the Apple I, funding it by selling Jobs' Volkswagen bus and Wozniak's calculator.
Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop ordered 50 fully assembled Apple I boards, prompting Jobs and Wozniak to secure parts on credit and launch their business.
Mike Markkula joined Apple as an equal partner after retiring from Intel, providing funding and expertise to develop the packaged Apple II.
The Apple II aimed to appeal to software hobbyists by offering color graphics and a complete plastic-enclosed system, announced at the West Coast Computer Faire.
Jobs learned business by questioning conventional practices, like standard costing, realizing they stemmed from poor information systems rather than necessity.
Computers should be taught as a liberal art, akin to law school, to train logical thinking and mirror thought processes, regardless of practical application.
Becoming wealthy young—over $100 million by 25—didn't motivate Jobs; he prioritized company, people, and product impact over financial gain.
Xerox PARC's graphical user interface in 1979 convinced Jobs that all future computers would adopt it, despite its flaws, marking an inevitable shift.
Xerox failed to capitalize on PARC innovations because sales and marketing executives, or "toner heads," ousted product visionaries, eroding craftsmanship.
IBM's market entry scared Apple, but their strategy of partnering with others ensured success despite an initially poor product.
Apple's early hires from Hewlett-Packard resisted graphical interfaces, leading Jobs to outsource a reliable $15 mouse design in 90 days.
Companies falter by institutionalizing processes over content, as IBM did, forgetting innovation in favor of management rituals.
The Lisa project mismatched Apple's affordable image by pricing at $10,000, alienating customers and distribution channels.
After losing leadership of the Lisa to John Couch, Jobs formed a small Macintosh team to salvage Apple's future with affordable, automated production.
Macintosh development reinvented Apple's manufacturing, distribution, and marketing, using high-volume deals for cheaper components to hit $1,000 pricing.
Great products emerge from craftsmanship bridging ideas to reality, involving daily trade-offs in design, materials, and production.
Jobs' rock tumbler metaphor illustrates team passion: friction among talented individuals polishes ideas into beautiful outcomes.
In most fields, top performers are at most twice as good as average, but in software and hardware, the gap is 50 to 100 times, demanding A-players only.
The Macintosh team consisted of A-players who self-policed hiring, creating intense but cherished experiences despite exhausting demands.
Jobs directly critiques underperformance to refocus talent on work quality, prioritizing success over being right or ego preservation.
Apple pioneered desktop publishing by integrating the first Canon laser printer with Adobe software, becoming the world's top printer revenue company.
Jobs' 1985 announcement of the Macintosh Office diluted focus on desktop publishing, a major marketing error amid Apple's challenges.
Jobs' departure from Apple in 1985 stemmed from clashes with John Sculley, who scapegoated him during a recession to preserve his CEO position.
Apple's values eroded post-Jobs, leading to stagnation; by 1995, it lagged Microsoft, with a shrinking base on a "glide slope to die."
Microsoft's success rode IBM's boost but succeeded through opportunism and persistence, though their products lack taste, culture, and enlightenment.
NeXT focuses on object-oriented software, enabling 10x faster development and infiltrating business as a competitive weapon.
The web fulfills computing's shift from calculation to communication, democratizing commerce and innovation beyond Microsoft's control.
Humans amplify abilities through tools like bicycles; the computer is history's greatest, a "bicycle for the mind" Jobs feels lucky to shape.
Direction in technology stems from taste, stealing great ideas from arts and liberal fields to infuse products with spirit.
Jobs identifies as a hippie, seeking life's deeper essence beyond materialism, which attracts similar spirits to infuse products with passion.

IDEAS

Encountering a primitive teletype terminal at 10 sparked lifelong fascination, revealing computers as idea-executing magic despite invisibility.
Calling tech giants as a child for parts demystifies access, turning curiosity into opportunity via direct human connection.
Blue boxes empowered teens to hack global telecom, proving small inventions can hijack massive infrastructures unexpectedly.
Selling personal assets like a bus for circuit boards bootstraps innovation when capital is scarce and ambition high.
Fully assembled kits transformed hobby projects into viable businesses, spotting unmet demand in user-friendly tech.
Venture capitalists like Don Valentine dismiss outsiders as "renegades," yet referrals unlock pivotal partnerships like Mike Markkula's.
Packaged computers democratize access, shifting from hardware tinkerers to everyday software explorers.
Questioning "standard costs" exposes business folklore, revealing inefficiencies rooted in outdated systems.
Programming trains thinking like law school, positioning computer science as essential liberal arts education.
Wealth accumulation feels secondary when driven by product passion, not money, altering success perceptions.
Xerox's GUI demo blinded viewers to networking and objects, yet ignited inevitable interface revolutions.
Monopolies breed "toner heads" who prioritize sales over products, rotting innovation from within.
IBM's alliances vested others in its success, turning a flawed entry into dominance through ecosystem leverage.
Outsourcing mouse design bypassed internal skepticism, proving rapid iteration trumps entrenched doubt.
Process obsession confuses means for ends, as in IBM's downfall, favoring bureaucracy over creative content.
High-priced Lisa alienated Apple's core, highlighting cultural mismatches in product-market fit.
Missionary zeal in small teams reinvents companies, automating factories to afford visionary affordability.
Craftsmanship fills the idea-to-product chasm, navigating 5,000 trade-offs daily for magical emergence.
Rock tumblers symbolize team friction: talented clashes polish raw ideas into refined brilliance.
Elite talent pools self-perpetuate, rejecting mediocrity for exponential performance gaps in tech.
Direct feedback sharpens A-players without ego coddling, focusing solely on work elevating team goals.
LaserWriter's shared networking revived Macs via desktop publishing, unforeseen from hardware-software synergy.
Survival instincts in leaders scapegoat visionaries during crises, fracturing once-united fronts.
Apple's post-departure paralysis eroded leads, turning billions in R&D into minimal evolution.
Microsoft's tasteless opportunism dominates via persistence, but lacks cultural depth in products.
Object-oriented tech revolutionizes software creation, amplifying business warfare through speed and quality.
Web as communication tool levels commerce, making smallest firms appear gigantic to consumers.
Bicycles outperform nature's locomotion, mirroring how computers exponentially boost human intellect.
Stealing from arts infuses tech with taste, blending liberal perspectives for spirited innovations.
Hippie ethos seeks life's ineffable "something more," channeling into products that evoke deep user love.
Computers as mediums transmit personal feelings, drawing artists to code over traditional outlets.

INSIGHTS

Early hands-on tech exposure at young ages fosters profound innovation mindsets by demystifying mystery.
Youthful audacity in reaching influencers bypasses barriers, forging paths through sheer persistence.
Hacking infrastructures reveals power asymmetries, inspiring creators to build influential tools from scarcity.
Bootstrapping via personal sacrifices underscores resourcefulness as innovation's true fuel.
User-centric packaging bridges hobbyist skills to mass appeal, expanding technology's reach exponentially.
Challenging business norms uncovers systemic flaws, enabling streamlined, knowledge-driven operations.
Programming as thought-training elevates it to foundational education, enhancing cognitive flexibility.
Intrinsic motivations sustain creators beyond wealth, prioritizing societal impact over personal gain.
Pivotal demos like GUI foresee paradigms, blinding to adjacent breakthroughs yet catalyzing futures.
Corporate monopolies invert priorities, sidelining product genius for sales metrics and cultural decay.
Ecosystem alliances amplify weak starts into juggernauts, leveraging shared stakes for resilience.
External expertise accelerates internal roadblocks, validating vision against institutional inertia.
Overemphasizing processes erodes content essence, leading giants to bureaucratic irrelevance.
Pricing-culture disconnects doom elite products, demanding alignment with market identities.
Passionate teams, like missionaries, overhaul operations for affordable revolutions.
Iterative craftsmanship transforms abstract ideas into tangible excellence through relentless refinement.
Interpersonal friction in elite groups yields superior outcomes, akin to natural polishing.
Assembling top talents creates self-reinforcing excellence, exploiting tech's vast performance disparities.
Candid critique preserves team potential, distinguishing work flaws from ability doubts.
Synergistic hardware-software bets create killer apps, reshaping industries unexpectedly.
Leadership vacuums during downturns provoke betrayals, prioritizing survival over shared vision.
Stagnant innovation post-visionary exodus wastes resources, accelerating competitive erosion.
Persistent adaptation without originality secures dominance but stagnates cultural evolution.
Revolutionary paradigms like objects and web shift computing toward societal enablers.
Tools like computers amplify innate potentials, positioning them as humanity's pinnacle invention.
Aesthetic taste from diverse fields elevates tech, stealing essence for enlightened artifacts.
Transcendent pursuits infuse creations with soul, attracting kindred spirits to meaningful mediums.

QUOTES

"To see one and actually get to use one was a real privilege back then."
"What we learned was that us too you know we didn't know much we could build a little thing that could control a giant thing."
"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 should learn a computer language because it teaches you how to think."
"I view computer science as a liberal art it should be something that everybody learn."
"The most important thing was the company the people the products we were making what we were going to enable people to do with these products."
"Within you know 10 minutes it was obvious to me that all computers would work like this someday it was it was obvious."
"They just had these toner heads would come out to Xerox Park and they just had no CL clue about what they were seeing."
"Xerox could have owned the entire computer industry today um could have been you know a company 10 times its size."
"It's not process it's content so we had a little bit of that problem at Apple."
"There's a just a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in in between a great idea and a great product."
"That's always been in my mind my metaphor for a team working really hard on something they're passionate about is is that it's through the team through that group of incredibly talented people bumping up against each other having arguments having fights sometimes making some noise and working together they polish each other and they polish the ideas."
"In software and it used to be the case in Hardware too the difference between average and the best is 50 to one maybe 100 to one easy."
"When you get really good people um they know they're really good and you don't have to Baby people's egos so much and what really matters is the work."
"I don't really care about being right you know I just care about success."
"The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste they have absolutely no taste."
"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."

HABITS

Regularly questioning established business practices to uncover underlying reasons and inefficiencies.
Spending hours programming and tinkering with early computers to explore and refine ideas.
Directly contacting industry leaders for resources or advice, leveraging unlisted numbers for access.
Collaborating intensely with like-minded experts on hardware and software projects.
Selling personal items to fund prototypes, embracing bootstrapping for innovation.
Visiting factories worldwide, like 80 in Japan, to study and adapt advanced manufacturing.
Forming small, passionate teams for focused missions, prioritizing content over process.
Providing direct, clear feedback on work quality to keep high performers aligned.
Exposing oneself to liberal arts, music, poetry, and history for creative inspiration.
Stealing and integrating great ideas from diverse fields into technology products.
Hiring only A-players and letting them self-police to build elite teams.
Reflecting on failures and pivots, like Macintosh after Lisa, to reinvent strategies.
Seeking deeper life's essence beyond materialism, infusing work with hippie-like spirit.

FACTS

The HP 9100 was the first self-contained desktop computer with a cathode ray tube display, about suitcase-sized.
Blue boxes exploited AT&T's design flaw by placing computer signaling in the voice frequency band.
The Byte Shop in Mountain View was the world's first computer store, later becoming an adult bookstore.
Apple II featured the most advanced personal computer graphics of its time, debuting at the West Coast Computer Faire.
Jobs became worth over $100 million by age 25 after Apple's IPO, without selling stock.
Xerox PARC demonstrated object-oriented programming, networked Altos with email, and GUI in 1979.
A mouse was engineered in 90 days for $15, countering claims of five years and $300.
Macintosh factory was the world's first fully automated computer production line in California.
LaserWriter was the first market laser printer, making Apple the top printer revenue company upon Jobs' departure.
Apple spent about a billion dollars on R&D from 1985 to 1995 but saw only 25% product evolution.
Microsoft entered applications in 1984 via Mac, dominating after Windows launch.
NeXT, with 300 employees, generated $50-75 million annually by 1995 as the largest object-oriented software supplier.
The web shifted about 15% of U.S. catalog and TV sales to digital, totaling tens of billions.
Humans on bicycles expend calories per kilometer more efficiently than the condor, nature's top.
Macintosh team included musicians, poets, artists, zoologists, historians, and top computer scientists.

REFERENCES

Triumph of the Nerds television series by Robert X. Cringely.
Esquire magazine article on Captain Crunch and free phone calls.
AT&T technical journal detailing phone signaling tones.
NASA Ames Research Center time-sharing terminal.
Hewlett-Packard frequency counter project parts.
HP 9100 desktop computer.
BASIC and APL programming languages.
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center technical library.
Blue box device with "He's Got The Whole World in His Hands" logo.
Apple I terminal and circuit board.
Byte Shop computer store in Mountain View.
West Coast Computer Faire event.
Xerox PARC Alto computers, GUI, object-oriented programming, networked email.
Lisa project and Macintosh development.
Canon laser printer engine.
Adobe software for imaging pages.
LaserWriter printer and AppleTalk networking.
Macintosh Office announcement.
NeXT object-oriented software platform.
World Wide Web and internet for communication and commerce.
Scientific American article on locomotion efficiency.
Apple ad campaign: "bicycle of the mind."
Picasso's saying: "Good artists copy, great artists steal."

HOW TO APPLY

Start with personal curiosity by accessing primitive tech tools early, like terminals, to build foundational excitement.
Reach out directly to experts for resources, using persistence to gain jobs or parts without formal barriers.
Collaborate on bold projects like blue boxes to learn controlling large systems through small inventions.
Scavenge and bootstrap prototypes by selling assets, focusing on hand-building to hone skills.
Design user-friendly extensions, like terminals to full computers, prioritizing accessibility for non-experts.
Create printed circuit boards to scale production, reducing assembly time from days to hours.
Secure credit from suppliers on net-30 terms to assemble and sell initial batches risk-free.
Seek venture partners who add expertise, not just money, for equal stakes in ambitious designs.
Package products completely with plastics and graphics to appeal to broad hobbyist audiences.
Question every business practice deeply to eliminate folklore and optimize costs in real-time.
Visit innovative labs like Xerox PARC to steal paradigm-shifting ideas for inevitable futures.
Assemble small missionary teams of A-players, fostering friction to polish ideas through passion.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Steve Jobs reveals technology as humanity's ultimate tool, urging tasteful innovation to amplify minds and infuse products with profound spirit.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Teach programming universally as a liberal art to cultivate precise, logical thinking skills.
Prioritize product content and craftsmanship over rigid processes in company building.
Surround yourself with A-players only, allowing them to self-select for elite performance.
Steal shamelessly from arts, history, and other fields to enrich technology with cultural depth.
Question conventional business norms relentlessly to uncover and fix hidden inefficiencies.
Form small, passionate teams with missionary zeal for breakthrough innovations.
Provide direct, work-focused feedback to high talents, avoiding ego pitfalls.
Bootstrap ventures by selling personal assets and securing supplier credit wisely.
Visit global factories and labs to adapt cutting-edge manufacturing and ideas.
Focus marketing on killer apps like desktop publishing rather than diluted visions.
Embrace hippie-like quests for life's deeper essence to inspire spirited products.
Invest in tools that amplify human abilities, like computers as mind bicycles.
Pivot from failures, like Lisa to Macintosh, by realigning with affordable roots.
Democratize tech through user-friendly packaging, expanding beyond hobbyists.
Persist opportunistically like Microsoft, but infuse taste for enlightened outcomes.

MEMO

In the dim glow of a 1995 interview rediscovered from a garage, Steve Jobs, then steering the modest NeXT, unfolds his improbable odyssey from a 10-year-old mesmerized by a teletype terminal at NASA to co-founding Apple, the company that redefined personal computing. With journalist Robert X. Cringely probing gently, Jobs recounts his first thrill: typing commands into a distant machine that executed ideas in BASIC, a privilege in an era when computers were cinematic enigmas of flashing lights and whirring tapes. This spark led to audacious calls to Hewlett-Packard legend Bill Hewlett for parts, netting a summer job at 12 and imprinting a corporate ethos of valuing employees through simple joys like doughnut breaks.

Jobs' partnership with Steve Wozniak ignited over electronics wizardry, evolving into legendary "blue boxes"—handcrafted devices that hijacked AT&T's vast network for free global calls. "We could build a little thing that could control a giant thing," Jobs reflects, a revelation that birthed Apple. Necessity forged the Apple I: a terminal born of scavenged parts, hand-wired over 40-hour marathons, sold to friends lacking their skills. Funding circuit boards meant sacrificing Jobs' VW bus and Wozniak's calculator, but an order from the Byte Shop for 50 assembled units launched them on 30-day credit, turning a garage hustle into a business amid a "Marxian profit crisis" of unsold machines.

Intel veteran Mike Markkula's investment propelled the Apple II, a visionary plastic-clad machine with color graphics unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire, stealing the show from hobbyist kits. Jobs, ever the skeptic, dissected business "folklore" like standard costing, deeming it a crutch for poor systems. He champions programming as a liberal art, teaching thought's architecture much like law school, insisting every American learn it. Wealth—$100 million by 25—paled against the thrill of enabling human potential through products, not mere money.

A pilgrimage to Xerox PARC in 1979 unveiled the graphical user interface, blinding Jobs to networking and objects but convincing him of its inevitability: "All computers would work like this someday." Xerox squandered this goldmine, ousted by "toner heads" fixated on copiers over computers, a monopoly's rot Jobs later saw mirrored in Apple's clashes with CEO John Sculley. Internal resistance from Hewlett-Packard transplants mocked mice and fonts as fanciful, prompting Jobs to outsource a $15 wonder in 90 days. The Lisa's $10,000 price estranged Apple's everyman base, while Macintosh's skunkworks—fueled by Japanese factory tours and automated lines—delivered affordability and reinvention, polishing raw ideas through team friction like rocks in a tumbler.

Yet triumph soured: Sculley's survival instinct scapegoated Jobs amid 1985's recession, exiling him despite pleas for a research haven. Apple stagnated, its 10-year lead evaporating as Microsoft opportunistically rode IBM's rocket, persisting without taste into dominance. By 1995, Jobs laments Apple's "glide slope to die," its R&D billions yielding scant evolution. NeXT, meanwhile, perfected object-oriented software for 10x faster creation, a weapon in business wars.

Gazing ahead, Jobs hails the web as computing's communicative dawn, fulfilling dreams beyond calculation—leveling commerce where catalogs morph into direct channels, small firms rivaling giants. Humans, he notes, craft tools like bicycles that eclipse nature's efficiency, positioning computers as the mind's supreme amplifier. Taste guides direction: steal from Picasso, poets, and mystics to infuse tech with hippie spirit, that ineffable "something more" beyond materialism. Users sense it in Mac's love affair, a testament to creators who channel deeper yearnings through silicon, nudging humanity's vector toward enlightenment.