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

SUMMARY

In a rediscovered 1995 interview, Steve Jobs shares with Bob Cringely his early fascination with computers, Apple's founding, innovations like Macintosh, corporate struggles, and visions for technology's role in communication and human potential.

STATEMENTS

Steve Jobs first encountered computers around age 10 or 11, finding them mysterious and powerful, primarily through movies depicting large machines with tape drives and flashing lights.
At NASA's Ames Research Center, Jobs used a time-sharing teletype terminal to program in BASIC or Fortran, experiencing the thrill of executing ideas and receiving results.
Jobs called Hewlett-Packard co-founder Bill Hewlett at age 12 for parts to build a frequency counter, leading to a summer job that shaped his view of a company valuing employees.
Hewlett-Packard provided perks like daily coffee and donut breaks, emphasizing that the company's true value lay in its people.
Jobs visited HP's Palo Alto Research Labs, where he first saw the HP 9100, a self-contained desktop computer with a CRT display, sparking his passion for programming.
Jobs met Steve Wozniak around age 14 or 15, bonding over electronics and inspired by an Esquire article on Captain Crunch's free phone call technique.
Jobs and Wozniak built blue boxes to generate tones mimicking AT&T's signaling frequencies, exploiting a flaw in the phone network to make free international calls.
The blue box project taught Jobs and Wozniak that two young individuals could control billions in infrastructure, a lesson pivotal to 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 with a microprocessor.
The Apple I was hand-built in a garage, taking 40 to 80 hours each, leading to demand from friends who lacked skills, prompting production of printed circuit boards.
To fund boards, Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak his calculator, approaching the Byte Shop, the world's first computer store, which ordered 50 assembled units.
Jobs convinced parts distributors for net-30 credit terms, assembling and selling 50 Apple Is to cover costs, realizing profits in unsold units and expanding distribution.
Mike Markkula joined as an equal partner, providing funding and expertise to tool the Apple II design, including plastic casing for non-hobbyists.
The Apple II debuted at the West Coast Computer Faire with advanced color graphics, stealing the show and attracting dealers.
Jobs learned business by questioning "why" practices, discovering many were folklore without deep rationale, like standard costing due to poor information systems.
Programming teaches thinking like law school, making computer science a liberal art that everyone should learn for a year to mirror thought processes.
Jobs became worth over $100 million by age 25, but money enabled long-term ideas, not motivating him; focus remained on company, people, and products.
At Xerox PARC in 1979, Jobs was captivated by the graphical user interface, foreseeing all computers would adopt it, despite its flaws.
Xerox failed to commercialize innovations because sales and marketing "toner heads" ousted product people, eroding craftsmanship in monopolistic companies.
IBM's entry scared Apple, but their initial PC was poor; success came from ecosystem partners with vested interests improving it.
Implementing Xerox ideas at Apple faced resistance from HP hires; Jobs outsourced mouse design, achieving it in 90 days for $15.
Companies confuse process with content when scaling, leading to downfall; great products require content experts, not just managers.
The Lisa failed due to mismatch with Apple's culture and market, priced at $10,000 for hobbyists unable to afford it.
After losing Lisa leadership, Jobs formed a Macintosh team on a mission to save Apple, reinventing manufacturing with Japan's automated factories.
Macintosh success involved building an automated factory, negotiating cheaper chips, and creating new distribution and marketing for a $1,000 product.
Great ideas are 10% of work; craftsmanship bridges to products through trade-offs, daily discoveries, and fitting 5,000 concepts.
Teams polish ideas like rocks in a tumbler, through friction and passion, turning rough concepts into beautiful outcomes.
In software and hardware, top talent outperforms average by 50 to 100 times; Apple succeeded by hiring A-players who self-select and propagate.
Jobs gave direct feedback on work, focusing on quality without ego, admitting wrongs quickly for success over being right.
Apple pioneered desktop publishing with the first U.S. Canon laser printer engine, partnering with Adobe for PostScript software.
Jobs' 1985 marketing blunder announced Macintosh Office broadly instead of focusing solely on desktop publishing.
Jobs' painful 1985 departure from Apple stemmed from hiring wrong CEO John Sculley, who destroyed values amid recession and leadership vacuum.
Apple's 1995 state was dying due to standing still while Microsoft caught up, eroding 10-year lead through poor R&D execution.
Microsoft succeeded via IBM's boost, opportunism, and persistence, but lacks taste, originality, and cultural spirit in products.
NeXT focuses on object-oriented software revolution, enabling 10x faster development, as innovation shifts to software infiltrating society.
The web fulfills dreams of computers as communication devices, enabling direct sales, equalizing small and large companies, and sparking innovation free from Microsoft control.
Humans are tool builders; the computer is the "bicycle of the mind," amplifying abilities and ranking as history's greatest invention.
Direction comes from taste: expose to humanity's best—art, music, poetry—and steal great ideas; Macintosh team blended liberal arts with computer science.
Jobs identifies as a hippie, seeking life's deeper spark beyond routine, infusing products with spirit that users sense and love.

IDEAS

Computers in the 1960s were seen as mysterious background machines, but hands-on programming thrilled a young mind by executing personal ideas.
Calling a tech giant's founder at 12 for parts not only yielded them but a job, revealing corporate benevolence through simple employee perks.
Blue boxing exposed how flawed systems could be hacked by amateurs, teaching control over vast infrastructures with minimal resources.
Prank calls via blue boxes, like to the Pope as Kissinger, highlighted youthful audacity and the joy of technological mischief.
Building personal terminals from necessity evolved into the Apple I, blurring lines between hobby projects and commercial viability.
Selling a bus and calculator to fund PCBs showed bootstrapping ingenuity, turning garage tinkering into the first computer store order.
Venture capital rejection led to Markkula's involvement, emphasizing personal commitment over mere funding in early startups.
Questioning business "folklore" like standard costing uncovers hidden inefficiencies rooted in outdated controls.
Programming as a liberal art mirrors thought processes, akin to law school, fostering deeper cognitive skills beyond practical use.
Wealth accumulation felt secondary to product impact, allowing focus on enabling human creativity rather than financial gain.
Xerox PARC's GUI demo blinded Jobs to other innovations like networking, yet its inevitability reshaped computing visions.
Monopolies rot from within as "toner heads" prioritize sales over product genius, squandering revolutionary potential.
IBM's ecosystem strategy turned a flawed PC into dominance, proving partnerships can salvage initial failures.
Resistance from "process" experts nearly derailed Macintosh; outsourcing solved hardware skepticism swiftly.
Scaling confuses process for content, dooming firms like IBM; true innovation demands content-savvy rebels.
Lisa's $10,000 price alienated Apple's core market, illustrating how internal mismatches doom even advanced tech.
Macintosh as a "mission from God" reinvented Apple holistically, from factories to pricing, saving the company.
Product design juggles 5,000 variables daily, evolving ideas through trade-offs no single vision captures.
Team friction polishes raw ideas into gems, much like a rock tumbler transforms ordinary stones.
A-player dynamics create self-reinforcing excellence, where top talent rejects mediocrity and amplifies each other.
Direct, work-focused feedback builds trust among elites, prioritizing team goals over personal egos.
Pioneering laser printing via garage hackers and Adobe partnerships unlocked desktop publishing's potential.
Sculley's survival instinct scapegoated Jobs during crisis, highlighting how recessions expose leadership voids.
Apple's post-Jobs stagnation let Microsoft erode leads, showing execution trumps initial advantage.
Microsoft copies without cultural depth, like fonts from typesetting, producing soulless "McDonald's" tech.
Object-oriented tech at NeXT enables 10x software speed, revolutionizing an industry stagnant for decades.
Web as communication fulfillment equalizes businesses, shifting commerce to direct, innovative channels.
Computers as mind bicycles amplify human efficiency beyond natural limits, rivaling evolution's best.
Hippie ethos infuses tech with transcendent spirit, making products that users emotionally connect to.
Liberal arts backgrounds in engineers blend poetry and code, elevating tech from tool to expressive medium.

INSIGHTS

Early encounters with technology instill lifelong passion by demystifying the abstract into tangible creation.
Corporate cultures valuing people over processes foster innovation from the ground up.
Hacking systemic flaws empowers individuals, proving small inventions can disrupt giants.
Bootstrapping with personal sacrifices turns hobbies into businesses through clever distribution.
Deep questioning dismantles business myths, revealing paths to efficiency and true costs.
Liberal arts like programming refine thinking, bridging intellect with practical empowerment.
Visionary interfaces predict computing's future, but execution determines dominance.
Monopolies erode by sidelining creators for salespeople, losing craftsmanship essence.
Ecosystems amplify weak starts, turning corporate might into collaborative success.
Process obsession stifles content; rebels drive breakthroughs despite resistance.
Market mismatches kill products; align innovation with cultural and economic realities.
Holistic reinvention—from hardware to marketing—revives faltering companies.
Craftsmanship transforms ideas via iterative trade-offs, demanding persistent adaptation.
Passionate teams generate magic through conflict, polishing collective brilliance.
Elite talent creates virtuous cycles, exponentially outperforming averages in creative fields.
Candid feedback sustains high performance, focusing on work over fragile egos.
Strategic partnerships with innovators unlock unforeseen applications like desktop publishing.
Leadership vacuums in crises breed betrayal, destroying built values.
Stagnation invites copycats; continuous evolution maintains leads in tech.
Cultural taste elevates products from functional to inspirational, spreading human subtlety.
Software revolutions like objects and web redefine industries by enabling unprecedented scale.
Tools like computers amplify innate abilities, positioning them as humanity's pinnacle invention.
Stealing from arts infuses tech with soul, making it a medium for deeper expression.
Hippie curiosity seeks life's essence, channeling wonder into beloved technologies.

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."
"If we could make a printed circuit board... we could sell them to all our friends... and everybody be happy and we'd say you know we get a life again."
"Nobody knows why they do what they do. Nobody thinks about things very deeply in business."
"I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer... because it teaches you how to think."
"It was obvious to me that all computers would work like this someday."
"The people that can make the company more successful are sales and marketing people and they end up running the companies and the product people get driven out."
"Designing a product is keeping 5,000 things in your brain these concepts and fitting them all together."
"The same common stones that had gone in through rubbing against each other... had 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... what matters to me is that we do the right thing."
"They just have 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 the ultimate direct to customer distribution channel."
"The personal computer was the bicycle of the mind."
"Good artists copy, great artists steal."
"There's something more going on... there's another side of the coin that we don't talk about much."

HABITS

Questioning established business practices deeply to uncover underlying reasons and inefficiencies.
Spending hours programming and tinkering with early machines to explore and execute ideas.
Seeking out top talent relentlessly, prioritizing A-players who self-select and elevate teams.
Providing direct, clear feedback on work quality to keep high performers aligned without ego.
Admitting errors quickly and changing opinions based on evidence for collective success.
Exposing oneself to diverse arts, music, and history to inform taste and product design.
Building teams of multifaceted experts—poets, artists—who bring liberal arts to tech.
Visiting factories and outsourcing innovatively to solve engineering challenges swiftly.
Focusing on content over process, enduring "pain in the butt" creators for superior outcomes.
Infusing personal passion and hippie curiosity into products for emotional user connection.
Bootstrapping with personal assets and clever credit to launch without external funding.
Iterating daily on product concepts, juggling variables through trade-offs and discoveries.
Hiring equals as partners, valuing commitment beyond money in early ventures.

FACTS

In 1995, Jobs was running NeXT, a niche company focused on object-oriented software.
Apple I orders started with 50 units to the Byte Shop for $500 each, fully assembled.
Apple II featured the first color graphics on a personal computer at its 1977 debut.
Jobs visited Xerox PARC in 1979, seeing GUI, object-oriented programming, and networked Altos.
Macintosh mouse was designed in 90 days for $15 by David Kelley, countering 5-year skepticism.
Apple became the world's largest printer company by revenue when Jobs left in 1985.
IBM's PC launched in 1981 as a $30 billion giant entering against Apple's $1 billion.
NeXT in 1995 had 300 employees and $50-75 million revenue, leading in object tech.
Web commerce could shift tens of billions from catalogs and TV, equalizing company scales.
Humans on bicycles outperform condors in locomotion efficiency per Scientific American.
Macintosh team included musicians, poets, and zoologists as top computer scientists.
Blue boxes allowed calls circling the world 5-6 times via learned satellite codes.

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.
HP 9100 desktop computer from Hewlett-Packard.
NASA Ames Research Center time-sharing terminal.
Bill Hewlett's unlisted phone number in the phone book.
Xerox PARC's Alto computers and graphical user interface demo.
Object-oriented programming from Xerox PARC.
Macintosh Office announcement at 1985 Apple annual meeting.
Scientific American article on locomotion efficiency across species.
Picasso's saying: "Good artists copy, great artists steal."
Apple ad likening personal computer to the "bicycle of the mind."
Friends and Family MCI billing software campaign.
Adobe PostScript software and 19.9% stake purchase.
Canon laser printer engine first shipped to U.S. at Apple.
West Coast Computer Faire booth with projection TV.
Automated factories in Japan visited for Macintosh production.
NeXT object-oriented software platform.

HOW TO APPLY

Encounter technology early to spark curiosity; seek hands-on access like terminals for programming experiments.
Call experts directly for advice or parts, turning cold outreach into opportunities like jobs or mentorship.
Bond with skilled peers over shared interests, collaborating on projects to amplify capabilities.
Research and exploit system flaws ethically, building devices that demonstrate control over larger infrastructures.
Design custom tools from necessity, evolving prototypes into sellable products like terminals to computers.
Sell personal assets to fund essentials, approaching stores with assembled demos to secure initial orders.
Negotiate credit terms naively but persistently with suppliers to bootstrap production without upfront capital.
Recruit partners valuing equity over just money, using their expertise to tool and launch designs.
Question every business practice deeply, eliminating folklore to streamline costs and operations.
Learn programming as a thinking tool, treating it like a liberal arts course for cognitive sharpening.
Visit innovators like Xerox to absorb ideas, then adapt them aggressively despite internal resistance.
Outsource skeptical components swiftly, like mouse design, to prove feasibility and build momentum.
Assemble A-player teams that self-police, focusing on content experts who endure friction for excellence.
Give direct work feedback, emphasizing team goals to refine output without damaging confidence.
Partner with garages and startups for breakthroughs, like Adobe for printing, canceling internal rivals.
During crises, propose research divisions to innovate quietly, preserving vision amid turmoil.
Focus marketing on killer apps like desktop publishing, avoiding broad announcements that dilute impact.
Infuse arts and hippie spirit into tech, hiring diverse talents to create emotionally resonant products.
Predict trends like web commerce, building software to enable direct, equalizing distribution channels.
Amplify human tools like computers, nudging their vector toward communication and creativity.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Steve Jobs reveals technology's transformative power through passion, innovation, and human-centered design for profound societal impact.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Immerse in early tech experiences to ignite lifelong innovation drive.
Build personal projects with friends to master electronics and systems.
Question business norms relentlessly to eliminate inefficiencies.
Treat programming as essential education for sharper thinking.
Visit pioneering labs to steal and adapt groundbreaking ideas.
Hire multifaceted A-players blending arts with technical expertise.
Prioritize content creators over process managers in scaling teams.
Outsource doubts to experts for rapid prototyping success.
Focus products on market realities to avoid pricing mismatches.
Foster team friction passionately to polish ideas into excellence.
Provide blunt, work-centric feedback to elevate performance.
Partner strategically with innovators for complementary breakthroughs.
Steer companies through crises with strong, unified leadership.
Evolve continuously to maintain edges against copycats.
Infuse cultural taste into designs for inspirational products.
Revolutionize software with objects for faster, better creation.
Embrace web as communication tool for democratized commerce.
View computers as mind amplifiers, directing them toward enlightenment.
Draw from liberal arts to add soul to technological mediums.
Seek life's deeper essence to create products users truly love.

MEMO

In the dim glow of a 1995 interview rediscovered from a garage, Steve Jobs, then exiled from Apple and steering NeXT, opens up to journalist Bob Cringely about the sparks that ignited his revolution. At 10, Jobs stumbled into computing's allure at NASA's Ames Research Center, typing commands on a clunky teletype that brought his BASIC programs to life. This thrill—of ideas materializing through code—propelled him to cold-call Hewlett-Packard's Bill Hewlett at 12, landing parts, a job, and a formative glimpse of a company that cherished its people with coffee carts and trust. Those early days at HP's labs, mesmerized by the suitcase-sized 9100 computer, fused with his bond to Steve Wozniak, birthing blue boxes that hacked AT&T's network for free global calls, a prankish lesson in wielding tiny inventions against empires.

The garage alchemy of Apple I emerged from necessity: a homemade terminal for free time-sharing morphed into a microprocessor board, hand-wired over grueling hours. Friends clamored for replicas, leading Jobs to sell his VW bus and Wozniak his calculator to etch printed circuits. A fateful pitch to the Byte Shop secured 50 orders, haggled on net-30 credit from wary distributors, kickstarting a venture that eased into national sales. Mike Markkula's entry as equal partner professionalized the dream, tooling the Apple II—a plastic-clad marvel for software tinkerers, not just hardware hobbyists. Unveiled at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire, its color graphics dazzled, drawing dealers and catapulting Apple into orbit.

Yet success bred folklore. Jobs dissected business rituals, like quarterly cost variances masking sloppy controls, vowing automated precision for Macintosh. Programming, he insisted, was no mere skill but a liberal art, teaching thought like law school—essential for all. Xerox PARC's 1979 demo sealed his GUI epiphany, blinding him to networking's promise but igniting inevitability: computers as intuitive worlds. Xerox's "toner heads"—sales drones—squandered it, a monopoly's rot where product vision yields to marketing. IBM's PC terrified, its mediocrity salvaged by ecosystem allies, while Apple's HP transplants scoffed at mice, forcing Jobs to outsource a $15 marvel in 90 days.

The Lisa's $10,000 folly mismatched Apple's ethos, ousting Jobs from leadership. Undeterred, he rallied a Macintosh "mission from God," touring Japanese factories for automation, slashing chip costs, and crafting a $1,000 democratizer. Design danced 5,000 variables daily, trade-offs honing raw visions. Teams, like rocks in a tumbler, clashed to polish brilliance—A-players propagating excellence, 50-to-100 times average's output. Feedback cut direct: work must serve the goal, egos be damned. Desktop publishing surged from Apple's laser printer pact with Adobe's PostScript, outpacing rivals despite internal skepticism.

Sculley's Pepsi-honed survival instinct scapegoated Jobs amid 1984's recession, shattering their alliance and Apple's soul. By 1995, Apple glided toward death, its 10-year lead frittered as Microsoft opportunistically copied sans taste—pedestrian fare lacking enlightenment's spirit. NeXT, lean at 300 souls, perfected Xerox's objects for 10x software speed, poised as innovation's vanguard. The web, Microsoft-free, loomed profound: communication's dawn, web-borne commerce eclipsing catalogs, tiny firms rivaling titans.

Jobs' fire traced to a Scientific American revelation—humans on bicycles outpacing condors—casting computers as the mind's bicycle, history's apex tool. Taste guided: steal from Picasso, poets, historians; Macintosh's soul stemmed from hippie-nerds chasing life's inrush beyond garages and boardrooms. Products pulsed with that quest, beloved for their subtle humanity. At vector's dawn, nudges matter—toward amplification, not computation—elevating our species through shared subtlety.

This lost dialogue, raw and charismatic, honors Jobs' odyssey: from blue-box pranks to web prophecies, a testament to passion's polish. Apple's later revival under his return echoes the interview's prescience, reminding that true vectors bend through relentless, art-infused pursuit.