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

SUMMARY

In a rediscovered 1995 interview, Steve Jobs recounts his early encounters with computers, founding Apple with Steve Wozniak, key innovations like the Macintosh, internal conflicts leading to his ouster, and visions for software revolutions and the web.

STATEMENTS

Steve Jobs first encountered a computer at age 10 or 11 through a time-sharing terminal at NASA Ames Research Center, finding it thrilling to write programs that executed his ideas.
At 12, Jobs called Bill Hewlett of Hewlett-Packard for parts to build a frequency counter, leading to a summer job that shaped his view of a company valuing employees.
Hewlett-Packard provided morning coffee and donut breaks, demonstrating recognition of employees as the company's true value.
Jobs met Steve Wozniak around age 14 or 15, bonding over electronics and inspired by an Esquire article about Captain Crunch's free phone calls.
Jobs and Wozniak built blue boxes to make free long-distance calls by mimicking AT&T signaling tones, learning they could control vast infrastructure with simple devices.
The blue box project taught Jobs that young people could build something to influence billion-dollar systems, a lesson pivotal to creating Apple.
Necessity drove the shift to personal computers; Jobs and Wozniak built a terminal because they couldn't afford one for time-sharing access.
The Apple I was an extension of their terminal project, built by hand for personal use with scavenged parts.
To save time helping friends build computers, Jobs and Wozniak created printed circuit boards, selling their Volkswagen bus and calculator to fund it.
Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop ordered 50 assembled Apple I boards, forcing Jobs and Wozniak to learn parts sourcing and assembly on credit.
They sold the first 50 units in 29 days, paying suppliers on day 30, but faced a profit realization crisis with inventory rather than cash.
Mike Markkula joined as an equal partner, providing funding and expertise to package the Apple II for non-hobbyists with color graphics.
The Apple II debuted at the West Coast Computer Faire, stealing the show with advanced graphics and attracting dealers.
Jobs learned business by questioning "why" practices exist, discovering much is folklore without deep thought.
In factories, standard costing was used due to poor information systems; Jobs eliminated it with precise tracking in Macintosh production.
Programming teaches structured thinking like law school, making computer science a liberal art everyone should learn.
Jobs became worth over a million at 23, $10 million at 24, and $100 million at 25, but money enabled ideas, not motivation.
At Xerox PARC in 1979, Jobs was inspired by the graphical user interface, seeing its inevitability for all computers.
Xerox failed to commercialize innovations because sales and marketing dominated, eroding product sensibility in monopolies.
IBM's entry scared Apple, but their open architecture allowed others to improve it, unlike Apple's closed system.
HP engineers resisted GUI ideas like mice, so Jobs outsourced a reliable $15 mouse design in 90 days.
Companies confuse process with content when scaling, leading to downfall like IBM's.
The Lisa failed due to mismatch with Apple's culture and market, priced at $10,000 for hobbyists.
After losing Lisa leadership, Jobs formed a small Macintosh team to save Apple, reinventing manufacturing and distribution.
Great products require craftsmanship between idea and execution, involving trade-offs and daily refinements.
Teams polish ideas like rocks in a tumbler through friction and passion, creating beautiful results.
In software and hardware, top performers outperform average by 50 to 100 times, so hire A-players who self-select.
Jobs gave direct feedback on poor work to keep talented people on track without questioning their abilities.
Apple pioneered desktop publishing with the LaserWriter, buying into Adobe and sourcing Canon engines.
Jobs left Apple in 1985 after clashing with Sculley during recession, feeling values were destroyed.
By 1995, Apple was dying from standing still, eroding its lead while Microsoft caught up.
Microsoft succeeded via IBM's boost and persistence but lacks taste, producing pedestrian products without cultural depth.
NeXT focuses on object-oriented software, enabling 10x faster development for business applications.
The web fulfills computers as communication devices, enabling direct sales and equalizing small and large companies.
Humans amplify abilities with tools like bicycles; computers are the mind's bicycle, ranking among history's top inventions.
Great design stems from taste, stealing from arts and liberal fields to infuse products with spirit.
Jobs identifies as a hippie, valuing life's deeper side beyond routine, which hippies sought and infused into products.

IDEAS

Encountering computers as mysterious background machines sparked lifelong fascination, turning privilege into passion.
Calling a CEO at 12 for parts revealed accessibility in early tech world, leading to formative job experiences.
Blue boxing demonstrated power of simple hacks over massive systems, empowering youth to disrupt giants.
Building devices from library-found secrets showed persistence uncovers real-world magic in technical details.
Personal necessity birthed innovations; unaffordable terminals led to self-built solutions evolving into products.
Selling buses and calculators to fund prototypes highlights bootstrapping's role in entrepreneurial leaps.
Assembling on credit with no experience forced rapid learning, turning hobby into viable business.
Packaging for non-hobbyists expanded market from thousands to millions, democratizing computing.
Questioning business folklore exposes inefficiencies, allowing innovators to streamline without formal training.
Programming mirrors thought processes, training logical rigor akin to legal reasoning but for computation.
Wealth accumulation felt secondary to product impact, prioritizing company and enabling long-term ideas.
GUI at Xerox blinded to other innovations like networking, yet ignited inevitable interface revolution.
Monopolies promote sales over products, rotting innovation as "toner heads" ignore craftsmanship.
Open ecosystems invite collaboration, saving flawed launches like IBM PC through vested interests.
Outsourcing resisted ideas accelerates breakthroughs, proving external expertise trumps internal doubt.
Scaling confuses process for essence, where management prowess lacks creative content depth.
Mismatched products fail culturally; high prices alienate core users despite technical brilliance.
Small, mission-driven teams reinvent industries, from factories to marketing, under intense passion.
Ideas evolve through trade-offs; daily discoveries refine 5,000 concepts into cohesive products.
Team friction polishes raw talents like tumbling rocks, yielding exceptional outcomes from arguments.
Exceptional performers create exponential value, self-attracting more elites in high-stakes environments.
Direct, work-focused feedback sustains excellence without ego coddling, prioritizing team goals.
Pioneering hardware-software integrations, like LaserWriter, creates killer apps unexpectedly.
Survival instincts in crises scapegoat innovators, fracturing visions during economic pressures.
Standing still erodes leads; billions in R&D yield little without forward momentum.
Opportunism plus persistence turns boosts into dominance, but taste elevates beyond mere functionality.
Objects revolutionize software creation, multiplying speed while infiltrating business weapons.
Web equalizes commerce, shifting catalogs online and amplifying small players' visibility.
Tools like computers exponentially boost human efficiency, akin to bicycles outpacing natural locomotion.
Liberal arts infuse tech with soul; multidisciplinary teams steal greatness from poetry and history.
Hippie ethos seeks life's mysteries, channeling wonder into products that users intuitively love.

INSIGHTS

Early access to technology demystifies power, fostering innovators who see machines as extensions of curiosity.
Youthful audacity in reaching out builds networks, shaping corporate cultures that value human potential.
Hacking infrastructures reveals asymmetric leverage, where ingenuity controls complexity far beyond scale.
Bootstrapping from personal needs scales to markets, blending necessity with communal demand.
Deep questioning dismantles conventions, revealing business as learnable craft rather than innate expertise.
Computational thinking refines cognition, positioning tech education as essential for structured intellect.
Financial success amplifies vision when secondary to creation, sustaining long-term societal impact.
Revolutionary interfaces emerge from flawed prototypes, their essence inevitable despite imperfections.
Corporate inertia in monopolies favors exploitation over invention, demanding constant product vigilance.
Collaborative ecosystems thrive on shared stakes, transforming weaknesses into collective strengths.
External validation accelerates internal resistance, proving fresh perspectives outpace entrenched skepticism.
Growth pitfalls institutionalize form over substance, where processes eclipse innovative cores.
Aligned pricing and culture ensure product resonance, avoiding elite mismatches with mass appeal.
Passionate collectives through conflict refine ideas, mirroring natural polishing for superior results.
Elite hiring compounds excellence, creating self-sustaining cultures of uncompromising talent.
Candid critique preserves capability, focusing on output to realign without eroding confidence.
Integrated ecosystems birth applications, turning hardware bets into publishing paradigms.
Crises expose leadership voids, where instincts prioritize self over strategic unity.
Innovation halts without motion; leads vanish as rivals iterate relentlessly.
Relentless opportunism leverages platforms, but cultural infusion distinguishes enduring quality.
Modular paradigms like objects streamline complexity, empowering software as societal transformer.
Digital networks redefine commerce, democratizing access and amplifying underrepresented voices.
Augmentative inventions elevate species, with computing as pinnacle of human-tool synergy.
Aesthetic sensibility from diverse fields breathes life into utilities, creating emotionally resonant tech.
Transcendent pursuits infuse artifacts with intangible spirit, evoking love beyond utility.

QUOTES

"It was an incredibly thrilling experience um so I became very um captivated by by a computer."
"We could build a little thing that could control a giant thing and that was an incredible lesson."
"I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer should learn a computer language because it teaches you how to think."
"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."
"When you have a monopoly market share the company's not anymore successful so the people that can make the company more successful are sales and marketing people."
"Designing a product is keeping 5,000 things in your brain these Concepts and fitting them all together."
"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."
"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."
"The most important thing I think you can do for somebody who's really good and who's really being counted on is to point out to them when um they're not their work isn't good enough."
"I don't really care about being right you know I just care about success so you'll find a lot of people that will tell you that uh I had a very strong opinion and uh they you know presented evidence to the contrary and five minutes later I completely changed my mind."
"Their products have no Spirit to them their products have no sort of spirit of Enlightenment about them they are very pedestrian."
"Software is becoming an incredible force in this world um to provide new goods and services to people."
"The web is the ultimate direct to customer distribution Channel another way to think about it is the smallest company in the world can look as large as the largest company in the world on the web."
"The personal computer was the bicycle of the mind and I believe that with every bone in my body."
"Ultimately it comes down to taste it comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things that humans have done and then try to bring those things in to what you're doing."
"Good artists copy great artists steal and we have you know always been Shameless about stealing great ideas."

HABITS

Routinely question established business practices by asking "why" to uncover underlying inefficiencies.
Build personal prototypes from scavenged parts to solve immediate needs before scaling.
Network boldly by cold-calling experts for advice or resources, regardless of age.
Collaborate intensely with like-minded talents on hands-on projects to foster innovation.
Visit global factories and research labs to study and adapt cutting-edge manufacturing.
Hire and surround yourself with top A-players who challenge and elevate collective work.
Provide direct, specific feedback on work quality to realign efforts without personal attacks.
Expose yourself to diverse fields like arts and history to infuse taste into technical creations.
Persist through trade-offs and daily refinements, holding thousands of product details in mind.
Change opinions quickly based on evidence, prioritizing success over ego.
Seek deeper life's meanings beyond routine, channeling wonder into creative endeavors.
Steal and integrate great ideas from other domains shamelessly to enhance products.
Form small, mission-driven teams for high-stakes projects to reinvent processes.

HABITS

Routinely question established business practices by asking "why" to uncover underlying inefficiencies.
Build personal prototypes from scavenged parts to solve immediate needs before scaling.
Network boldly by cold-calling experts for advice or resources, regardless of age.
Collaborate intensely with like-minded talents on hands-on projects to foster innovation.
Visit global factories and research labs to study and adapt cutting-edge manufacturing.
Hire and surround yourself with top A-players who challenge and elevate collective work.
Provide direct, specific feedback on work quality to realign efforts without personal attacks.
Expose yourself to diverse fields like arts and history to infuse taste into technical creations.
Persist through trade-offs and daily refinements, holding thousands of product details in mind.
Change opinions quickly based on evidence, prioritizing success over ego.
Seek deeper life's meanings beyond routine, channeling wonder into creative endeavors.
Steal and integrate great ideas from other domains shamelessly to enhance products.
Form small, mission-driven teams for high-stakes projects to reinvent processes.

FACTS

Jobs first used a computer 30 years before 1995, via a teletype terminal at NASA Ames.
At 12, Jobs got a job at Hewlett-Packard after calling Bill Hewlett directly.
Blue boxes allowed routing calls worldwide, including satellites, for free phone pranks.
Jobs and Wozniak sold personal items to raise $1,300 for Apple I circuit boards.
Apple II featured the first color graphics on a personal computer in 1977.
Jobs was worth $100 million by age 25 after Apple's 1980 IPO.
Xerox PARC had over 100 networked Alto computers using email in 1979.
Macintosh mouse was designed in 90 days for $15, countering estimates of 5 years and $300.
Apple became the world's largest printer company by revenue when Jobs left in 1985.
NeXT had about 300 employees and $50-75 million revenue in 1995.
The web shifted 15% of US catalog sales online by the mid-1990s projections.
Humans on bicycles expend fewer calories per kilometer than condors, per Scientific American.
Macintosh team included musicians, poets, and artists alongside computer scientists.

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 library.
Hewlett-Packard 9100 desktop computer.
NASA Ames Research Center time-sharing terminal.
Byte Shop in Mountain View, first computer store.
West Coast Computer Faire.
Xerox PARC Alto computer and graphical user interface.
Object-oriented programming from Xerox PARC.
Macintosh Office announcement.
LaserWriter printer and Adobe PostScript software.
Canon laser printer engine.
NeXT operating system and object technology.
World Wide Web and internet protocols.
Scientific American article on locomotion efficiency.
Picasso's saying: "Good artists copy, great artists steal."
Bill Atkinson quote on feedback meaning lack of understanding.

HOW TO APPLY

Start with personal curiosity: Access early tech like terminals to experiment with programming and see ideas execute.
Build audacious connections: Cold-call industry leaders for parts or advice, turning conversations into opportunities.
Hack for empowerment: Research technical secrets in libraries to create devices that control larger systems.
Prototype from necessity: Design and assemble custom tools when commercial options are unaffordable.
Fund bootstraps creatively: Sell personal assets to cover initial production costs like circuit board artwork.
Negotiate on credit: Convince suppliers for net-30 terms without experience, assembling and selling to pay on time.
Package for masses: Add enclosures, power supplies, and keyboards to appeal beyond hobbyists.
Question conventions deeply: Ask "why" repeatedly in business to eliminate folklore and improve efficiency.
Form elite teams: Recruit multidisciplinary A-players passionate about content over process.
Iterate through friction: Encourage arguments in groups to polish ideas like rocks in a tumbler.
Provide blunt feedback: Clearly articulate work shortcomings tied to team goals, preserving individual confidence.
Steal across fields: Integrate arts, history, and poetry into tech to add taste and spirit.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Steve Jobs' journey reveals passion, taste, and relentless innovation as keys to human-amplifying technology.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Embrace early tech exposure to ignite lifelong curiosity and structured thinking.
Question business norms relentlessly to innovate beyond folklore.
Learn programming as a liberal art for cognitive sharpening.
Prioritize product craftsmanship over sales in leadership roles.
Build open ecosystems to leverage collaborative improvements.
Outsource doubted ideas to accelerate breakthroughs.
Hire A-players exclusively for self-sustaining excellence.
Foster team friction to refine ideas through passionate debate.
Give direct work-focused feedback to elite talents.
Pioneer integrations like hardware-software for killer apps.
Nudge tech vectors early for profound long-term impact.
Infuse liberal arts into engineering for products with soul.
Channel transcendent pursuits into creations that evoke love.
Democratize tools to amplify innate human abilities exponentially.
Persist opportunistically while cultivating cultural taste.
Revolutionize software creation with modular paradigms.
Harness networks like the web for equitable commerce.
Seek life's deeper mysteries to inspire meaningful work.

MEMO

In 1995, as he navigated the aftermath of his ouster from Apple, Steve Jobs sat for a rare, candid interview with journalist Robert X. Cringely, unearthing the roots of his revolutionary spirit. At just 10 or 11, Jobs stumbled upon a time-sharing terminal at NASA's Ames Research Center—a teletype printer that felt like magic, allowing a boy to command distant machines. This thrill of seeing ideas execute fueled a passion that defined his life, from cold-calling Hewlett-Packard's Bill Hewlett at 12 for parts (and landing a job) to bonding with Steve Wozniak over electronics pranks. Their blue boxes, inspired by an Esquire tale of free calls, weren't mere mischief; they proved two teenagers could hijack AT&T's billion-dollar network, a lesson in asymmetric power that birthed Apple.

The garage origins of Apple were pure necessity: unable to afford a terminal, Jobs and Wozniak built one, evolving it into the Apple I—a hand-wired board they assembled for friends. Selling a bus and calculator funded prototypes, and a fateful pitch to the Byte Shop's Paul Terrell for 50 units thrust them into business, haggling parts on credit with no clue what "net 30" meant. Mike Markkula's investment professionalized the Apple II, packaging it for everyday users with color graphics that dazzled at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire. Jobs learned management not from books but by probing "why" behind practices, dismantling factory inefficiencies and viewing business as accessible craft, far from rocket science.

Xerox PARC's 1979 demo of graphical interfaces blinded Jobs to networking and objects but ignited his vision: all computers would soon mimic this intuitive world. Yet Xerox's "toner heads"—sales-driven executives—squandered it, a cautionary tale of monopolies rotting innovation. IBM's PC scared Apple but succeeded through openness, inviting allies to refine flaws. Internal resistance at Apple, from Hewlett-Packard hires wedded to soft keys, nearly derailed the Macintosh; Jobs outsourced a $15 mouse in 90 days, proving agility trumps doubt. The Lisa's $10,000 mismatch with Apple's ethos failed, but Jobs' rogue Mac team reinvented everything—factories, chips, marketing—for a $1,000 powerhouse that saved the company.

Leadership clashes with CEO John Sculley, imported from Pepsi's slow cycles, exposed fractures during the 1984 recession. Sculley's survival instincts scapegoated Jobs, eroding Apple's values and leaving it stagnant. By 1995, Jobs lamented Apple's glide path to death, its 10-year lead frittered while Microsoft, boosted by IBM, persistently copied without taste—pedestrian products lacking enlightenment. At NeXT, Jobs championed object-oriented software, enabling 10x faster creation to arm businesses with potent tools, fulfilling computing's shift from calculation to communication.

The web, Jobs foresaw, would redefine society: catalogs migrating online, small firms rivaling giants in direct sales, breathing vitality into personal computing beyond Microsoft's grip. His passion stemmed from a Scientific American insight—humans on bicycles outpace condors—casting computers as the mind's bicycle, history's pinnacle tool. Taste, drawn from Picasso's stealing ethos and liberal arts, infused Mac with spirit; its team of poets and zoologists created products users loved, not just used. Jobs embodied the hippie spark, seeking life's mysteries to craft artifacts transmitting wonder, nudging humanity's vector toward amplification.

Ultimately, Jobs' ethos warns against process eclipsing content, urging relentless nudges in tech's early trajectory for profound flourishing.