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

SUMMARY

In a 1995 interview with Robert X. Cringely, Steve Jobs recounts his early fascination with computers, founding Apple, key innovations like the Macintosh, corporate struggles, and visions for technology's future blending art and communication.

STATEMENTS

Steve Jobs first encountered computers at age 10 or 11 through a time-sharing terminal at NASA Ames Research Center, finding the experience thrilling as it executed his programs.
At 12, Jobs cold-called Bill Hewlett of Hewlett-Packard for parts, leading to a summer job that shaped his view of companies valuing employees.
Jobs attended Hewlett-Packard’s Palo Alto research labs, where he fell in love with the HP 9100, the first desktop computer.
Jobs met Steve Wozniak around age 14 or 15, bonding over electronics and building projects together.
Inspired by an Esquire article, Jobs and Wozniak built blue boxes to make free phone calls, discovering they could control vast infrastructure with simple devices.
The blue boxing experience taught Jobs that young people could build tools to influence giant systems, a lesson pivotal to creating Apple.
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.
They hand-built Apple I computers for themselves and friends, scavenging parts, which took 40 to 80 hours each.
To save time, they created printed circuit boards for Apple I, selling them to friends to recoup costs from selling personal items.
Jobs sold the first boards to the Byte Shop, leading to assembling 50 units on credit, marking Apple's entry into business.
Mike Markkula joined as an equal partner, providing investment and expertise to develop the Apple II with color graphics and user-friendly packaging.
The Apple II debuted at the West Coast Computer Faire, stealing the show with advanced graphics and attracting distributors.
Jobs learned business by questioning "why" practices are done, uncovering folklore like standard costing due to poor information systems.
Jobs advocated programming as a liberal art that teaches thinking, comparing it to law school for structured reasoning.
Wealth from Apple's success wasn't Jobs' primary motivator; he focused on the company, people, and enabling user potential.
At Xerox PARC in 1979, Jobs was inspired by the graphical user interface, seeing its inevitability for all computers.
Xerox failed to commercialize innovations due to sales-driven leadership eroding product sensibility, calling executives "toner heads."
IBM's entry scared Apple, but their open architecture allowed others to improve it, unlike Apple's closed system.
Jobs assembled a Macintosh team, overcoming HP-influenced resistance to innovate with cheap, reliable mice and proportional fonts.
Companies falter by institutionalizing process over content, leading to downfall like IBM's; great products come from content experts.
The Lisa project mismatched Apple's market by being too expensive, leading to internal fights and Jobs' loss of leadership.
Jobs formed a skunkworks team for Macintosh, reinventing manufacturing with Japan's automated factories and high-volume deals.
Motivating the Mac team involved passion and craftsmanship, turning ideas into products through constant iteration and trade-offs.
Jobs used a rock tumbler metaphor for teams: friction among talented people polishes ideas into beautiful outcomes.
Success stems from hiring A-players who self-select and propagate excellence, creating dynamic ranges far beyond 2:1 in most fields.
Feedback on the Mac team was direct, focusing on work quality to realign efforts without questioning abilities.
Apple pioneered desktop publishing with the LaserWriter, convincing Adobe to focus on software and integrating it via AppleTalk.
Jobs' 1985 announcement of the Macintosh Office diluted focus from desktop publishing, his biggest marketing blunder.
Conflicts with John Sculley arose from recession leadership vacuum; Sculley scapegoated Jobs to survive, leading to his ouster.
Post-departure, Apple's values eroded; by 1995, it lagged due to stagnant innovation despite heavy R&D spending.
Microsoft succeeded via IBM's boost and persistence in apps, but lacks taste, producing pedestrian products without cultural depth.
NeXT commercialized object-oriented programming, enabling 10x faster software development, targeting business competitive edges.
The web fulfills computers as communication tools, democratizing distribution and innovation beyond Microsoft's control.
Jobs views computers as the "bicycle of the mind," amplifying human abilities like tools throughout history.
Great design requires taste from exposing oneself to the best human works, stealing ideas from artists and liberals arts.
Jobs identifies as a hippie, drawn to life's deeper sparks beyond materialism, infusing products with spirit that users sense.

IDEAS

Encountering computers as mysterious, powerful entities in childhood sparked lifelong curiosity, transforming abstract concepts into tangible execution.
Cold-calling industry leaders at a young age reveals untapped opportunities in direct outreach, bypassing formal barriers.
Valuing employees through simple perks like coffee breaks fosters a company culture centered on human worth over mere productivity.
Building devices to hack phone networks demonstrates how small inventions can command global infrastructure, empowering the individual.
Hand-assembling early computers from scavenged parts highlights bootstrapping innovation through necessity and skill-sharing.
Transitioning from hobbyist kits to fully packaged products democratizes technology for non-experts, expanding user bases exponentially.
Questioning business "folklore" uncovers inefficiencies, allowing rapid learning by challenging unexamined traditions.
Programming as a liberal art mirrors legal training, honing logical thinking applicable beyond technical fields.
Wealth pales against the drive to build meaningful products that enable human potential, redefining success metrics.
Graphical interfaces represent inevitable evolution, blinding viewers to other innovations yet guaranteeing future ubiquity.
Corporate monopolies rot from within when sales eclipse product vision, sidelining creators for marketers.
Open architectures invite collaboration, turning potential threats into ecosystem strengths via vested interests.
Resistance from process-oriented hires underscores the clash between rigid professionalism and creative content mastery.
Skunkworks teams "on a mission from God" bypass bureaucracy, reinventing core operations like manufacturing.
Craftsmanship bridges ideas to products through iteration, trade-offs, and daily discoveries in material limits.
Team friction, like rocks in a tumbler, polishes raw talents into refined, collaborative brilliance.
Hiring only A-players creates self-sustaining excellence, with dynamic ranges in tech far exceeding everyday variances.
Direct, work-focused feedback maintains high standards without ego bruising, prioritizing team goals.
Pioneering hardware-software integrations, like LaserWriter with Adobe, accelerates industry standards through bold partnerships.
Marketing blunders from overambition dilute core strengths, emphasizing focused narratives over broad announcements.
Leadership vacuums in crises amplify scapegoating, destroying built legacies through survival instincts.
Stagnant R&D without visionary direction erodes leads, turning innovation into wasteful expenditure.
Opportunism plus persistence turns boosts like IBM deals into dominant positions, though lacking aesthetic depth.
Object-oriented tech revolutionizes software creation, making complex systems faster and more reliable.
The web as communication metamorphosis levels playing fields, enabling small entities to rival giants.
Tools like computers amplify innate abilities, akin to bicycles outpacing natural locomotion efficiencies.
Taste in design stems from liberal arts immersion, stealing from diverse fields to infuse spirit into tech.
Hippie ethos seeks life's hidden depths, channeling wonder into products that resonate emotionally.
Computers serve as mediums for sharing profound feelings, attracting interdisciplinary talents.
Early vector nudges in technology trajectories yield massive long-term societal impacts.

INSIGHTS

Childhood access to technology ignites profound curiosity, framing computers as magical executors of human intent.
Direct personal outreach to experts democratizes knowledge, forging unexpected mentorships and opportunities.
Corporate cultures thrive when employee well-being is prioritized, embedding loyalty and innovation.
Hacking systems reveals power imbalances, teaching that ingenuity can subvert entrenched infrastructures.
Bootstrapping with limited resources builds resilience, turning constraints into foundational skills.
User-friendly designs expand accessibility, shifting tech from elite hobby to universal tool.
Persistent questioning dismantles outdated practices, accelerating business acumen through critical inquiry.
Computational thinking as education equips minds for structured problem-solving across disciplines.
Intrinsic motivations sustain innovation, rendering financial gains secondary to impactful creation.
Visionary interfaces herald paradigm shifts, their clarity overshadowing adjacent breakthroughs.
Monopoly inertia favors sales over substance, eroding the genius that birthed dominance.
Collaborative ecosystems amplify threats into alliances, leveraging shared stakes for mutual growth.
Content mastery trumps procedural rigidity, as true excellence resides in creative depth.
Autonomous teams revive companies by holistically reinventing operations from production to marketing.
Product evolution demands navigating trade-offs, where subtlety refines grand visions into reality.
Interpersonal dynamics in elite groups forge superior outcomes through constructive conflict.
Elite talent clusters self-perpetuate, magnifying performance disparities inherent to high-stakes fields.
Candid critique aligns efforts without undermining confidence, safeguarding collective ambitions.
Strategic pivots in partnerships hasten market leadership, blending hardware with emergent software.
Vision dilution in announcements scatters focus, underscoring narrative precision's power.
Crisis survival often sacrifices visionaries, fracturing organizational unity amid turmoil.
Innovation atrophy despite investment highlights leadership's role in channeling resources effectively.
Relentless execution exploits opportunities, building empires from calculated risks.
Modular paradigms streamline complexity, empowering rapid development in software ecosystems.
Digital networks fulfill connective potential, reshaping commerce and equality.
Augmentative inventions elevate humanity, positioning computation as pinnacle tool.
Aesthetic sensibility draws from cultural breadth, elevating functional artifacts to inspirational ones.
Transcendent pursuits infuse artifacts with soul, fostering deep user affinity.
Versatile mediums channel personal expression, drawing diverse creators to tech's canvas.
Foundational deflections in tech paths profoundly alter societal trajectories over time.

QUOTES

"I became very um captivated by by a computer and a computer to me was still a little mysterious because it was at the other end of this wire."
"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 and that was an incredible lesson."
"I don't think there would have ever been an Apple computer had there not been blue boxing."
"If we could if we only had one of those we could sell them to all our friends for you know as much as it cost us to make them and make our money back um and everybody be happy."
"In business a lot of things are I I call it folklore they're done because they were done yesterday and the day before."
"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."
"It was obvious you could argue about how many years it would take you could argue about who the winners and losers might be but you couldn't argue about the inevitability of it."
"The people at Xerox Park used to call the people that ran Xerox toner heads uh and they just had no CL clue about what they were seeing."
"It's not process it's content so we had a little bit of that problem at Apple and that problem eventually resulted in in the Lisa."
"Designing a product is keeping 5,000 things in your brain these Concepts and fit fitting them all together."
"The same common stones that had gone in through rubbing against each other like this a little bit of friction creating a little bit of noise had come out these beautiful polished rocks."
"I've built a lot of My Success off finding these truly gifted people and not settling for B and C players but really going for the a players."
"When you say is someone's work is you really mean I don't quite understand it would you please explain it to me."
"He basically got on a rocket ship that was about to leave the pad and the rocket ship left the pad and um it kind of went to his head got confused and thought that he built a rocket ship."
"Apple's dying a very painful death uh it's on a Glide slope to to die."
"They just have no taste they have absolutely no taste and and and what that means is I don't mean that in a small way I mean that in a big way."
"The web is incredibly exciting because it is the the Fulfillment of a lot of our dreams that the computer would ultimately not be primarily a device for computation but metamorphosize into a device for communication."
"The personal computer was the bicycle of the mind and I believe that with every bone in my body."

HABITS

Cold-calling experts for parts or advice to initiate collaborations and gain resources.
Attending evening research lab sessions to explore cutting-edge prototypes hands-on.
Scavenging and hand-building electronics from available components to prototype affordably.
Questioning established business practices repeatedly to uncover root causes and inefficiencies.
Hiring only top-tier talent and fostering self-policing teams of A-players.
Providing direct, work-focused feedback to realign efforts without ego involvement.
Iterating product designs daily through trade-offs and material explorations.
Exposing oneself to liberal arts, music, and history for design inspiration.
Visiting global factories to study and adapt advanced manufacturing techniques.
Forming small, mission-driven teams to bypass bureaucracy and innovate rapidly.
Stealing great ideas from diverse fields like art and poetry shamelessly.
Focusing on long-term product impact over short-term financial gains.
Building personal tools or devices out of necessity before commercializing.

FACTS

In 1995, the full Steve Jobs interview was rediscovered on a VHS tape in director Paul Sen's garage after being lost in shipment.
Jobs first used a computer terminal at age 10 via NASA Ames, programming in BASIC or Fortran on a teletype printer.
Hewlett-Packard offered unlisted numbers publicly in the early 1970s, enabling Jobs' cold call to Bill Hewlett at 12.
The HP 9100 was the first self-contained desktop computer, about suitcase-sized with a CRT display, programmable in BASIC and APL.
Blue boxes exploited AT&T's design flaw by using voice-band signaling, allowing free global calls via synthesized tones.
Apple I boards were designed after selling Jobs' Volkswagen bus and Wozniak's calculator to fund artwork.
The Byte Shop in Mountain View was the world's first computer store, later becoming an adult bookstore.
Apple II featured the era's most advanced personal computer graphics, debuting at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire.
Xerox PARC demonstrated GUI, object-oriented programming, and networked Altos in 1979, but commercialized none effectively.
Macintosh team built a mouse in 90 days for $15, countering skeptics' 5-year, $300 estimates.
LaserWriter was the first desktop laser printer, using Canon engines and Adobe PostScript, shared via AppleTalk.
By 1985, Apple was the world's largest printer company by revenue, later overtaken by HP.
NeXT in 1995 had 300 employees and $50-75 million revenue, leading in object-oriented software.
The web in 1995 enabled 15% of US goods/services via catalogs to shift online, projecting tens of billions in sales.
Human bicycle efficiency surpasses the condor's, the most efficient natural locomoter, per Scientific American.

REFERENCES

Triumph of the Nerds TV series (1995).
Esquire magazine article on Captain Crunch.
AT&T Technical Journal on phone signaling tones.
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center technical library.
Hewlett-Packard 9100 desktop computer.
Apple I and Apple II computers.
Byte Shop computer store (Mountain View).
West Coast Computer Faire (1977).
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) innovations: GUI, object-oriented programming, networked Altos.
Lisa computer project.
Macintosh computer and factory.
LaserWriter printer and Adobe PostScript.
Canon laser printer engine.
Macintosh Office announcement (1985).
NeXT software and object-oriented technology.
World Wide Web and Internet.
Scientific American article on locomotion efficiency.
Picasso's saying: "Good artists copy, great artists steal."
Bill Atkinson quote on feedback.

HOW TO APPLY

Start with direct outreach: Cold-call experts or companies for resources, as Jobs did with Hewlett, to kickstart projects.
Explore labs and prototypes: Regularly visit research centers or events to interact with emerging tech hands-on.
Build from necessity: Design and assemble personal tools when commercial options are unaffordable, evolving them iteratively.
Question routines: Ask "why" repeatedly in business processes to eliminate folklore and optimize operations.
Package for accessibility: Develop user-friendly versions of innovations to reach non-experts, expanding market potential.
Form equal partnerships: Recruit experienced allies like Markkula, offering equity to align incentives and expertise.
Debut boldly: Showcase prototypes at industry fairs with demos to attract distributors and buzz.
Hire A-players exclusively: Vet talent rigorously, letting them self-select to build elite, self-sustaining teams.
Challenge skepticism: Prototype disputed ideas quickly, like the cheap mouse, to prove feasibility.
Use metaphors for motivation: Share stories like the rock tumbler to inspire team friction for polished results.
Provide direct feedback: Focus critiques on work specifics to realign high-performers without demotivating.
Pivot partnerships: Convince specialists, like Adobe, to software-focus for integrated ecosystem advantages.
Focus announcements: Narrow marketing to core strengths, avoiding dilutions like Macintosh Office overreach.
Navigate crises proactively: Propose research divisions or role shifts to preserve visionary contributions.
Commercialize overlooked ideas: Refine and market tech like objects from PARC for faster development.
Infuse liberal arts: Draw from diverse fields to add taste and spirit to technical products.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Steve Jobs' journey reveals technology's power to amplify human potential when driven by passion, taste, and relentless innovation.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Learn programming early to cultivate structured thinking as a foundational skill for any career.
Prioritize employee well-being with simple gestures to build loyal, productive cultures.
Hack systems ethically to understand infrastructure vulnerabilities and empowerment.
Bootstrap prototypes with scavenged resources to foster ingenuity under constraints.
Sell fully assembled products to non-hobbyists for broader adoption and revenue.
Challenge business folklore by probing "why" to streamline inefficient traditions.
Visit innovators like PARC to absorb and adapt groundbreaking concepts swiftly.
Avoid sales-driven monopolies by keeping product visionaries in leadership.
Build open ecosystems to turn competitors into collaborators via shared interests.
Assemble skunkworks teams for rapid, bureaucracy-free innovation.
Embrace team friction as a polishing force for superior outcomes.
Hire only elite talent to create self-perpetuating excellence pockets.
Deliver candid, work-centric feedback to maintain high standards.
Integrate hardware-software boldly, like LaserWriter, for market dominance.
Focus marketing on singular breakthroughs to avoid narrative dilution.
Propose internal research roles during conflicts to retain vision.
Invest in object-oriented tools for 10x software efficiency.
Embrace the web for communication over computation to democratize access.
Design with liberal arts taste to infuse products with emotional resonance.
Nudge tech vectors early for profound long-term societal benefits.

MEMO

In 1995, as the personal computer revolution reshaped the world, Steve Jobs sat for a rare, unfiltered interview with journalist Robert X. Cringely, rediscovered years later from a dusty VHS tape. At 40, Jobs reflected on his improbable path from a curious 10-year-old tinkering at NASA Ames to co-founding Apple, a company then teetering on irrelevance. His story begins with a teletype terminal that executed his first programs, igniting a fascination with machines that "took your idea and executed it." This thrill led to a bold cold call at 12 to Hewlett-Packard's Bill Hewlett, securing parts and a job that imprinted a humane corporate ethos—coffee and donut breaks signaling that employees were the true asset.

Jobs' partnership with Steve Wozniak blossomed from shared electronics passion into audacious hacks. Inspired by an Esquire tale of "Captain Crunch," they built blue boxes to phreak AT&T's network, routing free calls worldwide—even pranking the Vatican as Henry Kissinger. "We could build a little thing that could control a giant thing," Jobs marveled, a revelation that birthed Apple. Necessity fueled their first terminal for free time-sharing, evolving into the hand-wired Apple I, assembled in garages over 40-hour marathons. Selling boards to the Byte Shop transformed hobby into business; Jobs haggled parts on credit, flipping 50 units for profit and easing into nationwide distribution.

With Mike Markkula's investment and savvy, the Apple II emerged—a color-graphics marvel in a plastic case, unveiled at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire to dealer acclaim. Jobs learned business by dismantling "folklore," like opaque costing systems rooted in poor data. He championed programming as a liberal art, teaching thought like law school. Wealth followed—$100 million by 25—but paled against building empowering products. Xerox PARC's 1979 demo of graphical interfaces blinded him to networking and objects, yet confirmed computing's future: intuitive, inevitable. Xerox squandered it, its "toner heads" executives prioritizing sales over craft, a cautionary tale of monopolies rotting from marketing dominance.

Internal rifts brewed as Apple scaled. HP transplants resisted Jobs' visions of mice and fonts, favoring soft keys; he outsourced a $15 prototype in 90 days. Process eclipsed content, birthing the overpriced Lisa—a mismatch for Apple's ethos. Ousted from leadership, Jobs formed the Macintosh skunkworks, a "mission from God" team reinventing factories via Japanese automation and high-volume chips. Four years yielded a $2,500 machine with bitmap graphics, but trade-offs abounded: electrons, plastics, and robots demanded 5,000-brain juggling. The rock tumbler metaphor captured it—talented friction polishing ideas into gems.

Desktop publishing crowned the Mac via the LaserWriter, Apple's first laser printer with Adobe PostScript, shared over AppleTalk. Jobs convinced the garage duo behind it to software-focus, buying 19.9% of Adobe. Yet 1985's Macintosh Office pitch diluted this killer app. Clashes with CEO John Sculley escalated in recession; Sculley, a Pepsi survivor, scapegoated Jobs amid board favor, exiling him. "He destroyed everything I'd spent 10 years working for," Jobs lamented. By 1995, Apple languished, its 10-year lead evaporated despite billion-dollar R&D—stagnant, Microsoft eroding differentiation with opportunistic apps, though bereft of taste.

At NeXT, Jobs perfected PARC's object-oriented tech, enabling 10x faster software for businesses. He foresaw the web as computing's communicative rebirth, unowned by Microsoft, poised to shift catalogs online and empower smallest firms against giants. "The bicycle of the mind," computers amplified humanity, outpacing condors in efficiency per Scientific American. Taste guided direction—stealing from Picasso, poets, and zoologists infusing Mac with spirit users adored. A self-proclaimed hippie, Jobs sought life's "inrush" beyond materialism, channeling it into products transmitting profound feelings.

Jobs' ouster scarred him emotionally, but his vector endures. Apple's glide to death seemed irreversible then, yet NeXT's acquisition a year later revived it with OS X's core. Microsoft's McDonald's-like products saddened him—not their win, but unrefined potential. "Great artists steal," he urged, blending liberal arts into tech. This lost interview captures Jobs' charisma: candid, visionary, blending nerd and hippie. It reminds that nudging tech's early path—toward enlightenment over pedestrianism—elevates species-wide flourishing.

Ultimately, Jobs embodied the tool-builder's ethos, lucky to witness computation's dawn in Silicon Valley. His lessons: hire A-players, embrace friction, question deeply. As web dreams materialized, his bicycle metaphor propelled innovation, proving small deflections yield galactic impacts. In an era of AI and connectivity, Jobs' 1995 words urge infusing tools with soul, ensuring technology serves human depths, not just commerce.