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

SUMMARY

In 1995, journalist Robert X. Cringely interviews Steve Jobs, who recounts his childhood fascination with computers, co-founding Apple, pioneering innovations like the Macintosh, his ouster from Apple, and visions for software, the web, and technology's humanistic potential.

STATEMENTS

Steve Jobs first encountered a computer at age 10 or 11 through a time-sharing terminal at NASA Ames Research Center, sparking his lifelong passion.
Early computers were seen as mysterious, powerful machines in movies, often depicted with tape drives and flashing lights, far from everyday reality.
Jobs' initial experience involved typing commands on a teletype printer, waiting for results, which thrilled him as it executed his programs in BASIC or Fortran.
At age 12, Jobs cold-called Hewlett-Packard co-founder Bill Hewlett for parts to build a frequency counter, leading to a summer job at HP that shaped his view of companies.
HP treated employees exceptionally well, providing coffee and donut breaks, recognizing their value as the company's true asset.
Jobs attended HP's Palo Alto Research Labs meetings, where he first saw the HP 9100, the world's first desktop computer, which captivated him with its self-contained design.
Jobs met Steve Wozniak around age 14 or 15; Wozniak knew more about electronics, and they bonded over shared interests.
Inspired by an Esquire article about Captain Crunch's free phone calls, Jobs and Wozniak built blue boxes to hack the AT&T network using specific tones.
They discovered AT&T's technical journal at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, confirming the hack's feasibility, and built a digital blue box after three weeks.
Their first blue box call mistakenly woke someone in Los Angeles, but it proved they could control billions in infrastructure with a small device.
Blue boxing taught them that young innovators could build something to control vast systems, a lesson pivotal to Apple's creation.
To access time-sharing computers for free, Jobs and Wozniak built a terminal, which evolved into the Apple I by adding a microprocessor.
They assembled Apple I boards by hand, taking 40 to 80 hours each, but friends wanted them too, leading to printed circuit boards for efficiency.
Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak his calculator to fund the first Apple I PCB, selling them to recover costs.
At the Byte Shop in Mountain View, Paul Terrell ordered 50 assembled Apple I boards, forcing them to learn parts sourcing and assembly on credit.
They built 100 units, sold 50 to the Byte Shop for twice cost, paid suppliers on time, and realized profit through the remaining 50.
Mike Markkula joined as an equal partner, providing funding and expertise to package the Apple II for non-hobbyists, enabling mass appeal.
The Apple II debuted at the West Coast Computer Faire with advanced color graphics, stealing the show and attracting distributors.
At 21, Jobs learned business by questioning "why" practices, discovering many were folklore without deep rationale.
Apple's automated Macintosh factory eliminated antiquated costing methods, providing real-time cost tracking to the second.
Programming teaches structured thinking, akin to law school, and should be a liberal arts requirement for everyone.
Jobs became worth over $100 million by age 25, but money was secondary to building great products and enabling user creativity.
Xerox PARC's graphical user interface in 1979 convinced Jobs all future computers would work that way, despite its flaws.
Xerox failed to commercialize innovations because sales executives, or "toner heads," overtook product visionaries in monopolistic companies.
IBM's PC entry scared Apple, but its initial poor product succeeded due to ecosystem partners with vested interests.
Jobs bypassed skeptical HP engineers by hiring David Kelley to build a cheap, reliable mouse in 90 days for $15.
Companies falter by institutionalizing process over content, confusing management rituals for innovation.
The Lisa failed as a $10,000 product mismatched Apple's affordable image and customer base.
After losing Lisa leadership, Jobs formed a secret Macintosh team to save Apple, reinventing manufacturing, distribution, and marketing.
Great products require craftsmanship between idea and execution, involving daily trade-offs and 5,000 concepts balanced in the designer's mind.
Teamwork polishes ideas like rocks in a tumbler, through friction and passion, creating beautiful outcomes.
In software and hardware, top performers outperform averages by 50 to 100 times, so hire A-players who self-select and amplify each other.
Jobs' direct feedback on subpar work focused on the output, not the person, to realign talented contributors without ego bruising.
Apple pioneered desktop publishing by partnering with Adobe for PostScript and Canon for laser printers, becoming the world's top printer revenue company.
Jobs' 1985 departure from Apple stemmed from clashing with CEO John Sculley during a recession, where survival instincts led to his ouster.
By 1995, Apple was dying from stagnation, eroding its 10-year lead while Microsoft caught up through opportunism and persistence.
NeXT focuses on object-oriented software, enabling 10x faster development, positioning it as a key enabler in business and society.
The web fulfills computing's shift from calculation to communication, democratizing sales and innovation without Microsoft's control.
Humans are tool-builders; the computer is the "bicycle of the mind," amplifying abilities and ranking among history's greatest inventions.
Great design stems from taste, stealing from the best arts, blending liberal arts with technology for products with spirit.
Jobs identifies as a hippie, drawn to a sense beyond routine life, infusing products with passion that users feel deeply.

IDEAS

Encountering computers as a child felt like a privilege, turning abstract movie myths into tangible power through simple interactions.
Calling tech giants as a kid reveals how accessible innovation was pre-digital barriers, leading to unexpected mentorships.
Hacking phone networks with homemade devices empowers youth to challenge and control massive infrastructures creatively.
Building personal tools from necessity evolves into commercial products, blurring hobby and business lines organically.
Assembling computers by hand for friends highlights community demand driving entrepreneurial pivots without formal plans.
Selling personal assets to fund prototypes shows bootstrapping's raw risk and reward in early tech ventures.
Packaging tech for non-experts democratizes access, shifting from hobbyist kits to everyday user experiences.
Questioning business "folklore" uncovers inefficiencies, allowing outsiders to innovate faster than entrenched players.
Programming as a liberal art reshapes thinking, mirroring law's logic but fostering computational intuition universally.
Wealth accumulation pales against product impact, prioritizing long-term vision over short-term financial gains.
GUI's inevitability struck like lightning, proving interface revolutions outpace hardware alone in user adoption.
Monopolies erode innovation by promoting sales over products, turning pioneers into bureaucratic "toner heads."
Ecosystem alliances, not solo efforts, turn flawed launches into industry dominators through shared stakes.
Bypassing internal skepticism with external experts accelerates breakthroughs, like cheap mice from design firms.
Process obsession kills content creativity, as seen in IBM's downfall from over-relying on management rituals.
Secret teams "on a mission from God" rescue companies by reinventing core operations amid crises.
Product design juggles 5,000 variables daily, where trade-offs and discoveries craft magic from raw ideas.
Team friction polishes raw talents into gems, emphasizing passion over harmony for superior outcomes.
A-player dynamics self-perpetuate, rejecting mediocrity to build exponential innovation pockets.
Direct, work-focused feedback sustains high performers by clarifying gaps without personal attacks.
Pioneering hardware-software partnerships, like laser printers, creates killer apps transforming industries.
Survival instincts in leaders can derail visions, turning allies into rivals during economic pressures.
Stagnation dooms leads; Apple's 10-year edge vanished from lack of forward momentum post-departure.
Object-oriented tech multiplies development speed, infiltrating software as a competitive weapon everywhere.
The web equalizes small firms with giants, fulfilling communication dreams and sparking boundless innovation.
Bicycles amplify human efficiency beyond nature, paralleling computers as mind-extending tools historically.
Stealing from arts infuses tech with taste, creating products that transmit deep human feelings.
Hippie ethos seeks life's hidden sparks, rejecting materialism to infuse spirit into everyday creations.
Computers as mediums for poets and artists reveal tech's role in sharing profound personal expressions.

INSIGHTS

Early hands-on tech access ignites lifelong innovation, transforming curiosity into world-changing enterprises.
Youthful audacity in reaching out breaks barriers, revealing mentorships that shape corporate cultures valuing people.
Hacking vast systems with simple tools teaches empowerment, proving small inventions can redirect global infrastructures.
Necessity-driven personal builds organically scale to businesses, leveraging community needs for sustainable growth.
Bootstrapping with personal sacrifices funds ideas, turning individual risks into collective opportunities.
Democratizing tech packaging expands markets exponentially, from elites to masses via intuitive designs.
Persistent questioning dismantles outdated practices, enabling rapid learning in unstructured business environments.
Computational thinking as education equips minds for problem-solving, elevating it beyond vocational skills.
True wealth lies in impact, not dollars, sustaining motivation through product legacy over financial metrics.
Interfaces define computing's future more than raw power, accelerating adoption through intuitive human-centered design.
Corporate monopolies stifle creativity by elevating sales over substance, rotting innovative cores from within.
Strategic partnerships amplify weak starts, building ecosystems that ensure long-term dominance.
External innovation sourcing overcomes internal inertia, delivering cost-effective breakthroughs swiftly.
Prioritizing content over process preserves inventive edges, avoiding the trap of ritualized mediocrity.
Crisis-forged skunkworks reinvent companies holistically, from factories to marketing, ensuring survival.
Design's alchemy balances myriad constraints, where iterative discoveries forge extraordinary results.
Passionate collaboration through conflict refines ideas, yielding polished innovations greater than solo efforts.
Elite talent clusters create self-reinforcing excellence, magnifying outputs far beyond average teams.
Candid output critiques realign geniuses, fostering success by focusing on collective goals over egos.
Cross-domain synergies birth killer applications, revolutionizing workflows through unexpected integrations.
Leadership voids amplify flaws, where survival trumps vision, leading to organizational paralysis.
Innovation halts without momentum, eroding leads as competitors opportunistically close gaps.
Revolutionary tools like objects streamline creation, embedding software as society's potent enabler.
Communication platforms like the web democratize power, breathing vitality into stagnant industries.
Tool-building defines humanity's pinnacle, with computers amplifying cognition like bicycles do motion.
Taste-driven synthesis from arts elevates tech, embedding cultural depth for resonant user experiences.
Seeking life's essence infuses creations with spirit, attracting souls who sense beyond the material.

QUOTES

"I got into NASA Ames Research Center down here and I got to use a time sharing terminal."
"You could write a program in BASIC let's say or Fortran and actually this machine would sort of take your idea and it would execute your idea and give you back some results."
"I called up Bill Hewlett who lived in Hewlett Packard at the time... and he gave me the parts but he also gave me a job working in Hewlett Packard that summer."
"We were young and what we learned was that we could build something ourselves that could control billions of dollars worth of infrastructure in the world."
"I sold my Volkswagen bus and Steve sold his calculator and we got enough money to pay a friend of ours to make the artwork to make a printed circuit board."
"Nobody knows why they do what they do. Nobody thinks about things very deeply in business that's what I found."
"I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer... because it teaches you how to think."
"Within 10 minutes it was obvious to me that all computers would work like this someday."
"The product sensibility and the product genus that brought them to that monopolistic position gets rotted out by people running these companies who have no conception of a good product versus a bad product."
"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... they polish each other and they polish the ideas."
"In software... the difference between average and the best is 50 to one maybe 100 to one."
"When you get really good people they know they're really good and you don't have to baby people's egos so much... what really matters is the work."
"They just have no taste... their products have no spirit of enlightenment about them they are very pedestrian."
"Software is becoming an incredible force in this world to provide new goods and services to people."
"The web is 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."
"Humans are tool builders and we build tools that can dramatically amplify our innate human abilities."
"Good artists copy great artists steal."

HABITS

Cold-calling industry leaders for advice or parts to kickstart projects and gain opportunities.
Attending research lab meetings weekly to immerse in cutting-edge technology and network with experts.
Building prototypes by hand from scavenged parts to test ideas and iterate quickly.
Questioning every business practice deeply by asking "why" to uncover and eliminate inefficiencies.
Hiring external specialists when internal teams resist innovation, ensuring rapid prototyping.
Forming small, passionate teams for high-stakes projects, focusing on A-players who self-motivate.
Providing direct, work-specific feedback to talented individuals without personal critique.
Stealing and adapting great ideas from arts, history, and other fields to infuse products with depth.
Balancing 5,000 design variables daily through iterative trade-offs and constant discovery.
Surrounding oneself with diverse talents like musicians and poets to blend liberal arts with tech.
Observing nature and efficiency metrics to inspire tool-building analogies for amplification.
Exposing oneself to the best human creations to cultivate taste in product development.
Seeking life's deeper sparks beyond routine to maintain passion in work and creations.

FACTS

In 1979, Xerox PARC demonstrated object-oriented programming, networked systems, and GUI to Jobs, but he fixated on the latter.
HP's 9100 was the first desktop computer, suitcase-sized with a CRT display, programmable in BASIC and APL.
AT&T's phone network flaw placed signaling tones in the voice band, allowing handset hacks to mimic switches.
Apple I boards took 40-80 hours to assemble by hand, leading to PCB creation for faster production.
Mike Markkula, retired from Intel at 31 with $1 million in stock, became Apple's third co-founder.
Apple II's color graphics at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire were the most advanced for personal computers.
Jobs was worth over $100 million at age 25 after Apple's IPO, yet never sold stock initially.
Macintosh mouse, prototyped by David Kelley in 90 days, cost $15 to build versus engineers' $300/5-year estimate.
Apple became the world's largest printer revenue company by 1985 through LaserWriter and desktop publishing.
In 1995, Apple spent hundreds of millions yearly on R&D but only altered Macintosh by 25% since 1985.
Object-oriented technology at NeXT enabled 10x faster software building than traditional methods.
About 15% of U.S. goods and services were catalog or TV-sold, poised to shift to the web by 2005.
Humans rank low in locomotion efficiency, but bicycling surpasses the condor, per Scientific American.
Macintosh team included musicians, poets, artists, and zoologists alongside top computer scientists.

REFERENCES

Triumph of the Nerds (TV series by Robert X. Cringely).
Esquire magazine article on Captain Crunch.
AT&T Technical Journal (discovered at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center).
Byte Shop (first computer store in Mountain View, later an adult bookstore).
West Coast Computer Faire (1977 event where Apple II debuted).
Hewlett-Packard (company, labs, HP 9100 desktop computer).
NASA Ames Research Center (time-sharing terminal access).
Bill Hewlett (HP co-founder, Jobs' phone call and job).
Steve Wozniak (co-founder, blue box collaborator).
Mike Markkula (Intel executive, Apple co-founder).
Don Valentine (venture capitalist who referred Markkula).
Xerox PARC (graphical user interface, object-oriented programming, Alto computers).
John Sculley (Apple CEO from PepsiCo, conflicts with Jobs).
Lisa (Apple computer project Jobs lost leadership on).
Macintosh (Apple computer, automated factory, $2,500 price).
Adobe (PostScript software, 19.9% stake by Apple).
Canon (LaserWriter printer engine supplier).
NeXT (Jobs' company, object-oriented software).
Microsoft (Windows, applications dominance).
Bill Gates (Microsoft co-founder, IBM deal reference).
MCI's Friends and Family (custom billing software example).
Scientific American (locomotion efficiency article on bicycles).
Picasso (quote on artists stealing ideas).
Rock tumbler (metaphor for team polishing from Jobs' childhood neighbor).

HOW TO APPLY

Start with personal curiosity: Access early tech like terminals to experiment with programming and see ideas execute.
Network boldly: Cold-call experts for parts or advice, turning outreach into jobs or collaborations.
Hack creatively: Research systems deeply, like phone tones, to build devices controlling larger infrastructures.
Build from necessity: Design terminals or prototypes for your needs, evolving them into scalable products.
Scavenge and assemble: Gather parts cheaply, hand-build items for yourself and friends to gauge demand.
Fund bootstraps: Sell personal items like cars or calculators to create PCBs or prototypes affordably.
Pitch assembled products: Approach stores with boards, negotiate assembly, and source parts on credit terms.
Package for masses: Design user-friendly casings and peripherals to appeal beyond hobbyists.
Question conventions: Ask "why" on costs or processes to eliminate folklore and implement real-time tracking.
Visit innovators: Tour labs like Xerox PARC to absorb ideas, then adapt them urgently.
Form elite teams: Assemble A-players passionate about content, allowing friction to refine outputs.
Iterate designs: Balance trade-offs daily, discovering opportunities to fit concepts innovatively.
Provide direct feedback: Critique work clearly, focusing on gaps to realign without ego damage.
Partner strategically: License tech like printers from suppliers, buying stakes for control.
Reinvent in crises: Launch secret projects to overhaul manufacturing and marketing for survival.
Infuse arts: Draw from music, poetry, and history to add taste and spirit to tech creations.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Steve Jobs' journey reveals that blending hippie passion with nerdy innovation creates tools amplifying human potential profoundly.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Immerse children in computing early to foster thinking skills, treating it as essential liberal arts education.
Question business norms relentlessly to innovate beyond folklore, learning operations swiftly through depth.
Hire only A-players for core teams, as their synergy self-perpetuates excellence and rejects mediocrity.
Bypass resistant internals by sourcing external experts for rapid, cost-effective breakthroughs.
Prioritize product content over management processes to sustain inventive edges in growing companies.
Form passionate skunkworks during crises to reinvent operations holistically and ensure survival.
Balance vast design variables iteratively, embracing trade-offs as daily opportunities for magic.
Use team friction constructively, like rock tumbling, to polish ideas into superior outcomes.
Deliver candid, work-focused critiques to high performers, clarifying paths without personal doubt.
Pioneer cross-domain partnerships for killer apps, like printers and software, transforming industries.
Steal tastefully from arts and history to infuse products with cultural spirit and subtlety.
Cultivate hippie ethos seeking life's depths to create resonant, soulful technologies users love.
Focus on communication over computation in software, leveraging webs for democratic innovation.
Build tools amplifying innate abilities, viewing computers as mind bicycles for societal elevation.
Democratize access via intuitive interfaces, nudging tech's vector toward humanistic progress.

MEMO

In the dim glow of a 1995 interview rediscovered from a garage, Steve Jobs, then steering the modest NeXT, opens a window into his electric beginnings. At 10, he stumbled upon a time-sharing terminal at NASA Ames, typing commands into a clattering teletype that executed his fledgling programs. This thrill—watching ideas materialize—ignited a passion that propelled him from a curious kid to co-founder of Apple. Jobs recounts cold-calling Hewlett-Packard's Bill Hewlett at 12 for frequency counter parts, landing not just components but a summer job that imprinted HP's employee-centric ethos, complete with donut carts rolling through labs.

Bonding with Steve Wozniak over electronics, the duo dove into blue boxing, hacking AT&T's network with tones mimicking switches, gleaned from a dusty journal at Stanford. Their shoebox device controlled global infrastructure for free calls, even pranking the Vatican as Henry Kissinger. This audacious lesson—that two teens could command billions—paved Apple's path. Necessity birthed their first terminal for free computing access, morphing into the hand-wired Apple I, sold to friends until a Byte Shop order for 50 assembled units forced them into business, funding via Volkswagen and calculator sales.

Mike Markkula's infusion of capital and savvy transformed the Apple II into the first packaged personal computer, unveiled at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire with groundbreaking color graphics that captivated crowds. At 21, Jobs navigated success by dismantling business "folklore," questioning costs to reveal shoddy systems. Wealth amassed—$100 million by 25—but paled against crafting products that empowered users. Xerox PARC's 1979 demo of graphical interfaces blinded him to other gems like networking, but its inevitability reshaped computing, though Xerox's "toner heads" squandered the gold.

Internal rifts at Apple peaked with the overpriced Lisa, clashing with Jobs' vision; ousted from its helm, he rallied a "mission from God" team for Macintosh. Bypassing skeptics, they engineered a $15 mouse in 90 days, built the world's first automated computer factory, and slashed chip costs. Design meant juggling 5,000 concepts amid trade-offs, where passionate teams, like rocks in a tumbler, polished brilliance through friction. A-players self-policed excellence, outperforming averages 100-fold, while direct feedback honed their edge without ego.

Pioneering desktop publishing via Adobe's PostScript and Canon's engines made Apple the top printer firm, but CEO John Sculley's Pepsi-honed survival instincts scapegoated Jobs amid 1984's recession. Exiled in 1985, he watched Apple's 10-year lead erode into stagnation. By 1995, the company glided toward oblivion, its R&D billions yielding scant evolution as Microsoft opportunistically surged via IBM's booster. Jobs critiques Microsoft's pedestrian products—lacking taste or spirit—likening them to McDonald's against enlightenment's feast.

At NeXT, Jobs championed object-oriented software, accelerating development 10-fold to arm businesses with potent tools, from MCI's billing triumphs to internet enablers. The web, he foresaw, would fulfill computing's communicative destiny, equalizing tiny firms with titans, shifting catalogs online for tens of billions in sales. Unfettered by Microsoft, it sparked profound societal shifts, breathing new life into personal tech.

Jobs' drive traces to a Scientific American piece: humans lag in locomotion efficiency, but bicycling catapults us beyond condors—the "bicycle of the mind" for cognition. Stealing from Picasso, his teams blended artists, poets, and scientists, infusing Macs with hippie spirit that users adored. This quest for life's hidden inrush rejected banal careers, channeling deeper essence into creations that transmitted profound feelings.

Ultimately, Jobs embodies tool-building's pinnacle, nudging tech's early vector toward amplification and subtlety. His saga warns of innovation's fragility—stifled by processes, monopolies, or leadership voids—yet inspires with tasteful synthesis elevating humanity. As history unfolds, computers rank supreme among inventions, their trajectory a canvas for those daring to polish the possible.