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

SUMMARY

In a rediscovered 1995 interview, journalist Robert X. Cringely engages Steve Jobs on his early fascination with computers, founding Apple, key innovations like the Macintosh, corporate struggles, and visionary predictions for technology's role in communication and human potential.

STATEMENTS

Steve Jobs first encountered a computer at age 10 or 11 through a time-sharing terminal at NASA Ames Research Center, sparking a lifelong passion.
Jobs called Bill Hewlett at Hewlett-Packard at age 12 to request parts for a frequency counter, leading to a summer job that shaped his view of companies.
Hewlett-Packard exemplified employee-centric culture with practices like daily coffee and donut breaks, influencing Jobs' early business ideals.
Jobs frequented HP's Palo Alto Research Labs, where he discovered the HP 9100, the first desktop computer, and spent hours programming it.
Jobs met Steve Wozniak at 14 or 15, bonding over electronics and collaborating on projects inspired by stories like Captain Crunch's free phone calls.
The duo built a blue box to make free long-distance calls using AT&T's signaling tones, realizing they could control vast infrastructure with simple tools.
Blue boxing taught Jobs that young innovators could build devices to influence billion-dollar systems, directly inspiring the Apple computer.
Jobs and Wozniak designed and built their first terminal for free time-sharing access, evolving it into the Apple I as a personal project.
They soldered Apple I boards by hand, taking 40 to 80 hours each, and helped friends build them, leading to the idea of printed circuit boards.
Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak his calculator to fund PCB artwork, selling boards to the Byte Shop, the world's first computer store.
The Byte Shop ordered 50 assembled Apple I units, prompting Jobs to secure parts on 30-day credit and realize profits from the venture.
Mike Markkula joined as an equal partner, providing investment and expertise to package the Apple II for non-hobbyists with color graphics.
The Apple II debuted at the West Coast Computer Faire in 1977, stealing the show with advanced graphics and attracting distributors.
Jobs learned business by questioning "why" practices, discovering many were folklore without deep rationale, like standard costing in factories.
Computers should be taught as a liberal art, akin to law school, to train logical thinking rather than just practical programming skills.
Becoming wealthy young—$1 million at 23, $100 million at 25—mattered less to Jobs than building the company, people, and enabling products.
Xerox PARC demonstrated graphical user interfaces in 1979, convincing Jobs that all future computers would adopt this intuitive approach.
Xerox failed to commercialize innovations due to sales-focused leadership eroding product sensibility in monopolistic companies.
Apple struggled implementing GUI ideas because many engineers from HP lacked vision for mice and proportional fonts, requiring external innovation.
Great products stem from content understanding, not rigid processes; institutionalizing success often confuses process with essence.
The Lisa project mismatched Apple's affordable image, priced at $10,000, leading to failure despite innovative features.
After losing leadership of Lisa to John Couch, Jobs formed a skunkworks team for Macintosh to save Apple from stagnation.
Macintosh development reinvented manufacturing with the world's first automated computer factory, using high-volume 68000 chips at reduced cost.
Motivating the Mac team involved passion and vision, emphasizing craftsmanship between ideas and products through daily problem-solving.
Jobs likened team collaboration to a rock tumbler, where friction among talented people polishes ideas into beautiful results.
Success in tech demands A-players who self-select and elevate standards, creating exponential improvements beyond 2:1 ratios in most fields.
Direct feedback on work quality focuses on specifics without undermining confidence, prioritizing team goals over egos.
Apple pioneered desktop publishing by partnering with Adobe and Canon for the LaserWriter, dominating printer revenue before Jobs' departure.
Jobs left Apple in 1985 after clashing with John Sculley, who prioritized survival over visionary execution during a recession.
Apple's post-departure stagnation allowed Microsoft to catch up, eroding its lead through lack of innovation and leadership.
NeXT focused on object-oriented software to revolutionize development, enabling 10x faster creation of complex applications.
The web represents computing's shift to communication, democratizing commerce and innovation beyond Microsoft's control.

IDEAS

Encountering a primitive teletype terminal as a child revealed computers as magical executors of ideas, igniting curiosity without visual spectacle.
Calling tech giants like Bill Hewlett as a kid highlighted the accessibility of innovation in an era without barriers like unlisted numbers.
Blue boxing demonstrated how two teenagers could hack global telecom networks, proving small inventions control massive systems.
Selling personal assets like a bus or calculator to bootstrap a startup underscores resourcefulness in early entrepreneurship.
Assembling computers by hand for friends evolved into scalable production via printed circuit boards, blending hobby with commerce.
Venture capitalists initially dismissed Jobs as unkempt, yet pivotal introductions like Mike Markkula turned garages into empires.
Debuting products at trade shows with projection TVs created buzz, transforming niche hardware into cultural phenomena.
Questioning business "folklore" like standard costing exposed inefficiencies, advocating real-time cost tracking in automated factories.
Programming teaches structured thinking like law, positioning computer science as essential liberal arts education for all.
Wealth accumulation felt secondary to product impact, as money enables long-term ideas over short-term gains.
Xerox's GUI demo blinded Jobs to other innovations, yet its inevitability reshaped his vision for intuitive computing.
Monopolies rot from within when sales leaders prioritize market share over product genius, as seen in Xerox and IBM.
Engineers resistant to mice underestimated rapid prototyping, proving external talent accelerates breakthroughs.
Process obsession in growing companies mimics IBM's downfall, prioritizing bureaucracy over creative content.
Skunkworks teams "on a mission from God" rescue companies by reinventing core operations amid crisis.
Team friction, like rocks in a tumbler, generates polished innovations through passionate collaboration.
Tech fields offer 50-100x performance gaps, rewarding relentless pursuit of elite talent over mediocrity.
Feedback as "not good enough" clarifies standards for A-players, fostering excellence without coddling.
Pivoting from hardware to software alliances, like with Adobe, unlocked desktop publishing's revolution.
CEO survival instincts during recessions scapegoat innovators, fracturing visionary leadership.
Stagnant R&D billion-dollar spends yield minimal evolution if lacking unified direction.
Object-oriented tech at NeXT promised 10x software speed, infiltrating business as a competitive weapon.
Web as communication tool fulfills dreams of equalizing small firms with giants via direct channels.
Bicycles amplify human efficiency beyond natural limits, paralleling computers as mind's ultimate tool.
Liberal arts infusion into tech—poets as programmers—steals greatness from history for innovative spirit.
Hippie ethos seeks life's deeper essence, infusing products with soul that users intuitively love.

INSIGHTS

Early hands-on tinkering with inaccessible tech demystifies power, empowering youth to innovate boldly.
Personal outreach to industry leaders reveals opportunities in openness, shaping mentorship and opportunity.
Hacking infrastructure teaches asymmetric influence: modest tools disrupt giants, fueling entrepreneurial confidence.
Bootstrapping via asset sales and credit hacks builds resilience, turning personal sacrifice into scalable ventures.
Hobbyist collaboration scales through simplification, like PCBs, bridging DIY to market without capital.
Initial rejections from investors highlight persistence; key connections propel underdogs to dominance.
Visceral demos at events create envy and adoption, accelerating tech from lab to ubiquity.
Challenging sacred business norms uncovers hidden flaws, enabling leaner, informed operations.
Coding as mental discipline universalizes tech literacy, fostering analytical minds across society.
Financial windfalls serve ideas, not ends; true drive lies in enabling human potential through creation.
Blinding revelations in tech pivot visions, rendering other advances secondary to paradigm shifts.
Corporate monopolies self-sabotage by sidelining creators for sellers, eroding original sparks.
Resistance to bold interfaces stems from narrow expertise; agility via outsiders drives progress.
Scaling success risks process idolatry, diluting content that birthed innovation.
Crisis-forged teams reinvent holistically, from factories to marketing, ensuring survival.
Interpersonal abrasion in elite groups refines raw concepts into enduring excellence.
Elite talent ecosystems self-perpetuate, amplifying outputs exponentially in high-stakes domains.
Precise critique sustains high performers by targeting work, not worth, aligning to collective vision.
Strategic pivots to complements, like software, amplify hardware's ecosystem value.
Leadership vacuums amplify scapegoating, where survival trumps strategic unity.
Diffusion of innovation focus post-founder leads to commoditization by agile rivals.
Revolutionary tools like objects streamline complexity, weaponizing software for market conquests.
Decentralized platforms like the web equalize access, spawning societal commerce revolutions.
Tools extend innate abilities profoundly, positioning computing as humanity's pinnacle amplifier.
Cross-disciplinary borrowing enriches tech with humanistic depth, elevating utilitarian to inspirational.
Quest for transcendence infuses creations with intangible allure, binding users emotionally.

QUOTES

"Nobody had ever seen one they're very mysterious very powerful things that did something in the background."
"That really made a remarkable influence on me uh I hulet Packard was really the only company I'd ever seen in my life at that age and uh it Formed my view of what a company was."
"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."
"It's not the hardest thing in the world it's not rocket science."
"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 wasn't that important uh because I never did it for the money."
"Within you know 10 minutes it was obvious to me that all computers would work like this someday it was it was obvious."
"They just had no CL clue about what they were seeing and for our our audience toner is what oh toner toner is what you put into a copier."
"Great products stem from content understanding, not rigid processes."
"It's that process that is the magic um and so we had a lot of great ideas when we started but what I've always felt that a team of people doing something they really believe in is like is is like when I was a young kid um there was a um a widowed man that lived up the street."
"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 personal computer was the bicycle of the mind and I believe that with every bone in my body."
"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

Routinely questioning established business practices by asking "why" to uncover inefficiencies and folklore.
Spending hours programming and tinkering with early machines like the HP 9100 to explore capabilities.
Calling experts directly, like Bill Hewlett, to seek advice, parts, or opportunities without hesitation.
Building devices from scavenged parts, soldering by hand to prototype and iterate personally.
Forming small, passionate teams for intense projects, embracing friction to refine ideas.
Hiring and surrounding oneself with A-players, avoiding B or C talent to maintain high standards.
Providing direct, specific feedback on work quality to realign efforts without ego involvement.
Drawing inspiration from diverse fields like art, history, and mysticism to infuse products with depth.
Visiting factories and labs globally, such as 80 in Japan, to learn and adapt manufacturing techniques.
Stealing great ideas shamelessly from other domains, like typography from books, to innovate.

FACTS

In 1971, Jobs at 12 got a job at HP after cold-calling Bill Hewlett for parts.
The blue box used 2600 Hz tones to mimic AT&T signaling, allowing free global calls.
Apple I boards took 40-80 hours to hand-assemble, using scavenged components.
Byte Shop ordered 50 Apple I units in 1976, marking the first retail computer sale.
Apple II launched at West Coast Computer Faire in 1977, featuring pioneering color graphics.
Jobs became a millionaire at 23, $10 million at 24, and $100 million at 25 after Apple's 1980 IPO.
Xerox PARC in 1979 demoed GUI, mouse, and networking to Jobs, inspiring Macintosh.
Macintosh factory in 1984 was the world's first fully automated computer production line.
LaserWriter, introduced in 1985, made Apple the top printer revenue company globally by 1985.
NeXT in 1995 had 300 employees and $50-75 million revenue from object-oriented software.
Web commerce projected to capture 15% of US catalog/TV sales, worth tens of billions annually.
Human bicycle efficiency surpasses condors, using 1/5 the energy per distance.
Macintosh applications dominated by Microsoft post-1984, leveraging Mac success for PC entry.

REFERENCES

Time-sharing terminal at NASA Ames Research Center.
HP frequency counter project.
Bill Hewlett and Hewlett-Packard company.
HP Palo Alto Research Labs.
HP 9100 desktop computer.
Steve Wozniak and electronics projects.
Esquire magazine article on Captain Crunch.
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center technical library.
AT&T technical journal on phone signaling.
Blue box device with "He's Got The Whole World in His Hands" logo.
Mountain View time-sharing company.
Apple I and Apple II computers.
Byte Shop computer store.
Mike Markkula and Intel background.
West Coast Computer Faire.
Xerox PARC innovations: GUI, object-oriented programming, networked Altos.
Lisa computer project.
Macintosh project and automated factory.
David Kelley design for mouse.
John Couch and Lisa leadership.
John Sculley and PepsiCo background.
Adobe software and 19.9% stake.
Canon laser printer engine.
LaserWriter printer.
NeXT object-oriented software.
Web and internet as communication tools.
Scientific American article on locomotion efficiency.
Picasso's saying on copying vs. stealing.
Hippie movement and 1960s/70s counterculture.
MCI's Friends and Family billing software.

HOW TO APPLY

Start with personal curiosity: Access early tech like terminals to experiment and write simple programs.
Network boldly: Cold-call industry leaders for parts, advice, or opportunities to gain entry.
Collaborate on hacks: Partner with skilled peers to build prototypes that challenge systems, like blue boxes.
Prototype iteratively: Design and assemble devices by hand, scavenging parts to test feasibility.
Simplify for scale: Create printed circuit boards to reduce assembly time from days to hours.
Fund creatively: Sell personal assets and negotiate credit terms to cover initial production runs.
Pitch assembled products: Approach stores with ready-to-sell units, adapting to their demands.
Seek strategic partners: Recruit experienced executives like Markkula for funding and packaging expertise.
Demo impactfully: Use visuals like projections at events to showcase innovations and attract distributors.
Question norms: Probe "why" behind business practices to eliminate inefficiencies and adopt real-time tracking.
Build elite teams: Assemble A-players passionate about content, fostering self-policing excellence.
Provide direct feedback: Clearly articulate when work falls short, focusing on team goals to realign efforts.
Infuse cross-discipline: Draw from arts and humanities to add soul and subtlety to technical products.
Pivot strategically: Shift resources to high-potential alliances, like software for hardware ecosystems.
Embrace friction: Encourage debates in teams to polish ideas through collaborative tension.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Steve Jobs' journey reveals that passionate innovation at technology's intersection with human creativity drives profound societal amplification.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Teach programming universally as a thinking tool, integrating it into liberal arts curricula for broader cognitive benefits.
Surround yourself with top-tier talent, investing effort to recruit A-players who elevate collective performance exponentially.
Challenge corporate folklore by persistently asking "why" to streamline operations and uncover true costs.
Prototype boldly with limited resources, scavenging and cold-calling to bootstrap without waiting for perfection.
Infuse products with humanistic depth, borrowing from arts and history to create emotionally resonant experiences.
Form skunkworks teams during crises, empowering small groups with missions to reinvent core aspects.
Provide precise, ego-free feedback to high performers, ensuring work aligns with ambitious team visions.
Visit global innovators like Japanese factories to adapt manufacturing for efficiency and automation.
Pivot to software ecosystems when hardware limits arise, partnering to unlock new application frontiers.
Embrace web-like platforms for communication, equalizing small entities with giants in distribution.
Steal shamelessly from great ideas across fields, as Picasso advised, to accelerate originality.
Prioritize content over process in scaling, avoiding bureaucratic traps that dilute creative essence.
View tools like computers as mind amplifiers, directing their vector toward humanistic progress.
Seek life's deeper sparks beyond routine, channeling hippie-like curiosity into purposeful creations.
Monitor monopolies' internal rot, advocating product geniuses over sales dominance for sustained innovation.
Leverage trade shows for visceral demos, using visuals to build buzz and partnerships rapidly.
Negotiate volume deals aggressively, like chip pricing, to enable affordable, high-impact products.
Balance wealth with purpose, using gains to fund long-term ideas rather than personal luxury.
Analyze efficiency amplifiers, like bicycles, to inspire tools that transcend natural human limits.
Cultivate survival instincts wisely, uniting factions under visionary execution during economic downturns.

MEMO

In 1995, as the personal computing world churned with uncertainty, Steve Jobs sat for a rare, unfiltered interview with journalist Robert X. Cringely. Long thought lost, this conversation—unearthed from a garage—captures Jobs at 40, reflective yet fiery, recounting his improbable path from a curious kid in Silicon Valley to the architect of Apple's revolutions. It begins with a boy's awe at a teletype machine in 1968, a humming oracle at NASA Ames that executed his first BASIC programs, transforming abstract ideas into tangible results and igniting a passion for machines as extensions of the mind.

Jobs' early hustles painted him as a relentless tinkerer. At 12, he dialed Bill Hewlett for frequency counter parts, landing a summer job at HP that instilled ideals of employee-first companies—think coffee carts rolling through labs. By his teens, he'd bonded with Steve Wozniak over electronics, their crowning mischief a "blue box" that hijacked AT&T's tones for free global calls. This prankster's epiphany—that two kids could command billions in infrastructure—seeded Apple's ethos: empower the individual to wield vast power. From scavenging parts to hand-soldering Apple I boards in a garage, their necessity-driven terminal evolved into the first personal computer sold, funded by Jobs' bus and Wozniak's calculator.

The Apple II's 1977 debut at the West Coast Computer Faire marked a pivot to accessibility. With Mike Markkula's backing, they packaged color graphics and user-friendly design for hobbyists and beyond, stealing the show and propelling a billion-dollar empire. Jobs dissected business as folklore-riddled, urging constant "why" questions to dismantle outdated costs. He advocated programming as a liberal art, not vocational skill, sharpening thought like law school without the briefs. Wealth followed—$100 million by 25—but Jobs dismissed it as a tool for ideas, not the goal, fixating on products that enabled human flourishing.

Xerox PARC's 1979 demo of graphical interfaces mesmerized Jobs, blinding him to networking and objects but crystallizing computing's future: intuitive, inevitable. Yet Xerox's "toner heads"—sales drones blind to craftsmanship—squandered it, a cautionary tale of monopolies rotting from product neglect. Apple grappled too; HP transplants scoffed at mice (until Jobs outsourced a $15 reliable one in 90 days) and proportional fonts, exposing growing pains where process eclipsed content. The Lisa's $10,000 mismatch tanked, but Jobs' skunkworks birthed Macintosh in 1984, reinventing factories, chips, and marketing for $2,500 accessibility.

Motivating the Mac team demanded Jobs' vision: a rock tumbler of elite talents grinding friction into polished gems. A-players self-policed, thriving in 50-to-100x performance realms rare outside tech. Direct feedback—"not good enough"—honed without coddling, as Jobs prized success over being right. Desktop publishing exploded via LaserWriter alliances with Adobe and Canon, crowning Apple printer king. But clashes with John Sculley, a Pepsi survivor prioritizing tenure over trajectory, exiled Jobs in 1985 amid recession paralysis.

Apple's post-Jobs glide to irrelevance stung; a decade's lead evaporated as Microsoft opportunistically cloned, their tasteless products—pedestrian McDonald's to Apple's enlightenment—dominating via IBM's boost. NeXT, Jobs' refuge, championed object-oriented software for 10x development speed, arming businesses like MCI's billing wars. Peering ahead, he hailed the web as computing's communicative dawn, a direct channel toppling catalogs and equalizing startups with behemoths.

Beneath the saga pulsed Jobs' humanism: computers as the mind's bicycle, outpacing condors in efficiency per a Scientific American lore that haunted him. He stole from Picasso—great artists thieve—to blend poets, zoologists, and hackers, infusing Macs with hippie soul seeking life's "other side." Users loved it not for specs, but spirit, a transcendence beyond jobs and garages.

This lost interview endures as Jobs' manifesto: nudge technology's vector early for profound impact. At its heart, innovation thrives on questioning, collaborating, and channeling curiosity into tools that amplify our best selves, a timeless blueprint for creators amid flux.