SUMMARY

In a rediscovered 1995 interview hosted by Robert X. Cringely, Steve Jobs recounts his early fascination with computers, founding Apple with Steve Wozniak, key innovations like the Macintosh, corporate challenges, and optimistic visions for software, the web, and technology's amplifying role in human potential.

STATEMENTS

• Steve Jobs first encountered a computer at age 10 or 11 through a time-sharing terminal at NASA's Ames Research Center, which profoundly captivated him despite its primitive teletype interface.
• At 12, Jobs cold-called Hewlett-Packard's Bill Hewlett for parts to build a frequency counter, leading to a summer job that shaped his view of a company valuing its employees through simple gestures like coffee and donut breaks.
• Jobs frequented HP's Palo Alto Research Labs, where he discovered the HP 9100, the first desktop computer, igniting his passion for programming in BASIC and APL.
• Jobs met Steve Wozniak at 14 or 15, bonding over electronics and inspired by an Esquire article on Captain Crunch's blue boxing to hack the phone system.
• Jobs and Wozniak built the world's best digital blue box after discovering AT&T's technical journal, realizing they could control billions in infrastructure with a small device, a lesson that birthed Apple.
• Their first project together was a terminal for free time-sharing computer access, evolving into the Apple I as an extension with a microprocessor.
• Unable to afford parts, Jobs and Wozniak hand-built Apple I computers for themselves, then helped friends, leading to the creation of printed circuit boards to scale production.
• To fund initial PCBs, Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak his calculator, approaching the Byte Shop, the world's first computer store, which ordered 50 assembled units.
• Jobs secured net-30 credit from parts distributors despite inexperience, assembling and selling the first 50 Apple I units profitably, marking Apple's entry into business.
• Mike Markkula joined as an equal partner after retiring from Intel, providing funding and expertise to tool the Apple II design for mass production.
• The Apple II debuted at the West Coast Computer Faire with advanced color graphics, stealing the show and attracting dealers, launching Apple's success at age 21 for Jobs.
• Jobs learned business by persistently asking "why" practices exist, uncovering folklore like standard costing, which he reformed through better information systems in later factories.
• Programming, for Jobs, mirrors thought processes, teaching logical thinking akin to law school, positioning computer science as a liberal art everyone should learn.
• Becoming wealthy young—over $100 million by 25—didn't motivate Jobs; he valued the company, people, and products enabling human ideas over money.
• Visiting Xerox PARC in 1979, Jobs was mesmerized by the graphical user interface, foreseeing all computers would adopt it, despite overlooking object-oriented programming and networking.
• Xerox's failure stemmed from sales and marketing "toner heads" dominating, eroding product sensibility in monopolies, allowing others like Apple to capitalize on PARC innovations.
• IBM's PC entry scared Apple, but its initial poor product succeeded due to ecosystem partners with vested interests, a genius strategy Jobs admired.
• Implementing Xerox ideas at Apple faced resistance from HP hires unfamiliar with GUIs or mice; Jobs outsourced a $15 reliable mouse in 90 days.
• Companies falter by institutionalizing processes over content, as IBM did; great products demand deep content understanding from "A players" who are hard to manage.
• The Lisa project mismatched Apple's culture by pricing at $10,000, alienating customers; Jobs lost leadership battle, prompting the skunkworks Macintosh team.
• Macintosh reinvented Apple through automation, volume pricing on the 68000 chip, and a $1,000 target, building a new factory, distribution, and marketing from scratch.
• Motivating the Mac team involved passion for craftsmanship between idea and product, keeping 5,000 concepts in mind amid trade-offs in electronics, materials, and manufacturing.
• Jobs likened team innovation to a rock tumbler: talented people rubbing against each other through friction and arguments polish raw ideas into beautiful products.
• In tech, the gap between average and best is 50-100:1, far wider than in taxis or cars; success comes from assembling self-policing teams of A players.
• Direct feedback on poor work, without questioning abilities, keeps A players on track; Jobs prioritized success over being right, quickly changing opinions with evidence.
• Apple pioneered desktop publishing by integrating Canon's laser printer with Lisa, partnering with Adobe for PostScript, and sharing via AppleTalk, becoming the world's top printer revenue company.
• Jobs' 1985 departure from Apple was painful; he blamed hiring the wrong CEO in Sculley, whose survival instincts scapegoated him amid recession and leadership vacuum.
• Apple's 1995 state was a "glide slope to die" due to stagnation post-Jobs, wasting R&D without advancing Macintosh meaningfully, eroding differentiation against Microsoft.
• Microsoft succeeded via IBM's boost, opportunism, and persistence, but lacks taste, culture, and original ideas, producing "third-rate" products without enlightenment or spirit.
• NeXT focuses on object-oriented software revolutionizing development 10x faster, enabling potent competitive weapons like custom billing that shifted billions in market share.
• The web fulfills computing's shift from calculation to communication, democratizing sales and making small companies appear as large as giants, breathing new life into personal computing.

IDEAS

• Early exposure to primitive computers at NASA sparked Jobs' lifelong obsession, turning mystery into empowerment through programming that executed personal ideas.
• Cold-calling industry leaders like Bill Hewlett at 12 not only secured parts but a job, revealing companies thrive by treating employees as true value.
• Blue boxing taught that small inventions by novices could command vast infrastructures, proving ingenuity trumps scale in innovation.
• Building devices from scavenged parts evolved into Apple's origin, showing necessity drives creation when affordability forces self-reliance.
• Selling personal assets like a bus and calculator to prototype PCBs highlights bootstrapping as a gateway to unexpected business pivots.
• Assembling and selling the first 50 Apple I units on credit demonstrated that naivety can secure deals, turning garages into empires.
• Apple II's color graphics wowed at its debut faire, illustrating how visual breakthroughs capture markets before they're ready.
• Questioning business "folklore" like standard costing uncovers inefficiencies, allowing reinvention through precise, real-time controls.
• Programming as a liberal art mirrors law school, training structured thinking accessible to all, beyond practical utility.
• Wealth accumulation by 25 felt secondary to building enabling products, suggesting intrinsic motivation sustains long-term vision.
• Xerox PARC's GUI demo blinded Jobs to other innovations, yet its inevitability reshaped computing, emphasizing first impressions' power.
• Monopolies rot from within as sales "toner heads" eclipse product geniuses, a cautionary tale for tech dominance.
• IBM's ecosystem strategy saved its flawed PC, revealing partnerships as multipliers of weak starts into unstoppable forces.
• Resistance from traditional engineers to mice and fonts underscores how incumbents undervalue paradigm shifts until forced.
• Processes institutionalized as success formulas confuse means with ends, dooming giants like IBM by prioritizing management over content.
• Skunkworks teams like Macintosh succeed by mission-driven isolation, reinventing everything from factories to marketing.
• Product design juggles 5,000 trade-offs daily, where craftsmanship evolves ideas through friction, not top-down delegation.
• Team dynamics as a rock tumbler—friction polishing stones—metaphorizes how arguments among talents yield refined excellence.
• Tech's 50-100:1 excellence gap demands hunting A players, who self-attract and elevate groups beyond average efforts.
• Blunt feedback on work preserves confidence in abilities while demanding excellence, fostering growth without ego coddling.
• Pioneering laser printing via partnerships turned Apple's hardware into software ecosystems, dominating markets unexpectedly.
• Leadership vacuums in recessions amplify flaws, where survival instincts scapegoat visionaries, fracturing joined hips.
• Apple's post-Jobs stagnation wasted billions on R&D without progress, proving leadership evaporates innovation.
• Microsoft's tasteless opportunism via IBM's rocket built dominance, but pedestrian products hinder societal enlightenment.
• Object-oriented tech at NeXT 10x speeds software, infiltrating business as a weapon for services like MCI's billing revolution.
• The web's communication pivot democratizes commerce, letting tiny firms rival titans through direct channels.
• Bicycles amplifying human locomotion symbolize computers as mind bicycles, ranking as humanity's top tool.
• Taste guides direction by stealing from arts—Picasso's maxim—infusing tech with liberal arts' subtlety.
• Hippie ethos seeks life's deeper sparks beyond materialism, channeling into products that users "love" intuitively.
• Computers as mediums transmit unspoken feelings, attracting poets and artists who amplify innate human expression.

INSIGHTS

• Personal computing's origins lie in youthful curiosity hacking systems, revealing that empowering tools democratize control over giants.
• Companies valuing employees through everyday kindnesses, like HP's breaks, instill loyalty that fuels innovation cultures.
• Small-scale inventions teach disproportionate impact, where garage projects birth industries by challenging established infrastructures.
• Bootstrapping with personal sacrifices accelerates prototypes, turning constraints into scalable business models.
• Naivety in deals, like securing credit blindly, can launch ventures when paired with rapid execution.
• Visual innovations like Apple II graphics capture imaginations, proving aesthetics drive adoption over raw function.
• Persistent inquiry dismantles business myths, enabling precise systems that eliminate guesswork in operations.
• Learning to program cultivates logical thinking as a universal skill, akin to analytical disciplines, enhancing all cognition.
• True wealth stems from enabling ideas, not accumulation, prioritizing human potential over financial gain.
• Revolutionary interfaces like GUIs are obvious in retrospect, but spotting their inevitability requires unblinded vision.
• Monopolistic complacency sidelines creators for salespeople, eroding the genius that built dominance.
• Ecosystems amplify flawed products, as IBM's did, turning partnerships into survival strategies.
• Paradigm resistance from veterans highlights the need for external disruption to realize futures.
• Institutionalizing success confuses process for essence, leading to bureaucratic stagnation over creative content.
• Isolated teams reinvent holistically, from hardware to distribution, salvaging companies through bold execution.
• Design's magic emerges from iterative trade-offs, where daily discoveries refine ideas into viable realities.
• Talented friction in teams polishes innovations, transforming raw conflicts into elegant outcomes.
• Extreme excellence gaps in tech reward elite talent pools that self-perpetuate high standards.
• Direct critique on deliverables sustains top performers by focusing on results, not personalities.
• Strategic alliances in emerging tech, like printing, create unforeseen market leaderships.
• Crises expose leadership voids, where instincts prioritize self over vision, splintering alliances.
• Innovation halts without unifying direction, squandering resources on incremental irrelevance.
• Opportunistic persistence builds empires, but cultural voids produce uninspired tools lacking soul.
• Revolutionary software paradigms like objects enable agile creation, powering competitive edges in services.
• Communication tools like the web equalize scales, fostering societal shifts through accessible innovation.
• Tools amplify human limits, positioning computing as history's pinnacle invention for mind expansion.
• Aesthetic sensibility, borrowed from arts, elevates products to cultural artifacts users intuitively cherish.
• Transcendent pursuits infuse technology with spirit, attracting creators who view it as expressive medium.

QUOTES

• "I became very captivated by a computer and a computer to me was still a little mysterious because it was at the other end of this wire."
• "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... because it teaches you how to think."
• "I was worth about over a million dollars when I was 23 and over $10 million when I was 24 and over $100 million when I was 25."
• "Within 10 minutes it was obvious to me that all computers would work like this someday."
• "The product sensibility and the product genius that brought them to that monopolistic position gets rotted out by people running these companies who have no conception of a good product."
• "IBM has the best processes people in the world they just forgot about the content."
• "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 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."
• "The most important thing I think you can do for somebody who's really good... is to point out to them when their work isn't good enough."
• "I don't really care about being right you know I just care about success."
• "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste."
• "Software is becoming an incredible force in this world to provide new goods and services to people."
• "The web is the ultimate direct to customer distribution channel."
• "Humans are tool builders and we build tools that can dramatically amplify our innate human abilities."
• "Good artists copy great artists steal."
• "A hippie... there's something more going on there's another side of the coin that we don't talk about much."

HABITS

• Cold-call industry leaders for advice or resources, turning bold outreach into opportunities like summer jobs.
• Attend research labs or meetups weekly to explore cutting-edge tech, fostering early exposure to innovations.
• Collaborate on passion projects with skilled peers, evolving from hacks like blue boxing to full products.
• Scavenge and build prototypes by hand to overcome budget limits, honing self-reliance in creation.
• Persistently ask "why" behind business practices to uncover and eliminate outdated folklore.
• Prioritize content understanding over rigid processes, adapting systems like costing for real-time accuracy.
• Assemble small, mission-driven teams of top talents, allowing friction to refine ideas collaboratively.
• Provide direct, work-focused feedback to high performers, clarifying issues without undermining confidence.
• Quickly pivot opinions with new evidence, valuing success and collective rightness over personal ego.
• Visit global factories and study automation to reinvent manufacturing from the ground up.
• Infuse diverse liberal arts perspectives into tech teams, drawing from music, poetry, and history for richer products.
• Expose oneself to humanity's best creations across fields to cultivate taste guiding innovation direction.

FACTS

• In the 1960s-70s, computers were mysterious boxes seen only in movies, often depicted with tape drives or flashing lights.
• Jobs accessed his first computer via a teletype terminal at NASA Ames, programming in BASIC or Fortran for thrilling executions.
• HP's 9100 was the first self-contained desktop computer, suitcase-sized with a CRT display for programming.
• Blue boxing exploited AT&T's flaw of in-band signaling, allowing handset control of the global network.
• The Byte Shop in Mountain View was the world's first computer store, later becoming an adult bookstore.
• Apple II featured the most advanced personal computer graphics in 1977, using a projection TV at its fair debut.
• Xerox PARC demoed GUI in 1979 on Alto computers, networked with over 100 units using email.
• Macintosh mouse was engineered for $15 in 90 days by David Kelley, countering skeptics' $300/5-year estimates.
• Apple's automated Fremont factory was the world's first for computers, inspired by 80 Japanese visits.
• By 1985, Apple became the largest printer revenue company globally via LaserWriter, losing to HP post-Jobs.
• Macintosh prices launched at $2,500, down from a $1,000 target, after four years of reinvention.
• NeXT in 1995 had 300 employees, $50-75 million revenue, leading in object-oriented software supply.
• About 15% of U.S. goods/services sold via catalogs/TV in 1995, all predicted to migrate to the web.

REFERENCES

• Triumph of the Nerds TV series by Robert X. Cringely.
• Esquire magazine article on Captain Crunch and blue boxing.
• AT&T Technical Journal detailing phone network signaling tones.
• Bill Hewlett, HP co-founder, for parts and job inspiration.
• HP 9100 desktop computer at Palo Alto Research Labs.
• Steve Wozniak as electronics collaborator and Apple co-founder.
• Mike Markkula, former Intel executive, as investor and partner.
• Don Valentine, venture capitalist who referred Markkula.
• West Coast Computer Faire for Apple II debut.
• Xerox PARC innovations: graphical user interface, object-oriented programming, networked Altos.
• John Sculley, PepsiCo CEO turned Apple leader.
• Lisa computer project and its $10,000 pricing mismatch.
• Macintosh team and automated factory in Fremont, California.
• David Kelley Design for Macintosh mouse prototyping.
• Canon laser printer engine, first U.S. shipment to Apple.
• Adobe PostScript software and 19.9% stake purchase.
• LaserWriter printer and AppleTalk networking.
• NeXT object-oriented technology from Xerox PARC.
• MCI's Friends and Family billing software as competitive example.
• Scientific American article on locomotion efficiency, highlighting bicycles.
• Picasso's saying: "Good artists copy, great artists steal."
• HP hires influencing Apple's early processes.

HOW TO APPLY

• Start with personal curiosity: Seek out early access to emerging tech like terminals, experimenting to build foundational passion.
• Network boldly: Cold-call experts for resources, leveraging openness to gain jobs, parts, or advice without formal credentials.
• Partner with complementary talents: Identify peers stronger in areas like electronics, collaborating on hacks to amplify capabilities.
• Prototype under constraints: Build devices from scavenged parts, focusing on necessity to evolve terminals into full systems.
• Scale incrementally: Create PCBs after hand-building, selling to friends to recoup costs and free time for growth.
• Secure unconventional funding: Sell personal assets and negotiate credit terms naively but earnestly to prototype batches.
• Pitch assembled products: Approach stores with ready units, adapting to demands like full assembly for larger orders.
• Raise targeted capital: Recruit experienced partners like Markkula for funding and expertise to tool designs professionally.
• Debut with spectacle: Use visuals like projection TVs at events to showcase breakthroughs, attracting distributors.
• Question norms deeply: Ask "why" repeatedly in business to dismantle folklore, implementing precise controls like real-time costing.
• Form elite teams: Hunt A players across fields, allowing self-policing dynamics to polish ideas through friction.
• Provide clear feedback: Directly address work shortfalls to top talents, refocusing without ego damage for excellence.
• Reinvent holistically: In crises, build skunkworks to overhaul manufacturing, pricing, and marketing from scratch.
• Infuse arts: Expose teams to poetry, music, and history, stealing great ideas to add taste and spirit to products.
• Partner strategically: Integrate hardware like printers with software from innovators, creating ecosystems for dominance.
• Nudge vectors early: At tech's beginnings, subtly direct innovations toward communication over mere computation.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Steve Jobs' journey reveals technology as humanity's ultimate tool, amplified by tasteful innovation and passionate teams.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Expose children early to computers as thinking tools, not just machines, to foster logical and creative minds.
• Build personal projects from hacks like blue boxes to grasp how small ideas control large systems.
• Cold-call mentors in your field for guidance, turning audacity into formative opportunities.
• Question every business practice rigorously, eliminating folklore to streamline operations efficiently.
• Learn programming as a liberal art, training thought processes applicable to any discipline.
• Prioritize product content over processes, hiring pains-in-the-butt experts who understand essence.
• Visit innovation hubs like PARC to spot inevitable shifts, adapting before competitors.
• Assemble A-player teams that self-select, leveraging their friction for polished excellence.
• Provide blunt, work-specific feedback to sustain high performance without coddling egos.
• Reinvent in isolation during crises, overhauling everything from factories to distribution.
• Infuse tech with liberal arts, stealing from poetry and design for products with soul.
• Partner with ecosystem builders like Adobe to turn hardware into market-dominating platforms.
• Avoid monopolistic rot by keeping product geniuses in decision-making, not just salespeople.
• Focus on craftsmanship's trade-offs, juggling concepts daily to evolve ideas realistically.
• View wealth as enabler for long-term ideas, not end goal, sustaining intrinsic drive.
• Democratize via web-like channels, letting small entities rival giants in reach.
• Amplify human abilities with tools like mind bicycles, nudging tech's vector toward enlightenment.
• Seek life's deeper sparks like hippies, channeling transcendence into intuitive, lovable products.
• Persist opportunistically like Microsoft, but add taste to elevate societal subtlety.
• Revolutionize software creation with objects, enabling 10x faster competitive services.

MEMO

In 1995, as the personal computing world teetered on the edge of explosive growth, Steve Jobs sat for a rare, unfiltered interview with journalist Robert X. Cringely. Rediscovered in a garage years later, this "lost" conversation captures Jobs at NeXT, a decade after his acrimonious exit from Apple. At 40, he reflects on a youth defined by audacious tinkering—cold-calling Hewlett-Packard’s Bill Hewlett at 12 for parts, hacking phone networks with Steve Wozniak via "blue boxes," and discovering the thrill of programming on primitive teletypes. These garage epiphanies, Jobs explains, taught him that two kids could command billions in infrastructure, a revelation that seeded Apple’s ethos of empowering individuals against giants.

The interview traces Apple’s improbable rise from scavenged parts and sold Volkswagens to the Apple II’s 1977 triumph at the West Coast Computer Faire, where color graphics stunned onlookers. Jobs, just 21, credits Mike Markkula’s investment for scaling the vision into a packaged machine for non-hobbyists. Yet success bred folklore: He skewers business norms like "standard costing" as relics of poor controls, vowing to build factories knowing costs to the second. Programming, he insists, isn’t vocational but a liberal art, mirroring law school in sharpening thought—a skill he believes every American should master.

Jobs’ 1979 visit to Xerox PARC proved pivotal, blinding him to networking and objects but igniting obsession with the graphical user interface. "Within 10 minutes, it was obvious all computers would work like this," he recalls, foreseeing inevitability amid Xerox’s fatal flaw: Monopoly rot, where "toner heads" from sales eclipsed product visionaries. Apple seized the GUI for Macintosh, but internal resistance from Hewlett-Packard transplants—dismissing mice as $300 impossibilities—forced Jobs to outsource a $15 prototype in 90 days. The Mac’s skunkworks team, a "mission from God," reinvented Apple amid Lisa’s $10,000 flop, automating factories after Jobs toured 80 in Japan and slashing chip costs through volume.

Team dynamics emerge as Jobs’ core philosophy: Like rocks in a tumbler, talented "A players" polish ideas through friction, bridging the 50-to-100:1 excellence gap in tech. He motivated by blunt feedback—"Your work isn’t good enough"—while admitting wrongs swiftly, prioritizing success over ego. Macintosh’s launch at $2,500 birthed desktop publishing via LaserWriter and Adobe PostScript, crowning Apple the world’s top printer firm by 1985. But recession exposed CEO John Sculley’s survival instincts, scapegoating Jobs in a leadership vacuum that splintered their alliance and gutted Apple’s values.

By 1995, Jobs laments Apple’s "glide slope to die," stagnating despite billions in R&D as Microsoft’s opportunistic "third-rate" products—lacking taste or spirit—erode differentiation. Powered by IBM’s rocket, Microsoft persisted from Mac apps to Windows dominance, yet Jobs critiques their pedestrian output, likening it to McDonald’s over enlightenment. At NeXT, he champions object-oriented software, 10x faster for "potent weapons" like MCI’s billing revolution, infiltrating business as computing shifts to communication.

Peering ahead, Jobs hails the web as profound, fulfilling dreams of computers as connection devices, not calculators. It democratizes sales—15% of U.S. goods then catalog-bound, soon web-bound—making minnows mimic whales in direct channels. Innovation thrives sans Microsoft’s grip, breathing life into personal computing. Drawing from a Scientific American piece on locomotion, Jobs casts computers as the "bicycle of the mind," humanity’s pinnacle tool amplifying innate abilities.

Ultimately, taste—stolen from Picasso, poets, and mystics—guides direction. Jobs identifies as a "hippie" at heart, seeking life’s deeper sparks beyond materialism, infusing products with spirit users "love." Computers, he says, attract artists who transmit unspoken feelings, nudging tech’s vector toward subtlety and growth. In this raw dialogue, Jobs emerges not as oracle but as restless builder, warning that without such soul, progress merely computes, never elevates.