RIP Steve Jobs

[regretfullySaid]

That's part of Steve's "magic". His eyes had more power.

[LoopStationZebra]

You're right. Mr. Wong deserves a hand in all this.

<- thanks to this guy the iPhone 4s will be on the shelves in record time.

[Angstrom]

I'll play the devil's advocate here and toss something out that I don't see being mentioned very much in the blitz of Steve Jobs accolades and memorial sentiments.

I agree that Jobs was a visionary and a mover/shaker, but how about all of the unsung hero's in the backwater that toiled to bring his ideas to fruition. The iPhone, iPod and iPad were not conceived and brought to life in a vaccuum. Imagine the legions of engineers and computer scientists that contributed their ideas and input into bringing these products to the store shelves. Granted, Jobs was an idea guy and it always has to start with great concepts, but lets not forget about the grunts that made it all happen. You don't hear too much about these folks. However, in the trade of 'Cult Of Personality', that's usually the case and folks shouldn't lose sight of that. I'm just sayin....

If anyone wants to know about the key period of Apple and the way that Steve Jobs managed during that period, go and wander around http://www.folklore.org it's a fascinating place.

From my own experience running a small company employing various coder personalities (and they have some interesting ones!), the idea of managing a whole bunch of them and shepherding them toward any kind of success seems incredible to me. Like herding cats, but imagine if all the cats had IQs of >150, superiority complexes, and severe aspergers.

People overestimate the value of creativity, and underestimate the value of bloody-minded persistence, determination and vision. I know quite a few bedroom geniuses, however ... you do not know of them.
Creativity is all very well, but unless it is focused and released it is really pretty useless to humanity as a whole.

Lots of people at Apple were afraid of Steve Jobs, because of his spontaneous temper tantrums and his proclivity to tell everyone exactly what he thought, which often wasn't very favorable. But he was always nice to me, although sometimes a bit dismissive, in the few interactions that I had with him. I was excited to be talking with him about working on the Mac.

The first thing he said to me when I walked into his office was "Are you any good? We only want really good people working on the Mac, and I'm not sure you're good enough." I told him that yes, I thought that I was pretty good. I was friends with Burrell, and had already helped him out with software a few times.

"I hear that you're creative", Steve continued. "Are you really creative?"

I told him that I wasn't the best judge of that, but that I'd love to work on the Mac, and thought that I'd do a great job. He said he'd get back to me soon about it.

A couple of hours later, around 4:30pm, I was back to work on DOS 4.0 for the Apple II. I was working on low-level code for the system, interrupt handlers and dispatchers, when all of a sudden I notice Steve Jobs peering over the wall of my cubicle.

"I've got good news for you", he told me. "You're working on the Mac team now. Come with me and I'll take you over to your new desk."

"Hey, that's great", I responded. "I just need a day or two to finish up what I'm doing here, and I can start on the Mac on Monday."

"What are you working on? What's more important than working on the Macintosh?"

"Well, I've just started a new OS for the Apple II, DOS 4.0, and I want to get things in good enough shape so someone else could take it over."

"No, you're just wasting your time with that! Who cares about the Apple II? The Apple II will be dead in a few years. Your OS will be obsolete before it's finished. The Macintosh is the future of Apple, and you're going to start on it now!".

With that, he walked over to my desk, found the power cord to my Apple II, and gave it a sharp tug, pulling it out of the socket, causing my machine to lose power and the code I was working on to vanish. He unplugged my monitor and put it on top of the computer, and then picked both of them up and started walking away. "Come with me. I'm going to take you to your new desk."

[Jagang]

I usually don't care when 'famous' people die. It's a part of life after all.

For some reason this has affected me a bit. I hate to see a person with such a zest for life taken so soon. That picture posted about a month ago in some various thread here with Jobs looking extremely sick kinda haunts me, his eyes were so alive but his body was all but dead. Here's hoping his family the best in their time of sorrow.

[LoopStationZebra]

There is no substitute for amazing LEADERSHIP.

[stringtapper]

There is no substitute for amazing LEADERSHIP.

But amazing LEADERSHIP + helps a lot.

[smutek]

I agree that Jobs was a visionary and a mover/shaker, but how about all of the unsung hero's in the backwater that toiled to bring his ideas to fruition. The iPhone, iPod and iPad were not conceived and brought to life in a vaccuum. Imagine the legions of engineers and computer scientists that contributed their ideas and input into bringing these products to the store shelves. Granted, Jobs was an idea guy and it always has to start with great concepts, but lets not forget about the grunts that made it all happen.....

They all died too?

Fuuuuck.

[regretfullySaid]

http://www.andersoncooper.com/2011/10/0 ... remembers/

[beats me]

I usually don't care when 'famous' people die. It's a part of life after all.

For some reason this has affected me a bit. I hate to see a person with such a zest for life taken so soon. That picture posted about a month ago in some various thread here with Jobs looking extremely sick kinda haunts me, his eyes were so alive but his body was all but dead. Here's hoping his family the best in their time of sorrow.

And here's a heart tugger of him and his wife at his last keynote.

[beats me]

Unaired Steve Jobs narrated commercial from 1997.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rwsuXHA ... r_embedded

Brilliant.

Petition to get Apple to air it.

https://www.change.org/petitions/apple- ... steve-jobs

[muthafunka]

RiP Steve.

Can we maybe have Flash on the iPhone now?

[LoopStationZebra]

BTW, every other big tech company has people on staff that are just as talented..just as smart..just as creative..as anyone who's ever worked at Apple. So, comments made in reference to 'Steve didn't do it alone!' are quite true.

Difference?

The other companies didn't have Steve.

It's not about how many fucking brainiacs or geniuses you have on staff - at the end of the day, that actually doesn't mean Jack Shit. Motorola and Google have both stolen some amazing talent away from Apple, and have done so for years. To what end? So that they can merely 'catch up'.

It always has been, and always will be, about L E A D E R S H I P.

[Machinesworking]

BTW, every other big tech company has people on staff that are just as talented..just as smart..just as creative..as anyone who's ever worked at Apple.

Not at all the case IMO. Having been to Apple HQ and having a friend that worked there, there was/is a difference in corporate culture that goes beyond Steve Jobs. This simple analogy holds true, I've worked at redneck brutal jobs where the boss literally goose stepped around the place, and jobs where it was incredibly laid back, but the culture of the company was driven and dedicated. Apple fits into the later. So whether they have the people doesn't matter as far as the culture that was/is in place.

So, comments made in reference to 'Steve didn't do it alone!' are quite true.

No he didn't, but he was integral to creating the environment, and that goes beyond your LEADER LEADER LEADER, routine.

Otherwise you would have to think this is the end, Apple will wither and die and their products will all be awful from now on.

[LoopStationZebra]

Part of his Leadership was passing on those qualities to guys like Tim Cook and Jon Ive.

[LoopStationZebra]

A great article from Harry over at AICN.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/51501