8 ms·

Technically speaking, Woz was employee #1 and Jobs was employee #2, although Jobs assigned himself #0 and always had 0 printed on his badge.

_RPM 10y ago
Employee is a legal term, were they really employees?
- Alupis 10y ago
  In a corporation, just about everyone is considered an employee of the company (in the legal sense), including major shareholders who do work at the company, as Jobs and Woz did. It's part of the protections provided by incorporation.
  - cmdrfred 10y ago
    Yup, thats why you can take with a grain of salt when someone says something like "We'd like to pay you more, but startup just isn't profitable enough", that doesn't mean the owner isn't taking a nice salary away from the place.
ohitsdom 10y ago
This is a series of interviews they are doing with early employees, meaning non-founders.
- robotmlg 10y ago
  I know, and it's a great series. I just always liked this story about Jobs.
dghughes 10y ago
Was that to one-up Woz? I figured Woz as an electronics engineer would prefer 0 for technical reason (i.e. 0 to 9 or binary 0) and he's such a math freak too.
- 27182818284 10y ago
  In the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, there is a scene where WoZ doesn't really care about the employee number but Steve does. That seems most likely to me having read iWoz too.
sjm-lbm 10y ago
Not really related to the OP (except that it's a story from early Apple lore), but your comment about Jobs' employee badge reminded me of this: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=You_Guys_Are_In_Big_Trouble.txt http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story... As a side note, reading through all of Folklore.org is a great way to kill a few hours next time you have a free evening. I'm pretty sure I've read through all of it 2-3 times at this point, but there's part of me that wants to read through all of it again. It's basically just a collection of Apple anecdotes, mostly about the development of the first Macintosh. I'm sure it was hard at times, but it does sound like a fascinating project to have participated in.
- robotmlg 10y ago
  I always liked this story, also from Andy Hertzfeld: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Negative_2000_Lines_Of_Code.txt http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Negative_2000_Lin...
bluedino 10y ago
And wasn't Mark Markkula #3?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
danso 10y ago
From Isaacson's biography of Jobs: > An early showdown came over employee badge numbers. Scott assigned #1 to Wozniak and #2 to Jobs. Not surprisingly, Jobs demanded to be #1. “I wouldn’t let him have it, because that would stoke his ego even more,” said Scott. Jobs threw a tantrum, even cried. Finally, he proposed a solution. He would have badge #0. Scott relented, at least for the purpose of the badge, but the Bank of America required a positive integer for its payroll system and Jobs’s remained #2. Isaacson, Walter (2011-10-24). Steve Jobs (p. 83). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.
- exolymph 10y ago
  It's kind of unbelievable what a jackass he was in addition to being a genius. People are weird multifaceted creatures.
  - danso 10y ago
    I actually never finished the book because Jobs, as a character, was just too inscrutable. And I don't mean in the interesting, complicated ways that humans generally are. The abrupt shift from brilliant leader and visionary to petulant asshole child is understandable, even at the start of Apple -- he was just 21, after all. But the emotional/personality swings pretty much continue through his entire life, and it was just too bewildering for me to fully empathize with Jobs. Maybe if other CEOs were as highly scrutinized as Jobs we'd see the same kind of inexplicable complexity? As it stands, I enjoyed iWoz (albeit it was written as an autobiography) much more than the Jobs' biography.
    - astrange 10y ago
      That's the fault of the biography, which refuses to ever analyze him and seems to not even notice when he's changed. Not the only thing it didn't notice - check out how often people are blatantly misquoted, like where Bill Gates supposedly claims a disk drive has "too low latency". Seems like the actual event right before coming back to Apple, where he mysteriously becomes an amazing CEO, is when he met his wife.
bluedino 10y ago
Bill himself says he was #4 Happily, I was given my old employee number (number 4), and my new title was “Member of Technical Staff”. http://www.storiesofapple.net/jack-of-all-apple-trades-interview-with-bill-fernandez.html http://www.storiesofapple.net/jack-of-all-apple-trades-inter...
- jloughry 10y ago
  'Member of the Technical Staff' was traditionally the only job title at Bell Labs; it didn't matter if you were a technician or director, you had the same job title.

_RPM 10y ago

Employee is a legal term, were they really employees?

Alupis 10y ago
In a corporation, just about everyone is considered an employee of the company (in the legal sense), including major shareholders who do work at the company, as Jobs and Woz did. It's part of the protections provided by incorporation.
- cmdrfred 10y ago
  Yup, thats why you can take with a grain of salt when someone says something like "We'd like to pay you more, but startup just isn't profitable enough", that doesn't mean the owner isn't taking a nice salary away from the place.

ohitsdom 10y ago

This is a series of interviews they are doing with early employees, meaning non-founders.

robotmlg 10y ago
I know, and it's a great series. I just always liked this story about Jobs.

dghughes 10y ago

Was that to one-up Woz? I figured Woz as an electronics engineer would prefer 0 for technical reason (i.e. 0 to 9 or binary 0) and he's such a math freak too.

27182818284 10y ago
In the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, there is a scene where WoZ doesn't really care about the employee number but Steve does. That seems most likely to me having read iWoz too.

sjm-lbm 10y ago

Not really related to the OP (except that it's a story from early Apple lore), but your comment about Jobs' employee badge reminded me of this: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=You_Guys_Are_In_Big_Trouble.txt http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story... As a side note, reading through all of Folklore.org is a great way to kill a few hours next time you have a free evening. I'm pretty sure I've read through all of it 2-3 times at this point, but there's part of me that wants to read through all of it again. It's basically just a collection of Apple anecdotes, mostly about the development of the first Macintosh. I'm sure it was hard at times, but it does sound like a fascinating project to have participated in.

robotmlg 10y ago
I always liked this story, also from Andy Hertzfeld: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Negative_2000_Lines_Of_Code.txt http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Negative_2000_Lin...

bluedino 10y ago

And wasn't Mark Markkula #3?

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

danso 10y ago

From Isaacson's biography of Jobs: > An early showdown came over employee badge numbers. Scott assigned #1 to Wozniak and #2 to Jobs. Not surprisingly, Jobs demanded to be #1. “I wouldn’t let him have it, because that would stoke his ego even more,” said Scott. Jobs threw a tantrum, even cried. Finally, he proposed a solution. He would have badge #0. Scott relented, at least for the purpose of the badge, but the Bank of America required a positive integer for its payroll system and Jobs’s remained #2. Isaacson, Walter (2011-10-24). Steve Jobs (p. 83). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

exolymph 10y ago
It's kind of unbelievable what a jackass he was in addition to being a genius. People are weird multifaceted creatures.
- danso 10y ago
  I actually never finished the book because Jobs, as a character, was just too inscrutable. And I don't mean in the interesting, complicated ways that humans generally are. The abrupt shift from brilliant leader and visionary to petulant asshole child is understandable, even at the start of Apple -- he was just 21, after all. But the emotional/personality swings pretty much continue through his entire life, and it was just too bewildering for me to fully empathize with Jobs. Maybe if other CEOs were as highly scrutinized as Jobs we'd see the same kind of inexplicable complexity? As it stands, I enjoyed iWoz (albeit it was written as an autobiography) much more than the Jobs' biography.
  - astrange 10y ago
    That's the fault of the biography, which refuses to ever analyze him and seems to not even notice when he's changed. Not the only thing it didn't notice - check out how often people are blatantly misquoted, like where Bill Gates supposedly claims a disk drive has "too low latency". Seems like the actual event right before coming back to Apple, where he mysteriously becomes an amazing CEO, is when he met his wife.

bluedino 10y ago

Bill himself says he was #4 Happily, I was given my old employee number (number 4), and my new title was “Member of Technical Staff”. http://www.storiesofapple.net/jack-of-all-apple-trades-interview-with-bill-fernandez.html http://www.storiesofapple.net/jack-of-all-apple-trades-inter...

jloughry 10y ago
'Member of the Technical Staff' was traditionally the only job title at Bell Labs; it didn't matter if you were a technician or director, you had the same job title.