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This brings up a question that I've been wondering lately. Does Steve Jobs code, or did he simply bring business skills to the table when Apple was starting out

by cmelbye 17y ago

This brings up a question that I've been wondering lately. Does Steve Jobs code, or did he simply bring business skills to the table when Apple was starting out?

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
From what i understand he has a knowledge of CS, but didnt delve into code at apple. From Mortiz' book, I can tell he did write code for Atari.
- baddox 17y ago
  He reportedly claimed to have read Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, which would certainly require some serious CS and mathematics chops to comprehend.
  - philwelch 17y ago
    "It's a pleasure to meet you, Professor Knuth," Steve said. "I've read all of your books." "You're full of shit," Knuth responded. http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Close_Encounters_of_the_Steve_Kind.txt http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Close_Encounters_of_t...
    - culled 17y ago
      There's a Google talk that Randall Munroe did. Knuth was there and Munroe asked him about that story, Knuth seemed to deny it.
      - gjm11 17y ago
        "Full of shit" seems a very un-Knuth-y expression. [edited to add: I should of course just have called it "unknuth", but my pun-sense wasn't quick enough on the mark.]
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
philwelch 17y ago
He mostly did business, but he was somewhat well versed in electronics. He was nowhere near a match for Woz, so he got out of it fairly quickly. He probably did lend a hand on the assembly line in the early days. With the Apple I and Apple II, there was a lot of work in assembling the machines, lining up parts, and arranging sales. It's not like a startup now where it's mostly software.
- blackguardx 17y ago
  I think you mean "It's not like a [software] startup now where it's mostly software." There are still hardware startups where people are populating boards and assembling products. The goal is to quickly get through that stage, but in the beginning, not everyone can afford the large order requirements for outsourced manufacturing.
  - byoung2 17y ago
    There's an idea for a startup: outsourced manufacturing for startups with small orders.
    - eitally 17y ago
      It's not really necessary since even the big contract manufacturers will take pretty small orders, especially if there's an opportunity for a JDM/ODM project or a sustaining engineering contract in the future. The big guys also have the advantage of an economy of scale in dealing with component suppliers.

by cmelbye 17y ago

This brings up a question that I've been wondering lately. Does Steve Jobs code, or did he simply bring business skills to the table when Apple was starting out?

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago

From what i understand he has a knowledge of CS, but didnt delve into code at apple. From Mortiz' book, I can tell he did write code for Atari.

baddox 17y ago
He reportedly claimed to have read Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, which would certainly require some serious CS and mathematics chops to comprehend.
- philwelch 17y ago
  "It's a pleasure to meet you, Professor Knuth," Steve said. "I've read all of your books." "You're full of shit," Knuth responded. http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Close_Encounters_of_the_Steve_Kind.txt http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Close_Encounters_of_t...
  - culled 17y ago
    There's a Google talk that Randall Munroe did. Knuth was there and Munroe asked him about that story, Knuth seemed to deny it.
    - gjm11 17y ago
      "Full of shit" seems a very un-Knuth-y expression. [edited to add: I should of course just have called it "unknuth", but my pun-sense wasn't quick enough on the mark.]

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

philwelch 17y ago

He mostly did business, but he was somewhat well versed in electronics. He was nowhere near a match for Woz, so he got out of it fairly quickly. He probably did lend a hand on the assembly line in the early days. With the Apple I and Apple II, there was a lot of work in assembling the machines, lining up parts, and arranging sales. It's not like a startup now where it's mostly software.

blackguardx 17y ago
I think you mean "It's not like a [software] startup now where it's mostly software." There are still hardware startups where people are populating boards and assembling products. The goal is to quickly get through that stage, but in the beginning, not everyone can afford the large order requirements for outsourced manufacturing.
- byoung2 17y ago
  There's an idea for a startup: outsourced manufacturing for startups with small orders.
  - eitally 17y ago
    It's not really necessary since even the big contract manufacturers will take pretty small orders, especially if there's an opportunity for a JDM/ODM project or a sustaining engineering contract in the future. The big guys also have the advantage of an economy of scale in dealing with component suppliers.