4 ms·

Throw in Jobs. Original Mac (1984), iPod (iconic music players), iPhone (nuf said), iPad (launch of tablets). Musk, Edison, Bell. Really a lot of the world chan

by ijidak 9y ago

Throw in Jobs. Original Mac (1984), iPod (iconic music players), iPhone (nuf said), iPad (launch of tablets). Musk, Edison, Bell. Really a lot of the world changing in tech is concentrated in bursts of productivity for a relative few individuals like Einstein's golden year. Of course many make significant one off contributions. But it is amazing how some just have this ability to strike gold consistently. Making it look almost routine.

syshum 9y ago
Jobs was a Marketer of other peoples ideas... I love how you leave out Woz, and the Team of people that made the iPod/iPhone/iPad Edison is renowned for taking credit for other peoples work, notably some of the work of Nikola Tesla who you also leave off your list and was one of the rare singular geniuses on the level of a Einstein Elon Musk has a vision of his idealized world and the money to hire people that will attempt to make it happen None of the people you list (aside from Einstein) are singular genius working on their own creating the ideas and products and I think we do a disservice to everyone when we say "Jobs invented the iPhone". That is not to say their contributions to the projects are not important but I do believe there is some amount of Hero Worship and over inflation of their value/importance and an massive under appreciation for the 100's or 1000's of other people that actually make these ideas or products a reality
- AlphaSite 9y ago
  Wiz was never involved with a lot of the more interesting bits of Apple, he gets a lot of deserved credit for his early work but also plenty of credit for things he never worked on.
  - rbanffy 9y ago
    Woz is the Mozart of 8-bit computer design. His design is surprising, even breathtaking at times, but the kind of magic he did then cannot be done these days of billions of transistors per chip.
- sjwright 9y ago
  Funny, I was reading another HN thread where someone said: "Pretty reliable rule of software is: if you think it's pointless you probably don't understand it well enough." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14987634 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14987634 I think that applies to your understanding of Steve Jobs. I don't think you understand the point of Steve Jobs well enough. A product like the iPhone isn't special because of its ideas — science fiction authors had already envisioned products like this — it's special because it actually got made. He had a vision for what the product should be. He was able to coalesce a set of human resources into making it a reality. He took raw ideas, found the best of these ideas, insist these best ideas still suck and need to be further improved. He made people, regardless of their particular discipline, do the best work they were capable of. Calling him a marketer is a sad joke.
- rbanffy 9y ago
  > Jobs was a Marketer of other peoples ideas That's an oversimplification. He was a marketer, true, but he also was fanatically pushing people towards standards higher than anyone else in the industry. If there was nothing special about Jobs, how can it be Apple came up with the Mac (a somewhat just-right version of the Lisa ideas), with the iPod, the iPhone, computers that actually look good (starting with the bondi-blue iMac, which he had little to do with)? To say he only could sell other people's ideas ignore how many of these people voluntarily worked for someone with the reputation of being an insufferable asshole and pull off miracle after miracle.
  - dagaci 9y ago
    I don't think Marketeer is as a name should be diminished. Truly and brilliant excellent Marketeers are very rare and amazing to watch.
    - kazagistar 9y ago
      No one is trying to diminish them. The thing is, brilliant marketeers already know how to be celebrated. But finding the scientists and engineers take extra effort to notice, because they aren't naturally "loud" about it.
  - rxhernandez 9y ago
    If I invent a fantastic new algorithm in a space people are hamfistedly competing in, does my manager get the credit for inventing the algorithm because he pushed me, or do I? This type of thinking makes great engineers move into other non-engineering ventures.
    - agumonkey 9y ago
      I believe Jobs was an "editor" too. He would direct talents into improvements and pick choices. He didn't just sell something made, he was the guy who asked for it. There was many ways to design a mp3 player, some good that amazing people could have made, but only a few that became iconic like the ipod. ps: think about Next too, that's again a Jobs only venture. He assembled the team, designed the goals, drove the people. He's not "just a salesman", he brings value into the formula. Not to say that people like Tesla weren't screwed though.

by ijidak 9y ago

syshum 9y ago

Jobs was a Marketer of other peoples ideas... I love how you leave out Woz, and the Team of people that made the iPod/iPhone/iPad Edison is renowned for taking credit for other peoples work, notably some of the work of Nikola Tesla who you also leave off your list and was one of the rare singular geniuses on the level of a Einstein Elon Musk has a vision of his idealized world and the money to hire people that will attempt to make it happen None of the people you list (aside from Einstein) are singular genius working on their own creating the ideas and products and I think we do a disservice to everyone when we say "Jobs invented the iPhone". That is not to say their contributions to the projects are not important but I do believe there is some amount of Hero Worship and over inflation of their value/importance and an massive under appreciation for the 100's or 1000's of other people that actually make these ideas or products a reality

AlphaSite 9y ago
Wiz was never involved with a lot of the more interesting bits of Apple, he gets a lot of deserved credit for his early work but also plenty of credit for things he never worked on.
- rbanffy 9y ago
  Woz is the Mozart of 8-bit computer design. His design is surprising, even breathtaking at times, but the kind of magic he did then cannot be done these days of billions of transistors per chip.
sjwright 9y ago
Funny, I was reading another HN thread where someone said: "Pretty reliable rule of software is: if you think it's pointless you probably don't understand it well enough." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14987634 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14987634 I think that applies to your understanding of Steve Jobs. I don't think you understand the point of Steve Jobs well enough. A product like the iPhone isn't special because of its ideas — science fiction authors had already envisioned products like this — it's special because it actually got made. He had a vision for what the product should be. He was able to coalesce a set of human resources into making it a reality. He took raw ideas, found the best of these ideas, insist these best ideas still suck and need to be further improved. He made people, regardless of their particular discipline, do the best work they were capable of. Calling him a marketer is a sad joke.
rbanffy 9y ago
> Jobs was a Marketer of other peoples ideas That's an oversimplification. He was a marketer, true, but he also was fanatically pushing people towards standards higher than anyone else in the industry. If there was nothing special about Jobs, how can it be Apple came up with the Mac (a somewhat just-right version of the Lisa ideas), with the iPod, the iPhone, computers that actually look good (starting with the bondi-blue iMac, which he had little to do with)? To say he only could sell other people's ideas ignore how many of these people voluntarily worked for someone with the reputation of being an insufferable asshole and pull off miracle after miracle.
- dagaci 9y ago
  I don't think Marketeer is as a name should be diminished. Truly and brilliant excellent Marketeers are very rare and amazing to watch.
  - kazagistar 9y ago
    No one is trying to diminish them. The thing is, brilliant marketeers already know how to be celebrated. But finding the scientists and engineers take extra effort to notice, because they aren't naturally "loud" about it.
- rxhernandez 9y ago
  If I invent a fantastic new algorithm in a space people are hamfistedly competing in, does my manager get the credit for inventing the algorithm because he pushed me, or do I? This type of thinking makes great engineers move into other non-engineering ventures.
  - agumonkey 9y ago
    I believe Jobs was an "editor" too. He would direct talents into improvements and pick choices. He didn't just sell something made, he was the guy who asked for it. There was many ways to design a mp3 player, some good that amazing people could have made, but only a few that became iconic like the ipod. ps: think about Next too, that's again a Jobs only venture. He assembled the team, designed the goals, drove the people. He's not "just a salesman", he brings value into the formula. Not to say that people like Tesla weren't screwed though.