7 ms·

A Sociology of Steve Jobs (2011)

85 points by plg 7y ago

MrOld88 7y ago
Back in late 1980's I went to a university where the administration thought it would important for every freshman to get a macintosh. So, we bought on this idea and shelled out 2000 each for a machine that would propel us into the future. A machine that had no hard drive, ran software on diskettes and had no memory protection. I can not remember how many times I lost my paper because that damn thing would just reboot out of memory. It was a badly designed machine that would be ok for games but not for serious homework/work. A classmate of mine got so fed that that he threw it out of his dormitory window. Steve had the charisma to sell an idea but at that time there were other alternatives that would better for a lot of people. Sometimes I wonder, if the administration of uninversity got any kick-backs from Apple executives, if you understand what I mean
- anonytrary 7y ago
  > I can not remember how many times I lost my paper because [the mac] would just reboot out of memory. This is less of an Apple problem and more of a 1990's problem. I often had painful nights where I'd lose hours of work on Documents and PowerPoints because my Windows 98 either froze or crashed.
  - TomMarius 7y ago
    My girlfriend's PowerPoint crashed and froze just yesterday... To her, the computer is just as bad today. What's the point of nicer graphics when it's still slow and unreliable.
    - Razengan 7y ago
      Well Microsoftware makes any computer look bad.
    - johnchristopher 7y ago
      Aye, aye. It's incredible that simply navigating a folder still triggers hiccups in the UI of windows.
- jacobolus 7y ago
  My parents got a Mac SE in 1989 and continued using it heavily through at least 2005. It still works perfectly (though at some point the hard drive needed replacement). It had a great keyboard, and very simple effective software. It was a much better writing machine than most of the later machines I have encountered.
- bhaak 7y ago
  > It was a badly designed machine that would be ok for games but not for serious homework/work. Funny, considering how games were never first class citizen in Jobs or Apple's strategy for their devices.
  - Razengan 7y ago
    Yes, ironically some beloved franchises actually began their life on Mac/NeXT computers. Simcity, Doom from the top of my head.
    - sjwright 7y ago
      And Dark Castle, possibly the first game ever to use the now-standard WASD key layout.
- mjw1007 7y ago
  [non-rhetorical question:] Was there anything in that sort of price range that did have memory protection? A PC with OS/2? An Acorn machine with RISC OS?
- scarface74 7y ago
  Back in the late 80s which personal computer would you buy with memory protection?
diamonis 7y ago
Jobs wiped out the original Pixar engineers' stock options by selling the company, "Old Pixar", to "New Pixar", which he had created specifically for this purpose. It was a mere formality to him as he was the controlling shareholder in Old Pixar, just signing some papers. "As part of the reorganization, Jobs exercised a clause in the employee stock option agreements that allowed him to buy back their options at the original strike price, which was a pittance." * [Charles Ferguson, High Stakes, No Prisoners pp 98-99]
- newnewpdro 7y ago
  Was anything mentioned about stock grants in "New Pixar" to the wronged employees? I presume something must have been done to right the wrong at least with the important people, otherwise they would just walk out at that point.
  - diamonis 7y ago
    Ferguson writes, "During the public offering, the underwriters forced Jobs to distribute about 15 percent of the stock among key employees, because nobody would have invested otherwise...but many were shut out entirely, including some who had spent many years creating the technology."
- scarface74 7y ago
  https://www.cfo.com/people/2016/10/ex-cfo-tells-fascinating-story-pixar/ https://www.cfo.com/people/2016/10/ex-cfo-tells-fascinating-... Despite long-promised stock options that Levy had earlier persuaded a reluctant Jobs to finally grant to Pixar employees, Jobs had retained enough shares that he was now a billionaire.
- MobileVet 7y ago
  It wasnt Pixar, but this exact thing happened to me as well. Founder blew tons of cash and needed to raise more so he cleared out the debt with 'new co'. Apparently his money was worth more to him than my 4 years of service. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19624164 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19624164
- 7y ago
leoc 7y ago
Apple's 2013 "Misunderstood" ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v76f6KPSJ2w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v76f6KPSJ2w is probably a bit of a hidden apologia for Jobs personally, among other things. Apple seems to have been going through a phase of making rather defensive ads around that time.
pinopinopino 7y ago
Steve jobs was a corporate psychopath. He was cruel to the people he worked with. He ignored his own daughter almost his whole life. And made a lot of money over the back of children in low income countries. He did also not give back, no charity at all. Even Bill Gates runs a charity fund. I don't understand why people keep calling him a visionaire and are still lapping the shit that he threw at them up. Edit: Stuff like this: https://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs-was-rich-but-why-didnt-he-donate-to-charity-like-other-tech-CEOs https://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs-was-rich-but-why-didnt-he-d... Makes me sick, quote from there: "According to the man he hired to run it, “He clearly didn’t have the time.” Jobs’s friends told one reporter, “he figures he can do more good by expanding Apple.” And thank God for that. What a loss to humanity it would have been if Jobs had dedicated the last 25 years of his life to figuring out how to give his billions away, instead of doing what he does best." A loss to humanity? Really? Sorry for the rant, but I am sick of the quasi deep plunges into the beautiful structure of Steve Jobs personality.
- Razengan 7y ago
  > Account created: 13 minutes ago Why do people do this?
  - skrebbel 7y ago
    Lifelong lurker finally feels compelled to make a comment. Active commenter makes a throwaway account for every potentially controversial comment to avoid it backfiring later. After all, the internet is forever. Forgot main account password. Just to mess with you. Commenter is actually Steve Wozniak, much more disgruntled than he lets off publically, so makes comments like these anonymously Etc. Lots of reasons.
    - daphneokeefe 7y ago
      Another way the comment could backfire would be losing karma points here.
  - scottlocklin 7y ago
    I had a late pal who was early apple who said much the same thing about Jobs. He actually left the place when Jobs returned, after being screamed at while trapped in an elevator with Jobs. I imagine there are still people at Apple who had such ... interactions ... with the man. There were people who feared Basil von Zaharoff decades after his death. With good reason!
whenchamenia 7y ago
Can we stop celebrating this guy and move on? Times have changed, the wold has changed, but the aloof reality distortion continues. I will not rattle off my list of issuex but suffice to say he is not worthy of emulation in a mjority of his actions. I will boldly state: Nobody actually wants to work with the next Jobs, they just want to say they did.
- coldtea 7y ago
  >I will boldly state: Nobody actually wants to work with the next Jobs, they just want to say they did. So, if the next Jobs gets them from near bankruptcy negative -200 million to a trillion dollar worth company and huge cultural cachet and consumer influence, they wouldn't want to work with him because he occasionally yells at people, or is very demanding, etc? I'd say if someone is recognized as the "next Steve Jobs" there would be lines to get hired there... As there were lines to get hired at Apple during his tenure, so this "nobody actually wants to work with" seems a little wishful thinking...
st3fan 7y ago
A common thing you hear also is “I did my best work under Jobs”.
LoveDeathRobots 7y ago
Steve Wozniak is who built the original Apple, the hardware and the software, Steve Jobs did manage to create the Apple image and sell himself as some kind of a tech guru in the process.
- thephyber 7y ago
  I hate this trope. Woz was a technical wizard, but Apple would have failed (and nearly did fail in 1998) without Jobs. Apple's worst years were when Jobs was gone and the company's management was trying to beat IBM clones when Apple had few distinguishing features and the clones were competing on thin margins, while Apple largely tried to avoid the (except the few years when they allowed Apple clones). When Jobs returned, the OS changed, the CPU architecture changed, the shape and design of the computers changed, and new computing devices (iPod, iPhone, iPad) and created the iTunes + App Store.

85 points by plg 7y ago

Back in late 1980's I went to a university where the administration thought it would important for every freshman to get a macintosh. So, we bought on this idea and shelled out 2000 each for a machine that would propel us into the future. A machine that had no hard drive, ran software on diskettes and had no memory protection. I can not remember how many times I lost my paper because that damn thing would just reboot out of memory. It was a badly designed machine that would be ok for games but not for serious homework/work. A classmate of mine got so fed that that he threw it out of his dormitory window. Steve had the charisma to sell an idea but at that time there were other alternatives that would better for a lot of people. Sometimes I wonder, if the administration of uninversity got any kick-backs from Apple executives, if you understand what I mean

anonytrary 7y ago
> I can not remember how many times I lost my paper because [the mac] would just reboot out of memory. This is less of an Apple problem and more of a 1990's problem. I often had painful nights where I'd lose hours of work on Documents and PowerPoints because my Windows 98 either froze or crashed.
- TomMarius 7y ago
  My girlfriend's PowerPoint crashed and froze just yesterday... To her, the computer is just as bad today. What's the point of nicer graphics when it's still slow and unreliable.
  - Razengan 7y ago
    Well Microsoftware makes any computer look bad.
  - johnchristopher 7y ago
    Aye, aye. It's incredible that simply navigating a folder still triggers hiccups in the UI of windows.
jacobolus 7y ago
My parents got a Mac SE in 1989 and continued using it heavily through at least 2005. It still works perfectly (though at some point the hard drive needed replacement). It had a great keyboard, and very simple effective software. It was a much better writing machine than most of the later machines I have encountered.
bhaak 7y ago
> It was a badly designed machine that would be ok for games but not for serious homework/work. Funny, considering how games were never first class citizen in Jobs or Apple's strategy for their devices.
- Razengan 7y ago
  Yes, ironically some beloved franchises actually began their life on Mac/NeXT computers. Simcity, Doom from the top of my head.
  - sjwright 7y ago
    And Dark Castle, possibly the first game ever to use the now-standard WASD key layout.
mjw1007 7y ago
[non-rhetorical question:] Was there anything in that sort of price range that did have memory protection? A PC with OS/2? An Acorn machine with RISC OS?
scarface74 7y ago
Back in the late 80s which personal computer would you buy with memory protection?

diamonis 7y ago

Jobs wiped out the original Pixar engineers' stock options by selling the company, "Old Pixar", to "New Pixar", which he had created specifically for this purpose. It was a mere formality to him as he was the controlling shareholder in Old Pixar, just signing some papers. "As part of the reorganization, Jobs exercised a clause in the employee stock option agreements that allowed him to buy back their options at the original strike price, which was a pittance." * [Charles Ferguson, High Stakes, No Prisoners pp 98-99]

newnewpdro 7y ago
Was anything mentioned about stock grants in "New Pixar" to the wronged employees? I presume something must have been done to right the wrong at least with the important people, otherwise they would just walk out at that point.
- diamonis 7y ago
  Ferguson writes, "During the public offering, the underwriters forced Jobs to distribute about 15 percent of the stock among key employees, because nobody would have invested otherwise...but many were shut out entirely, including some who had spent many years creating the technology."
scarface74 7y ago
https://www.cfo.com/people/2016/10/ex-cfo-tells-fascinating-story-pixar/ https://www.cfo.com/people/2016/10/ex-cfo-tells-fascinating-... Despite long-promised stock options that Levy had earlier persuaded a reluctant Jobs to finally grant to Pixar employees, Jobs had retained enough shares that he was now a billionaire.
MobileVet 7y ago
It wasnt Pixar, but this exact thing happened to me as well. Founder blew tons of cash and needed to raise more so he cleared out the debt with 'new co'. Apparently his money was worth more to him than my 4 years of service. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19624164 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19624164
7y ago

leoc 7y ago

Apple's 2013 "Misunderstood" ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v76f6KPSJ2w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v76f6KPSJ2w is probably a bit of a hidden apologia for Jobs personally, among other things. Apple seems to have been going through a phase of making rather defensive ads around that time.

pinopinopino 7y ago

Steve jobs was a corporate psychopath. He was cruel to the people he worked with. He ignored his own daughter almost his whole life. And made a lot of money over the back of children in low income countries. He did also not give back, no charity at all. Even Bill Gates runs a charity fund. I don't understand why people keep calling him a visionaire and are still lapping the shit that he threw at them up. Edit: Stuff like this: https://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs-was-rich-but-why-didnt-he-donate-to-charity-like-other-tech-CEOs https://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs-was-rich-but-why-didnt-he-d... Makes me sick, quote from there: "According to the man he hired to run it, “He clearly didn’t have the time.” Jobs’s friends told one reporter, “he figures he can do more good by expanding Apple.” And thank God for that. What a loss to humanity it would have been if Jobs had dedicated the last 25 years of his life to figuring out how to give his billions away, instead of doing what he does best." A loss to humanity? Really? Sorry for the rant, but I am sick of the quasi deep plunges into the beautiful structure of Steve Jobs personality.

Razengan 7y ago
> Account created: 13 minutes ago Why do people do this?
- skrebbel 7y ago
  Lifelong lurker finally feels compelled to make a comment. Active commenter makes a throwaway account for every potentially controversial comment to avoid it backfiring later. After all, the internet is forever. Forgot main account password. Just to mess with you. Commenter is actually Steve Wozniak, much more disgruntled than he lets off publically, so makes comments like these anonymously Etc. Lots of reasons.
  - daphneokeefe 7y ago
    Another way the comment could backfire would be losing karma points here.
- scottlocklin 7y ago
  I had a late pal who was early apple who said much the same thing about Jobs. He actually left the place when Jobs returned, after being screamed at while trapped in an elevator with Jobs. I imagine there are still people at Apple who had such ... interactions ... with the man. There were people who feared Basil von Zaharoff decades after his death. With good reason!

whenchamenia 7y ago

Can we stop celebrating this guy and move on? Times have changed, the wold has changed, but the aloof reality distortion continues. I will not rattle off my list of issuex but suffice to say he is not worthy of emulation in a mjority of his actions. I will boldly state: Nobody actually wants to work with the next Jobs, they just want to say they did.

coldtea 7y ago
>I will boldly state: Nobody actually wants to work with the next Jobs, they just want to say they did. So, if the next Jobs gets them from near bankruptcy negative -200 million to a trillion dollar worth company and huge cultural cachet and consumer influence, they wouldn't want to work with him because he occasionally yells at people, or is very demanding, etc? I'd say if someone is recognized as the "next Steve Jobs" there would be lines to get hired there... As there were lines to get hired at Apple during his tenure, so this "nobody actually wants to work with" seems a little wishful thinking...

st3fan 7y ago

A common thing you hear also is “I did my best work under Jobs”.

LoveDeathRobots 7y ago

Steve Wozniak is who built the original Apple, the hardware and the software, Steve Jobs did manage to create the Apple image and sell himself as some kind of a tech guru in the process.

thephyber 7y ago
I hate this trope. Woz was a technical wizard, but Apple would have failed (and nearly did fail in 1998) without Jobs. Apple's worst years were when Jobs was gone and the company's management was trying to beat IBM clones when Apple had few distinguishing features and the clones were competing on thin margins, while Apple largely tried to avoid the (except the few years when they allowed Apple clones). When Jobs returned, the OS changed, the CPU architecture changed, the shape and design of the computers changed, and new computing devices (iPod, iPhone, iPad) and created the iTunes + App Store.