6 ms·

That moment 4m15s in when he realizes his answer is way too complicated, stops talking in the middle of a sentence (thereby making that recorded video unusable)

by tpmx 6y ago

That moment 4m15s in when he realizes his answer is way too complicated, stops talking in the middle of a sentence (thereby making that recorded video unusable) and asks if he could have another shot at answering the question. The next iteration is dramatically simplified. This is communication masterclass level, already back then. How the heck did he get to there, so early?

duxup 6y ago
It's a funny contrast considering his comment about lowest common denominator at the start ;) He knows he has to play that game too.
adventured 6y ago
The skills we use at ~26 are being actively developed throughout childhood and our teen years, just typically not consciously. Most likely the device he's employing he had utilized frequently when he was growing up, perhaps as a means to convince other kids to do what he wanted or otherwise to get his way (whether with his peers, parents or other authority figures). It's Tom Sawyer's whitewashed fence. Jobs is trying to manipulate your mind and I don't mean that in a sinister way. Also keep in mind, Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends and Influence People was published in 1936 and was a very well-known book throughout Steve's life. There is a pretty good chance he ran across a few books like that which would have aided his advancement in manipulating impression, narrative or outcomes. He didn't have to entirely invent the wheel in that sense.
mynameishere 6y ago
I mean, he just flubbed it and asked for a retake. Happens all the time. By the way, he's dead. You can quit kissing his ass.
- tpmx 6y ago
  Yeah, there is no ass-kissing going on here - on the contrary... I think he was brilliant at marketing and communication, but that's not what technology (primarily) should be about. I do think it's interesting to find out how he got so insanely good at marcom so early, though.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Jugurtha 6y ago
Here's another instance, refining the delivery of "a bicycle for the human mind": https://youtu.be/NKT5nbEPdfs?t=60 https://youtu.be/NKT5nbEPdfs?t=60. It is a "performance art", like a stand-up comic, an actor, a politician, a presentation, or a congressional hearing. Some people do not want to rehearse as they feel it "empties them". He was known to meticulously practice the delivery of keynotes so he could hit things on time, as if it were a play, if I recall correctly. You can see that there's a good part of storytelling. If you watch Elon Musk videos, there often is repetition on the three things he focused on in college: the internet, multi-planetary life, and sustainable energy. In more recent videos, the narrative has shifted to five things he focused on during college, and an addition of genetics and artificial intelligence made it to the list. This is a bit different, like a git history change, which goes unnoticed by most interviewers. However, people think about a lot of things and nobody would be able to list all their ideas or thoughts, let alone someone like him. One of the best interviewers in the space is Sarah Lacy, in my opinion. She has enough raport with her guests in Pando Monthly videos (there are bout fifty of them, and I invite everyone to watch them), but she doesn't hesitate to invite her guests to better recall the events, timeline, or context... "Yes, but X had invested before and you had replaced so and so on the board at that time, so that must have been before Z". Way better interviews because she has the context, as opposed to someone just looking "just" for an interview. The interviews are really good and dive into decisions founders and VCs took and what had motivated them, etc. Long videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7983B23CA8F80AFE https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7983B23CA8F80AFE All, including short segments from these videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgHogDu1ewdkkWZjfKIuKXQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgHogDu1ewdkkWZjfKIuKXQ One other interview is really good: "The lost interview" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDqQcmVqAm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDqQcmVqAm4 Here's an "internal" video for NEXT where he explains their strategy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRBIH0CA7ZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRBIH0CA7ZU Here's a video of a NEXT brainstorming session in a retreat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kp9cSzbLFE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kp9cSzbLFE
- laurent92 6y ago
  > or a congressional hearing Interesting: He was never summoned by Congress. All the other technical directors have been: Zuckerberg, Gates, Dorsey, even Larry Ellison from Oracle. Maybe having the upper hand in being well-understood and well-spoken, goes as far as to have a smoother relationship with the general public?
Tycho 6y ago
It's possible he started giving one pre-canned answer and then realized it was the wrong one and that he should have been using another pre-canned answer.
beckman466 6y ago
> This is communication masterclass level, already back then. How the heck did he get to there, so early? 1) luck, 2) living in Silicon Valley. “Place Silicon Valley in its proper historical context and you see that, despite its mythology, it’s far from unique. Rather, it fits into a pattern of rapid technological change which has shaped recent centuries. In this case, advances in information technology have unleashed a wave of new capabilities. Just as the internal combustion engine and the growth of the railroads created Rockefeller, and the telecommunications boom created AT&T, this breakthrough enabled a few well-placed corporations to reap the rewards. By capitalising on network effects, early mover advantage, and near-zero marginal costs of production, they have positioned themselves as gateways to information, giving them the power to extract rent from every transaction. Undergirding this state of affairs is a set of intellectual property rights explicitly designed to favour corporations. This system — the flip side of globalisation — is propagated by various trade agreements and global institutions at the behest of the nation states who benefit from it the most. It’s no accident that Silicon Valley is a uniquely American phenomenon; not only does it owe its success to the United States’ exceptionally high defence spending — the source of its research funding and foundational technological breakthroughs — that very military might is itself what implicitly secures the intellectual property regime.“ Source: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/01/abolish-silicon-valley https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/01/abolish-silicon-valley
- baxtr 6y ago
  Why would you say it was luck? Do you mean he had a "gift" or proper "genes" and that's why it was luck?
  - williamtwild 6y ago
    Right place at the right tome perhaps?

by tpmx 6y ago

duxup 6y ago

It's a funny contrast considering his comment about lowest common denominator at the start ;) He knows he has to play that game too.

adventured 6y ago

The skills we use at ~26 are being actively developed throughout childhood and our teen years, just typically not consciously. Most likely the device he's employing he had utilized frequently when he was growing up, perhaps as a means to convince other kids to do what he wanted or otherwise to get his way (whether with his peers, parents or other authority figures). It's Tom Sawyer's whitewashed fence. Jobs is trying to manipulate your mind and I don't mean that in a sinister way. Also keep in mind, Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends and Influence People was published in 1936 and was a very well-known book throughout Steve's life. There is a pretty good chance he ran across a few books like that which would have aided his advancement in manipulating impression, narrative or outcomes. He didn't have to entirely invent the wheel in that sense.

mynameishere 6y ago

I mean, he just flubbed it and asked for a retake. Happens all the time. By the way, he's dead. You can quit kissing his ass.

tpmx 6y ago
Yeah, there is no ass-kissing going on here - on the contrary... I think he was brilliant at marketing and communication, but that's not what technology (primarily) should be about. I do think it's interesting to find out how he got so insanely good at marcom so early, though.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

Jugurtha 6y ago

Here's another instance, refining the delivery of "a bicycle for the human mind": https://youtu.be/NKT5nbEPdfs?t=60 https://youtu.be/NKT5nbEPdfs?t=60. It is a "performance art", like a stand-up comic, an actor, a politician, a presentation, or a congressional hearing. Some people do not want to rehearse as they feel it "empties them". He was known to meticulously practice the delivery of keynotes so he could hit things on time, as if it were a play, if I recall correctly. You can see that there's a good part of storytelling. If you watch Elon Musk videos, there often is repetition on the three things he focused on in college: the internet, multi-planetary life, and sustainable energy. In more recent videos, the narrative has shifted to five things he focused on during college, and an addition of genetics and artificial intelligence made it to the list. This is a bit different, like a git history change, which goes unnoticed by most interviewers. However, people think about a lot of things and nobody would be able to list all their ideas or thoughts, let alone someone like him. One of the best interviewers in the space is Sarah Lacy, in my opinion. She has enough raport with her guests in Pando Monthly videos (there are bout fifty of them, and I invite everyone to watch them), but she doesn't hesitate to invite her guests to better recall the events, timeline, or context... "Yes, but X had invested before and you had replaced so and so on the board at that time, so that must have been before Z". Way better interviews because she has the context, as opposed to someone just looking "just" for an interview. The interviews are really good and dive into decisions founders and VCs took and what had motivated them, etc. Long videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7983B23CA8F80AFE https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7983B23CA8F80AFE All, including short segments from these videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgHogDu1ewdkkWZjfKIuKXQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgHogDu1ewdkkWZjfKIuKXQ One other interview is really good: "The lost interview" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDqQcmVqAm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDqQcmVqAm4 Here's an "internal" video for NEXT where he explains their strategy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRBIH0CA7ZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRBIH0CA7ZU Here's a video of a NEXT brainstorming session in a retreat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kp9cSzbLFE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kp9cSzbLFE

laurent92 6y ago
> or a congressional hearing Interesting: He was never summoned by Congress. All the other technical directors have been: Zuckerberg, Gates, Dorsey, even Larry Ellison from Oracle. Maybe having the upper hand in being well-understood and well-spoken, goes as far as to have a smoother relationship with the general public?

Tycho 6y ago

It's possible he started giving one pre-canned answer and then realized it was the wrong one and that he should have been using another pre-canned answer.

beckman466 6y ago

> This is communication masterclass level, already back then. How the heck did he get to there, so early? 1) luck, 2) living in Silicon Valley. “Place Silicon Valley in its proper historical context and you see that, despite its mythology, it’s far from unique. Rather, it fits into a pattern of rapid technological change which has shaped recent centuries. In this case, advances in information technology have unleashed a wave of new capabilities. Just as the internal combustion engine and the growth of the railroads created Rockefeller, and the telecommunications boom created AT&T, this breakthrough enabled a few well-placed corporations to reap the rewards. By capitalising on network effects, early mover advantage, and near-zero marginal costs of production, they have positioned themselves as gateways to information, giving them the power to extract rent from every transaction. Undergirding this state of affairs is a set of intellectual property rights explicitly designed to favour corporations. This system — the flip side of globalisation — is propagated by various trade agreements and global institutions at the behest of the nation states who benefit from it the most. It’s no accident that Silicon Valley is a uniquely American phenomenon; not only does it owe its success to the United States’ exceptionally high defence spending — the source of its research funding and foundational technological breakthroughs — that very military might is itself what implicitly secures the intellectual property regime.“ Source: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/01/abolish-silicon-valley https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/01/abolish-silicon-valley

baxtr 6y ago
Why would you say it was luck? Do you mean he had a "gift" or proper "genes" and that's why it was luck?
- williamtwild 6y ago
  Right place at the right tome perhaps?