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Um, bullshit. Apple II: Very similar to contemporary products. Interesting improvements added by Wozniak. Lisa: Stolen from Xerox (and made worse). Jobs' cont

Um, bullshit. Apple II: Very similar to contemporary products. Interesting improvements added by Wozniak. Lisa: Stolen from Xerox (and made worse). Jobs' contribution: cosmetics, mostly. Mac: Oops, the Lisa was too good. Next: A somewhat better Xerox ripoff with a mix-in of other common stuff. Newton: OK, somewhat innovative. iPod: Stolen from a whole bunch of people iPhone: Nothing but a PDA with a phone integrated in it. Obvious next step. As for "developing to perfection", well, if a smooth, candy-colored shell around a deliberately limited device is perfection, then yeah. I guess you can credit Jobs with a willingness to break from standards, but not with unusually good judgement about when to do it.

thomassmith65 2y ago
To recap: • Steve Jobs's bad judgment led to the Apple II, Mac, iPod, and iPhone. • John Sculley's good judgment led to the Apple Newton. That assessment seems like a refusal to be impressed by the public idolatry of Steve Jobs. Yet even if he wasn't some superhuman philosopher king, nor even supremely technical, he still had talent, and did help bring some seminal tech products into the world.
- Hizonner 2y ago
  It's an "innovation" coin, not a "judgement" coin or a "profitability" coin. For some reason, people get the idea that innovation comes from executive management. It doesn't. Popularization may. Commercial success may. Innovation generally doesn't. Jobs had talent for (a) packaging up existing stuff, but not in shockingly innovative ways, (b) recognizing and refusing to accept garbage products, and (c) selling the stuff. That's all execution, not innovation.
  - thomassmith65 2y ago
    This involves two questions. They're sort of tedious questions to discuss, because they don't have definitive answers. 1) in a team, how does one determine who deserves credit for an accomplishment? 2) what makes a product truly innovative?

thomassmith65 2y ago

To recap: • Steve Jobs's bad judgment led to the Apple II, Mac, iPod, and iPhone. • John Sculley's good judgment led to the Apple Newton. That assessment seems like a refusal to be impressed by the public idolatry of Steve Jobs. Yet even if he wasn't some superhuman philosopher king, nor even supremely technical, he still had talent, and did help bring some seminal tech products into the world.

Hizonner 2y ago
It's an "innovation" coin, not a "judgement" coin or a "profitability" coin. For some reason, people get the idea that innovation comes from executive management. It doesn't. Popularization may. Commercial success may. Innovation generally doesn't. Jobs had talent for (a) packaging up existing stuff, but not in shockingly innovative ways, (b) recognizing and refusing to accept garbage products, and (c) selling the stuff. That's all execution, not innovation.
- thomassmith65 2y ago
  This involves two questions. They're sort of tedious questions to discuss, because they don't have definitive answers. 1) in a team, how does one determine who deserves credit for an accomplishment? 2) what makes a product truly innovative?