13 ms·
Memories of Steve
- ghiculescu 13y agoSome great stories there. Wasn't sure on the Apple stores presentation joke though, can anyone explain the reference?
- WoodenChair 13y agoIt's not really a reference - read it over a bit more carefully and I think you'll get it. Basically, Phil is meant to believe that Steve actually was serious about putting the slide in the presentation.
- misingnoglic 13y agoLol, some of it seems a bit stockholm syndrome-y, but hilarious nonetheless.
- general_failure 13y agoIt looks like some people like Steve are charismatic enough to get the complete devotion of very talented people. It's a great personality trait to have and pretty much guarantees success. We all know geniuses in our everyday life like Wozniak, Bob, cook. But how many of us can get these guys be terrified of us, make them change their lives for our visin and make them give us their complete attention... That's the beauty of Steve. Despite flaws in his character, people seem to be feel previliged working for him.
- 13hours 13y agoI sort of find it a little sad that very talented people have this god like image of someone like Steve. Without them he would have been nothing, but still he gets all the glory and fear, and they get little respect.
- vacri 13y agoThe part of the cult of personality I find most fascinating is the attributions of Apple's successes to Jobs personally, but Apple's failures were attributed to the relevant teams, who 'let Jobs down'.
- jwr 13y agoYou are generalizing, incorrectly. Many people (including myself) are quite aware of Steve's flaws, and yet appreciate the fact that in the end he Got Things Done and achieved impressive things. Admiring or having respect for someone does not necessarily imply you're having a "god-like image" of the person, or that you're unconditionally accepting everything the person has done.
- rmrfrmrf 13y agoIt's bizarre to me that people have this perception when Jony Ive is practically a household name in the US; not to mention that Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, and Scott Forstall all have been given props by Steve in his keynotes. I could rattle off more of Apple's senior leadership than any other tech company, so I really don't understand why people claim that Steve Jobs took all the glory.
- JohnBooty 13y agoI agree. Nobody denies that Jobs has a world-class ego, but I challenge anybody to point out where, in one of Jobs' keynotes or interviews, where he ever takes credit for an invention or innovation using "I" instead of "we."
- CmonDev 13y agoSo why is Apple not releasing any new products lately - just revamps? Companies are thriving under perfectionist, customer-oriented dictators.
- salgernon 13y agoBack in 1999 or 2000, shortly after Steve had rejiggered the cafeteria staff, I was walking back to my office in another building with an "afternoon doughnut" - that is, one that hadn't sold in the morning at the coffee place in the main lobby, and probably sold at a discount. I passed Steve in the hall and he glared at me as I walked with my doughnut. Steve was in great health in those days while I was pasty and obese. (Still am, sad to say.). But I was happy with my doughnut. Steve glared at me but didn't say anything. I slunk away. The next day, there were no more doughnuts at any of the cafés on the main campus. I don't think it's a coincidence.
- donmelton 13y agoThat's a great damn story. And I'm certain it wasn't a coincidence.
- salgernon 13y agoMy only other story would be walking around a pillar in the cafeteria and smacking him face to face as he came around the other side. He said excuse me and moved aside!
- trevelyan 13y agoI'm confused. You suspect he stopped donut service for staff fitness reasons, or because there was no point to subsidizing them on-campus if people preferred to buy them elsewhere.
- throwaway7548 13y agoAccording to Wozniak, Jobs told him that Atari gave them only $700 (instead of the offered $5,000), and that Wozniak's share was thus $350.[65] Wozniak did not learn about the actual bonus until ten years later, but said that if Jobs had told him about it and had said he needed the money, Wozniak would have given it to him.[66] --- End of story. Before continuing celebrating Jobs, ask yourself a question, do you want to promote that kind of behavior in the Valley?
- lightyrs 13y agoI agree with you on principle, however, the story does not end here. Woz himself said the following: "What Steve does on the good side — like the music scenario [in which] we didn't bring just a music device called the iPod, we brought a whole music system: a store that sells it, a computer that manages and organizes it. And an iPod is just a satellite to your computer. Plug it in and it works. You don't have to do anything. You've got to admire Steve for that kind of thinking. Nobody's perfect. [Everybody is] going to have cases where they did something bad to somebody, said something nasty to them and maybe regret it later." Specifically: "[Everybody is] going to have cases where they did something bad to somebody, said something nasty to them and maybe regret it later." I think that's a more enlightened point of view. Source: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/steve-wozniak-on-apple-steve-jobs-and-the-value-of-a-good-prank/ http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/steve-wozniak-on-...
- throwaway7548 13y agoI agree with you absolutely. If you are yourself encountering lies and nastiness from your partners, an enlightened way would be trying to understand them. And forgive. But my point was different. We just can't afford to celebrate lies. It is very very very harmful.
- jmnicolas 13y agoAm I the only one fed-up with Steve Jobs stories ?
- jholman 13y agoI am absolutely bored of Steve Jobs stories in general, and I'm quite surprised at myself that I bothered to read this one. This one in particular, though, was a human enough perspective that it would have been interesting to read if every single mention of the particular terrifying-and-respected-CEO were redacted. So I'm glad I read it.
- arnold_palmur 13y agoI can completely understand your sentiment, but for some reason I continue to find the man to be more and more fascinating.
- pskittle 13y agoThanks for posting this!
- ksec 13y agoI was reading and hoping there was an explanation why Safari for Windows discontinued. It is the only popular WebKit browser ( after Chrome fork to Blink ) on Windows. Otherwise another great piece.
- 72deluxe 13y agoI always found it odd how Apple didn't follow windows user interface guidelines on Windows, forcing the Appleness on Windows. Weirdly, they don't follow their guidelines on Mac OS either, unless the crazy window design of iTunes is meant to be normal?
- dilap 13y agoJust speculating, but probably Safari on Windows was a strategic play, to try to increase the adoption of WebKit and lessen the death-grip IE had on the internet then (and to encourage/give an easy way for web devs to target+test on more than just IE). Much different landscape now. Most devs are running macs now anyway, Chrome exists and is very popular, etc.
- archgrove 13y agoBack in the iOS 1.0 days, the iPhone development platform was web apps. These were pushed by Apple as the "right way", which negated the need for an App Store. As the browser engine on iOS is basically identical to the desktop WebKit, I always assumed Safari for Windows was a push to enable iOS development on Windows. With the release and success of the App Store, that became unnecessary. I guess killing it was a function of its relative lack of popularity; Apple in the Jobs 2.0+ era justifiably don't like keeping dead-weight projects around.
- gdonelli 13y agoDon has always been such a positive person to be around. Great memories. Thanks for sharing.
- adrianoconnor 13y agoI always love to read Don's stories, they're always pretty great, and this post is no exception. The last few paragraphs are poignant, and not because it's about Steve, but because the emotion is real and you can relate to it. Anyway, if you enjoyed this, you should read the history of Safari posts he did a while back, also a podcast he was a guest on one time, though I forget who it was with -- ah, Debug I think -- that was really excellent and well worth listening to.
- vdm 13y agohttp://www.imore.com/debug-11-don-melton-and-safari http://www.imore.com/debug-11-don-melton-and-safari
- baldfat 13y agoI had to stop reading. I also worked for a micro managing CEO/President and I HATED EVERY MINUTE. Knowing that if you did the slightest misstep or were falsely accused you were fired and there was a morning meeting the next day to tell everyone that so and so was no longer with the company. NO THANK YOU!!!
- rbanffy 13y agoSlow down. Breathe. It's over. You no longer work there. You are safe now.
- luser 13y agoAlternative title: Hagiography of a Dead Psychopath CEO
- luser 13y agoHilarious! Every comment critical of Steve Jobs has been downvoted. Groupthink methinks!
- noir_lord 13y agoI suspect a lot of it has to do with Self identification with Steve Jobs and people like him, so an attack on Jobs is an indirect attack on them. Personally I think Jobs was an over hyped marketing manager (with perhaps a true gift for getting talented people to do the work). There are dozens of people in the computer industry that I respect far more who will never get 1/100th of the adulation (and I'm not sure most of them would want it). Look at the contributions of people like John Backus, Edgar Codd or Maurice Wilkes and of course Kernighan and Ritchie, those people (to me) are worth far more respect.
- theRhino 13y agothis is hilarious
- ZeroGravitas 13y agoIf after working with him for a decade you have to take a deep breath before you can give him your honest opinion on something, then he's not a busy executive who prioritizes efficient information exchange, he's an asshole.
- noir_lord 13y agoI honestly can't think of anything I've ever read about the guy that doesn't make me think that. I also don't get the hero worship on HN for the guy, there are other actual hackers for worthier (in my opinion of course) of respect (as an aside I think Wozniak is worth far more respect than someone like Jobs). Pretty trinkets combined with aspirational marketing and a form always beats function attitude and somehow this guy is a hero, never could figure it out.
- edanm 13y agoWell, many people who actually worked with him disagree with you. I'm not sure what that means, there are definitely a few possibilities, but I think it's worth at least acknowledging that maybe you're wrong.
- normloman 13y agoWhy are we still talking about this guy. I'll bet my life savings that when Woz dies, we'll talk about it for around 2 months.
- jotm 13y agoOr not at all. "Jobs' sidekick died. The end of an era. That's it"
- mildtrepidation 13y agoIt's certainly interesting to read this sort of reflection. The author discusses Jobs' mannerisms without either worshiping or demonizing him, which is refreshing.
- tareqak 13y agoI enjoyed the recollections. I probably would have been afraid of his shadow if I was there. On another note, it would be interesting to see if a website containing all these memories of Steve Jobs ever comes about. A crowdsourced biography if you will: storiesabout/stevejobs .
- jayvanguard 13y agoSounds like you have to be a sycophant to work for him.
- xcntktn 13y agoStories like this one and Glenn Reid's essay[1] about working with Steve on iMovie seem to be vastly more informative than any movie or book on SJ.[2] One of the biggest takeaways from both of these essays is that working with Steve was an iterative process. Pop culture always highlights "eureka" moments where a problem is solved all at once in a brilliant flash of insight, yet when you read these first-hand accounts, the story is the opposite: that making something great is a slow and repetitive process, with lots of follow-up meetings and gradual improvement towards the final product. Eureka moments look good on TV, but in the real world, great things are built by long-term focus and hard work from highly talented people with uncompromisingly high standards. I have no idea how or even if that could be shown in a movie, but I'm very thankful we have these accounts. I hope more people who worked with Steve during his second tenure eventually put their thoughts down in writing and share them so that we can all gain more of these types of insights. [1]http://inventor-labs.com/blog/2011/10/12/what-its-really-like-working-with-steve-jobs.html http://inventor-labs.com/blog/2011/10/12/what-its-really-lik... [2]There's also Andy Hertzfeld's folklore.org, however that is focused on Steve's original tenure at Apple, not the "comeback" from the late-90s on.
- SimHacker 13y agoAt the National Air and Space Museum reception during Washington DC EduCom in 1988, I took a big bite out of one lobe at the bottom of a three lobed red bell pepper so it looked like an alien's face, and held it up to Steve Jobs, and said "Earthman, give me your seed!" He looked at me funny, but I couldn't tell if he got the reference to Bizarre Sex #10: http://silezukuk.tumblr.com/post/3151672333 http://silezukuk.tumblr.com/post/3151672333 [NSFW]
- mathattack 13y agoGreat stories. It says a lot about Apple that time, in addition to Steve. The personal side is good too. Yes, Steve could be intense at times. But he was also a real person. He had to deal with the ordinary and mundane aspects of life like everyone else. Maybe even enjoy them.
- hubtree 13y agoThis part sums up why I quit using OS X for my personal projects: "And if your software crashed, you didn’t make excuses. You just made damn sure that particular scenario didn’t happen again. Ever." In making sure nothing ever crashes, Apple has moved more and more to an OS that is too restrictive for my taste.
- morbius 13y agoAlthough I too switched away from OS X, this is irrelevant. The point of the story is not about Apple's idiosyncracies. It's about a man whose story is fragmented. It's about a man who was intriguing, cryptic, and unpredictable. It's another story in a bucket of stories of about him. And it's important. OS X is not.
- hubtree 13y agoActually, I don't see how it is an important story, though it was interesting to read, and I enjoyed it. As you said, it's one more story in a long list of stories.
- jryle70 13y agoI fail to see how making sure your code doesn't crash is related to OS X being restrictive. We've just experienced Heartbleed, a prime example of a poorly-reviewed piece of software, in one of the most entrenched OSS libraries. I'd certainly appreciate a stricter process of code review and testing, considering the cost of patching it. You being not a fan of OS X apparently clouds your judgement in this case.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- exodust 13y agoThis story says more about the insecurity of the Safari guy than it does about Jobs. Sounds like people at Apple spent too much time worrying about what Steve thought of them, whether he'd remember their names or invite them to meetings. While everyone is worried about what one man thinks, the man himself was thinking about design and business issues, trying to solve problems. Funny how bookmarks was never really solved in Safari. On my iPad, I hate the bookmarks functionality, it confuses me pretty much every time. When I try to find a bookmark, or add a bookmark, every time it seems I have to "figure out" and remember how to do that. It's not intuitive or snappy. And now with iOS7 flat design, all your bookmarks and history appears as one big list - black text on white background. The lack of interface delineation mean elements bleed into other elements and make it harder to mentally remember where things are found. If Steve were still around, he'd be kicking someone's ass over the half-baked iOS7 flat design.