16 ms·

The plan itself looks reasonable to me. It's fairly buzzword-free (comparing to the plans nowadays), but maybe the buzzword back then just became common vocabul

by NhanH 12y ago

The plan itself looks reasonable to me. It's fairly buzzword-free (comparing to the plans nowadays), but maybe the buzzword back then just became common vocabulary to us. The most interesting thing on the plan to me is the staff page: specifically how non-impressive the credentials of everyone on the team is. It's fun to think that Jobs might have embellish a little there (attended Stanford part) just to look better. Even the one with most credentials (Markkula, I believe) just read like a normal upper-middle management bio nowadays. And Woz & Jobs ... well, I don't think any company nowadays would be able to raise fund if the founder s' bios look like that. Am I wrong?

defen 12y ago
Wozniak's is only not impressive because they left off "invented the personal computer."
- NhanH 12y ago
  "Invented the personal computer" might be a bit of a stretch to me. Apple I was one of the first (popular?), but iirc it wasn't the very first one of its kind, nor the only one at the time. But even if it was the first and only of its kind. At the time, "invented the personal computer" still wouldn't be anything would be counted as "credentials", let alone "impressive credentials". Someone who has been around the block might correct me if I'm wrong, but personal computer was nowhere near influential, or well known back then as it is now.
  - vlunkr 12y ago
    It was the apple 2, also designed by Wozniak that really made them famous, not the first one. It was the first personal computer to hit the market that you could purchase and use without some serious technical knowledge, both is software and hardware. So he may not have technically invented the personal computer, but he built one that was actually marketable. And Apple was worth billions within the first years of their existence, so I would say it was pretty influential. Some people may not like Apple, but it's impossible to deny the massive role they played in the early days. And it really wouldn't have happened without Wozniak, he was the technical genius of the group.
- PinguTS 12y ago
  You know, that the Altair was before and Woz did his own design just because he couldn't afford the Altair.
  - simonh 12y ago
    The Altair was a microcomputer, but not a personal computer. A personal computer is a microcomputer with a keyboard and screen. The Altair was designed to be programmed using binary toglle switches and later an interface card came out to connect it to a teletype terminal. The Apple ][ came with a keyboard and worked with a screen, so it was the first true personal computer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcomputer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcomputer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer
- jdswain 12y ago
  "Inventing the personal computer" is something that is completely open to interpretation. I've heard Woz say something similar, and if you look at it a certain way then it's easy to agree with him. What he means by that is that the Apple ][ was the first computer that came with everything so you could plug it in and start work. The Altair and other's that people may consider as contenders for the first personal computer required more technical skills, like not coming with a keyboard, or requiring you to do a certain amount of assembly. So by one definition the Apple ][ was the first computer that you could buy, plug together and boot up Basic or VisiCalc and start doing some work. At least with the first Apple ][, Woz designed the whole of the hardware, the ROM, and the first Basic. Later on that Basic was replaced with Microsoft Basic, which caused problems for Apple later on with the Macintosh when it came time to renew the MS Basic license. Steve Jobs did have some influence on the Apple ][, but far less than Woz, he worked on the PCB layout (as far as making it nice and everything line up, not the actual routing), and the case design (designed by Jerry Manock), which was revolutionary at the time. The switch-mode power supply was also unique in a computer at that time, and was not designed by Woz, but by Rod Holt. Woz's disk controller is probably the most impressive piece of design from that period though. It was a very close thing though as the Commodore PET was actually released only a few months later, and was even more easy to set up as it came with a built in cassette drive and display. It's interesting that in most of this history Chuck Peddle, the designer of the PET, gets very little recognition, much less than he should. As well as designing the PET (which led on the the Commodore 64 and others), he was the main designer of the 6502, the processor used in the Apple ][. There's also a story that he met Woz and helped him debug one of his 6502 designs.
S_A_P 12y ago
The thing I noticed was that Steve Jobs had the least impressive credentials on the page.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- jsprogrammer 12y ago
  Credentials generally just mean that some institution decided to give you a title.
wamatt 12y ago
Sometimes I do wonder about the double standards involved in characterizations of certain people. Like if it's someone we like, then that person "embellished" their record, but if it's someone we don't then, they "lied". So thinking aloud, does that mean I can go crash some courses at Stanford too, then put it in the pitch deck as "Attended Stanford". Knowing full well, physical access, is not what is meant by the use of the term and that investors may be misled? It seems to me, this might qualify as evidence of the reality distortion field at work.
- arrrg 12y ago
  “Embellish” is used here because this happened a long time ago and it’s just completely, utterly irrelevant to anything at all … People around here seem so, so convinced that everyone here loves Apple and anything to do with it, all the while all I ever see is complete, unfettered hate. And that’s ok, definitely, nothing wrong with that, but to me this perception of Apple being irrationally loved by anyone around here is just so, so weird and unrelated to reality.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- NhanH 12y ago
  Besides what arrrg said, part of the reason I used embellish is that I don't know how close it is to the fact: certainly this is the first time I've heard/read about Jobs "attended" Stanford, but I have no idea whether he might have crashed there for a few semesters (if he was crashing the courses similar to how he did after dropping out of Reed, "attended" would only be a bit of a stretch). Also, using the word "lie" is mean, and I'm with the camp that being mean for no reason is unnecessary.
  - wamatt 12y ago
    Sure, while I agree it's nice to give strangers the benefit of the doubt, how 'mean' can one really be, to a deceased public figure? Or to take a sillier example: You could certainly act mean to a stone, but would it care? Personally, I tend to view the term as having more relevance in the interpersonal domain, where one would try to avoid unnecessarily hurting someone else.
xiaoma 12y ago
Atari and HP both had some serious cachet back then The 2015 equivalent would be an ex FB engineer and ex-Blizzard engineer team. Totally fundable.
rwhitman 12y ago
It's easy to forget that Apple and a number of the corporate giants of today were born in a time when there was much less competition, not just in the tech business but in life in general. In 1977 California's population was almost one half what it is today, heck the world population was almost one half what it is today. We see the vast pool of smart educated people on the planet as normal right now, but back even 40 years ago a tiny fraction of people really fit the bill. I'm a firm believer that most of the heroes of history would be considered average shlubs today. They just happened to be possessing the right balance of intelligence, vision and work ethic at the right time in history.
- davidf18 12y ago
  Not certain that "timing" would apply to Intel founders Gordon Moore, Bob Noyce, Andy Grove and perhaps some others in the semiconductor industry (Shockly, ....). Also Seymour Cray.
- cylinder 12y ago
  In developed countries, yes. That's basically what developed means -- there's less opportunity except at very high specialized areas often requiring lots of expertise and capital. Not so in lesser developed countries. People would be shocked if they realized how many rather mediocre people in "third world countries" are very wealthy doing pretty basic things. If one is up for lower competition they can head to Africa now.

by NhanH 12y ago

defen 12y ago

Wozniak's is only not impressive because they left off "invented the personal computer."

NhanH 12y ago
"Invented the personal computer" might be a bit of a stretch to me. Apple I was one of the first (popular?), but iirc it wasn't the very first one of its kind, nor the only one at the time. But even if it was the first and only of its kind. At the time, "invented the personal computer" still wouldn't be anything would be counted as "credentials", let alone "impressive credentials". Someone who has been around the block might correct me if I'm wrong, but personal computer was nowhere near influential, or well known back then as it is now.
- vlunkr 12y ago
  It was the apple 2, also designed by Wozniak that really made them famous, not the first one. It was the first personal computer to hit the market that you could purchase and use without some serious technical knowledge, both is software and hardware. So he may not have technically invented the personal computer, but he built one that was actually marketable. And Apple was worth billions within the first years of their existence, so I would say it was pretty influential. Some people may not like Apple, but it's impossible to deny the massive role they played in the early days. And it really wouldn't have happened without Wozniak, he was the technical genius of the group.
PinguTS 12y ago
You know, that the Altair was before and Woz did his own design just because he couldn't afford the Altair.
- simonh 12y ago
  The Altair was a microcomputer, but not a personal computer. A personal computer is a microcomputer with a keyboard and screen. The Altair was designed to be programmed using binary toglle switches and later an interface card came out to connect it to a teletype terminal. The Apple ][ came with a keyboard and worked with a screen, so it was the first true personal computer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcomputer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcomputer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer
jdswain 12y ago
"Inventing the personal computer" is something that is completely open to interpretation. I've heard Woz say something similar, and if you look at it a certain way then it's easy to agree with him. What he means by that is that the Apple ][ was the first computer that came with everything so you could plug it in and start work. The Altair and other's that people may consider as contenders for the first personal computer required more technical skills, like not coming with a keyboard, or requiring you to do a certain amount of assembly. So by one definition the Apple ][ was the first computer that you could buy, plug together and boot up Basic or VisiCalc and start doing some work. At least with the first Apple ][, Woz designed the whole of the hardware, the ROM, and the first Basic. Later on that Basic was replaced with Microsoft Basic, which caused problems for Apple later on with the Macintosh when it came time to renew the MS Basic license. Steve Jobs did have some influence on the Apple ][, but far less than Woz, he worked on the PCB layout (as far as making it nice and everything line up, not the actual routing), and the case design (designed by Jerry Manock), which was revolutionary at the time. The switch-mode power supply was also unique in a computer at that time, and was not designed by Woz, but by Rod Holt. Woz's disk controller is probably the most impressive piece of design from that period though. It was a very close thing though as the Commodore PET was actually released only a few months later, and was even more easy to set up as it came with a built in cassette drive and display. It's interesting that in most of this history Chuck Peddle, the designer of the PET, gets very little recognition, much less than he should. As well as designing the PET (which led on the the Commodore 64 and others), he was the main designer of the 6502, the processor used in the Apple ][. There's also a story that he met Woz and helped him debug one of his 6502 designs.

S_A_P 12y ago

The thing I noticed was that Steve Jobs had the least impressive credentials on the page.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
jsprogrammer 12y ago
Credentials generally just mean that some institution decided to give you a title.

wamatt 12y ago

Sometimes I do wonder about the double standards involved in characterizations of certain people. Like if it's someone we like, then that person "embellished" their record, but if it's someone we don't then, they "lied". So thinking aloud, does that mean I can go crash some courses at Stanford too, then put it in the pitch deck as "Attended Stanford". Knowing full well, physical access, is not what is meant by the use of the term and that investors may be misled? It seems to me, this might qualify as evidence of the reality distortion field at work.

arrrg 12y ago
“Embellish” is used here because this happened a long time ago and it’s just completely, utterly irrelevant to anything at all … People around here seem so, so convinced that everyone here loves Apple and anything to do with it, all the while all I ever see is complete, unfettered hate. And that’s ok, definitely, nothing wrong with that, but to me this perception of Apple being irrationally loved by anyone around here is just so, so weird and unrelated to reality.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
NhanH 12y ago
Besides what arrrg said, part of the reason I used embellish is that I don't know how close it is to the fact: certainly this is the first time I've heard/read about Jobs "attended" Stanford, but I have no idea whether he might have crashed there for a few semesters (if he was crashing the courses similar to how he did after dropping out of Reed, "attended" would only be a bit of a stretch). Also, using the word "lie" is mean, and I'm with the camp that being mean for no reason is unnecessary.
- wamatt 12y ago
  Sure, while I agree it's nice to give strangers the benefit of the doubt, how 'mean' can one really be, to a deceased public figure? Or to take a sillier example: You could certainly act mean to a stone, but would it care? Personally, I tend to view the term as having more relevance in the interpersonal domain, where one would try to avoid unnecessarily hurting someone else.

xiaoma 12y ago

Atari and HP both had some serious cachet back then The 2015 equivalent would be an ex FB engineer and ex-Blizzard engineer team. Totally fundable.

rwhitman 12y ago

It's easy to forget that Apple and a number of the corporate giants of today were born in a time when there was much less competition, not just in the tech business but in life in general. In 1977 California's population was almost one half what it is today, heck the world population was almost one half what it is today. We see the vast pool of smart educated people on the planet as normal right now, but back even 40 years ago a tiny fraction of people really fit the bill. I'm a firm believer that most of the heroes of history would be considered average shlubs today. They just happened to be possessing the right balance of intelligence, vision and work ethic at the right time in history.

davidf18 12y ago
Not certain that "timing" would apply to Intel founders Gordon Moore, Bob Noyce, Andy Grove and perhaps some others in the semiconductor industry (Shockly, ....). Also Seymour Cray.
cylinder 12y ago
In developed countries, yes. That's basically what developed means -- there's less opportunity except at very high specialized areas often requiring lots of expertise and capital. Not so in lesser developed countries. People would be shocked if they realized how many rather mediocre people in "third world countries" are very wealthy doing pretty basic things. If one is up for lower competition they can head to Africa now.