Jobs' first boss Nolan Bushnell: 'Steve was difficult but valuable'

Steve Jobs' first boss, Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell, has written a book in which he offers advice on how to find, hire, and retain visionary talent – even though such creative types can be as difficult to deal with as Apple's cofounder. "The truth is that very few companies would hire Steve, even today," Bushnell writes. " …

[Anonymous Coward]

There are plenty of Steve Jobs running around.

Guys who don't create anything, but just put on a good show.

What you really want is to find the next Woz. Who is the person that is going to make the technical innovations that you can wrap a sales and marketing campaign around?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: There are plenty of Steve Jobs running around.

Absolutely. When Jobs said you should hire people 100x better than average he meant Woz.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: There are plenty of Steve Jobs running around.

A techie would say that - but then you end up with technical products people either can't use or don't want - the reality is you need a mix of both.

[LarsG]

Strange how

The comments about Steve Jobs come into the fore when the book is actually about hiring and firing talent.

Forget about Steve Jobs, he's just an example, a foot note to describe a character in the book. Actually read what he has said an you will see that some of it makes sense.

Not many big businesses will like his ideas, the ones that do tend to do this stuff anyway. Just like in politics, you'll never convert the unconverted.

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: Strange how

Actually read what he has said an you will see that some of it makes sense.

Sure, if you want to found the next Atari.

Personally, if I were in charge of hiring, I'd rather look to build the next IBM - a tech company that has lasted for more than a century, and has had a market cap far in excess of anything Apple's ever achieved (in constant dollars), and has weathered tremendous errors of its own making, a hostile regulatory environment, PR disasters, and dramatic market changes. That's lasting value.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: There are plenty of Steve Jobs running around.

No, if you hire the next Woz, you should find the next Woz + Steve.

If you hire Woz(es) you also need someone to actually exploit them in order to have a product. Otherwise they will be endlessly building cool stuff that does not quite make money. Same as Woz after Apple.

So either hire people that are not quite so Wozzy (creatives with some business aptitude) or hire an occasional Steve to ruthlessly exploit the business inept and convert cool geeky stuff into shiny (i,j,k,l,m,n,o)Things.

[John Smith 19]

Re: There are plenty of Steve Jobs running around.

"If you hire Woz(es) you also need someone to actually exploit them in order to have a product. "

Indeed. And when it came to ruthless exploitation Jobs was indeed the goto guy.

It's so difficult to find those charismatic borderline psychopaths that are still just this side of serial killer or ponzi fraudster.

[wayward4now]

Re: There are plenty of Steve Jobs running around.

I've always maintained that if it weren't for The Woz, Jobs would have been selling term life policies to blue rinsed old ladies.

[CmdrX3]

Re: There are plenty of Steve Jobs running around.

Not necessarily, Woz is really only known because of what Jobs did. If not for Jobs he would probably be an excellent but anonymous engineer working for one of the many tech companies. On the flip side, Jobs wouldn't have had anything to do had Woz not did what he did. Each one required the other for them to prosper otherwise both their futures would probably have turned out very different.

[Homer 1]

Misplaced admiration

I'm surprised Bushnell has such reverence for a guy who had zero technical skills [1] and even fewer scruples, who passed his jobs onto Steve Wozniak then conned him [2] out of full payment.

[1] 'On the genius of Jobs, Isaacson is not dazzled. "He was never much of an engineer," "He didn't know how to code or programme a computer. That was Wozniak's job."'

[2] "Jobs returned to his previous job at Atari and was given the task of creating a circuit board for the game Breakout. According to Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, Atari had offered $100 for each chip that was eliminated in the machine. Jobs had little interest or knowledge in circuit board design and made a deal with Wozniak to split the bonus evenly between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips. Much to the amazement of Atari, Wozniak reduced the number of chips by 50. At the time, Jobs told Wozniak that Atari had only given them $700 (instead of the actual $5,000) and that Wozniak's share was thus $350."

Frankly I'm at a loss to understand exactly what Jobs' contribution was to, well, anything. It's not like Apple ever actually invented anything, and Jobs himself seemed to be little more than a sort of megalomaniacal spokesmodel.

[TheOtherHobbes]

Re: Misplaced admiration

Jobs did marketing and branding. He was one of those very rare marketing people who really did have a feel for what the public would consider cool, and who understood that punters don't want hardware or software, they want a wanky thing that could be called the Total Ownership Experience.

So he set about creating that at Apple, then Next, then Apple again, with everything from the initial product announcement to the physical stores to the packaging to the advertising to the design to the technology carefully crafted to sell, sell, sell, and keep selling.

He didn't need to code. He needed enough technical skill to hire good engineers and give them goals and targets.

But engineering was just a small part of market design to him. It wasn't the main event.

He sounds like a nightmare in person. But I think it's unfair to day he did nothing at Apple or Next.

[Homer 1]

Re: "Jobs did marketing and branding"

Or in other words ... nothing.

[David 45]

Re: Misplaced admiration

From what I have read, I would totally agree. The guy just seemed like an over-bearing, bombastic bossy-boots and apparently all he cared about was conning the public into buying grossly over-priced products that could have been bought elsewhere, made by other manufacturers, to do broadly the same function. How people fell for it, I shall never know. iPad - a magical thing? I think not.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Misplaced admiration

No doubt what has been written about Steve is correct and he may indeed have been an 'over-bearing, bombastic bossy-boots' but it cannot be denied that he turned Apple into a rather successful business...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Misplaced admiration

Invented nothing.

Helped no-one.

Conned chumps by sleight of hand.

Anyone can do it.

Most people have too much respect for themselves.

[Homer 1]

Re: "he turned Apple into a rather successful business"

Yes, and Al Capone had a rather successful business too, no doubt by making similarly violent, sinister and unwarranted threats in pursuit of that "success".

The mere fact of making lots of money is not praiseworthy, not least of which because the means used to make that money might be highly unethical if not blatantly criminal. Moreover, others' financial success, whether or not it's achieved legitimately, is of no particular benefit to anyone else, and therefore it's highly irrational to fawn over it.

So this is the totality of Jobs' achievements: he was a belligerent but effective carpetbagger for a company that "shamelessly stole" everyone else's ideas, then repackaged and sold them at an extortionate price, whilst hypocritically litigating against anyone else who did likewise.

What award should that qualify him for, exactly?

"Gangster of the Year", maybe?

[jake]

@Homer 1 (was:Re: Misplaced admiration)

"a guy who had zero technical skills"

Uh ... you are wrong. Back in the day, we shared a soldering iron, oscilloscope & VOM at several Homebrew Computer Club meetings, over probably 18 months. The dude grocked hardware.

"passed his jobs onto Steve Wozniak then conned him out of full payment."

Yes. That's what manglement does. Are you listening, peons?

"Jobs himself seemed to be little more than a sort of megalomaniacal spokesmodel."

Yes, after he learned to shower & change clothes. That's why the iFad religion is where it is ...

[Ross K]

Re: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration)

Uh ... you are wrong. Back in the day, we shared a soldering iron, oscilloscope & VOM at several Homebrew Computer Club meetings, over probably 18 months. The dude grocked hardware.

Steve was a friend of mine. In that era, I always sat upwind ...

"Oooh, look at me. I knew Steve".

Fella, nobody likes a name-dropper...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration)

"Fella, nobody likes a name-dropper..."

It is in no way name dropping if you have shared time at the orginal Homebrew computer club with Steve Jobs and you say so on a topic where that fact is completely germane to the topic of conversation. It would be weird if you didn't.

A name dropper looks for opportunities to drop names into conversation regardless of the flow of the discussion. If Jake was present at the original Homebrew club meetings, I for one find that very interesting and I would love to know more.

If you are not interested in someone else's experience and knowledge, from a time and place that could not be more central to the home computer revolution, - if you have closed you mind because you have simply allowed petty prejudices about your preferred technology and your preferred view of the world, to get in the way of real first hand experience from someone that was there - then you are a petty individual with limited imagination.

[Ross K]

Re: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration)

It is in no way name dropping if you have shared time at the orginal Homebrew computer club with Steve Jobs and you say so on a topic where that fact is completely germane to the topic of conversation. It would be weird if you didn't.

Yes, it is name-dropping.

Seeking to aggrandise yourself in the eyes of your "peers" by telling everyone you shared soldering irons isn't something I find particularly interesting.

If you find the guy interesting, maybe you could get him to write a book. Maybe it would be more interesting than the book reviewed in the article. Who knows?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration)

I recommend staying indoors. Or y'know you might come across a world of experience that doesn't fit your prejudices, and you'll have to get all bent out of shape, and mouth off about how there's nothing to learn from people you don't agree with.

[jake]

@Ross K (was: Re: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration))

My portion of Silly Con Valley's rise & fall & rise & fall & rise & fall & fall[1] & possible current upward trend[2] is in the works. Working title "40+ Years of Labor for THIS? (Subtitled "Why I bought a horse ranch ...")".

Unfortunately, when it gets published it'll out me here on ElReg ...

No aggrandizing here. Rather, putting history into perspective.

[1] Not a typo.

[2] Manufacturing is returning to TheValley ... Slowly, but it's definitely on the upturn.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @Ross K (was: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration))

Thumbs up - I'd like to read your book. I love talking to the guys who were around to watch the early history of Silicon Valley.

[Destroy All Monsters]

Re: @Ross K (was: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration))

"40+ Years of Labor for THIS?"

I would buy it.

[John Smith 19]

Re: @Ross K (was: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration))

"My portion of Silly Con Valley's rise & fall & rise & fall & rise & fall & fall[1] & possible current upward trend[2] is in the works. Working title "40+ Years of Labor for THIS? (Subtitled "Why I bought a horse ranch ...")".

Unfortunately, when it gets published it'll out me here on ElReg ...

No aggrandizing here. Rather, putting history into perspective.

[1] Not a typo.

[2] Manufacturing is returning to TheValley ... Slowly, but it's definitely on the upturn.

House Rules Post your own message "

Now, if only you could process individual chips of Silicon in the way that you could thick film or thin film hybrids.

[jake]

@John Smith 19 (was: Re: @Ross K (was: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration)))

"Now, if only you could process individual chips of Silicon in the way that you could thick film or thin film hybrids."

I tried to buy Trilogy's Fab, back in late 1984/early '85, when they were attempting to not go under ... Unfortunately, all I have in my collection is a few trays of 4-inch "system on a 2.5 inch chip" wafers in various layer steppings, a couple of masks, and a couple of lab-grown un-cut silicon ingots. If I had managed to purchase the Fab, I'd probably still be able to do what you suggest.

Maybe. Going down hill with a stiff tail wind ;-)

I can cut and polish silicon ingots into wafers, I have a HyPOx, and a Class 10 clean-room, but ... Lots of this old stuff is pretty much impossible to get "day-to-day" functional these days, for a lot of reasons. And probably a waste of electricity to even try. I only keep the kit around because I have the space, and hope that eventually there will be a place in a museum for it.

The old screen printer keeps on chugging, though ... and the laser can still cut the resistors, according to what the CAD system recommends for any given hybrid. I fire it up several times per year, and always at a profit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration)

Now Rosky, iThink (groan! sorry) you are being silly. Everyone here is discussing a certain person's character traits, most likely without having ever met that person in question. If someone intervenes with an observation made on the basis of first-hand experience, it's only natural that he should say so.

The fact that a certain person might have been famous is neither here nor there in this case.

[Chris Parsons]

Re: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration)

Michael Parkinson bought me a pint once. Honestly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration)

If you do it occasionally, or maybe even anonymously, but Jake seems to take every opportunity to mention how much stuff he's got, how great he is, ho big his house and grounds are, how many cars and yatchs he's got, how he's got specialist know how in any number of subjects and it's bloody tedious.

[John Smith 19]

Re: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration)

"Steve was a friend of mine. In that era, I always sat upwind ..."

I doubt such people have friends.

They know people who can do things for them.

That's rather different.

[Roland6]

Re: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration)

>The dude grocked hardware

But did he actually do anything constructive and produce something that worked, without you actually wielding the soldering iron and reading the scope for him? I think you will find that practically any one can 'grock' hardware, but few could actually build something that worked.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration)

@Jake: Never name drop, people don't like it. Mick Jagger told me that.

[Anonymous Coward]

@AC 16:37 [Was: Re: @Homer 1 (was:Misplaced admiration)]

I never told you that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Misplaced admiration

>> I'm surprised Bushnell has such reverence for a guy who had zero technical skills

Just because a guy can't program doesn't mean he has zero technical skills. Just watch one of Jobs's product introductions. He loved explaining the technical aspects of his products. That's almost all he talked about. Get your grandmom to explain a backside illuminated sensor to you and you'll see somebody with zero technical skills.

[simon62a]

Re: Misplaced admiration

Hi Jobs need not have done anything, but follow his logic since early days of quitting Apple, starting NEXT, following a strict object oriented programming, once he gets back move entire Apple to OS X, then onto Intel, the uniformity of an iPod or an iPhone or an iPad running essentially same OS and motivating an entire group of brilliant engineers to work to his plan. You need not be an engineer etc. When you see this consistency and see that neither Microsoft not any one else has such focus over such a long period, do you still go back to "Misplaced admiration", I doubt it..

[Roland6]

Re: Misplaced admiration

>Jobs had little interest or knowledge in circuit board design and made a deal with Wozniak to split the bonus evenly between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips.

What isn't clear is the employment/contractual details of this work. It seems that at the time it was Jobs who was employed by Atari and tasked by them, whilst Wozniak's was employed as engineer at HP.

So it would seem that Jobs was subcontracting his work to a third-party - just goes to show that the recent news about employees subscontracting work to people in China etc. is actually nothing new...

[1052-STATE]

Re: Misplaced admiration

"So it would seem that Jobs was subcontracting his work to a third-party"

Interesting deduction. I won't rely on you for any important binary addition.

Equally obtuse, I shall deduce the following, then:

"So it would seem that Woz subcontracted the menial financial aspects to his inferior, Jobs, and got totally shafted on the Atari deal"

[1052-STATE]

+1 +1

Andy Prough and Homer 1, claim your upvotes for the two best comments I've read in ages. You both cut through the veneer of someone wholly overrated (and today: worshipped).

To say that Woz wouldn't have amounted to anything had it not been for Jobs... I think you need to get your coat.

Homer - thanks for bringing to light again that scummy dastardly deed. It says so much about character.

[John Smith 19]

Re: +1 +1

"Homer - thanks for bringing to light again that scummy dastardly deed. It says so much about character."

Think of it as a dry run for his work in avoiding a mult $Bn paternity suite by claiming he was firing blanks, no way was the girl his etc.

[ItsNotMe]

Re: Misplaced admiration

Well...there was an "inventor" from Menlo Park, NJ who took credit for all sorts of inventions a century plus ago, which were actually invented by his employees. And he too was very unliked by a lot of people. Especially those who knew him back then...like my parents & grand-parents...and many other residents of the community.

Nothing much has changed in the world in nearly one hundred years.

And yes...Thomas Edison was his name.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Misplaced admiration

The world is full of these types.

If you can't compete on level terms, then you have to cheat.

Some of these people do very well, but I have no respect for them.

[M Gale]

Complete these well known phrases:

Good artists copy, _________________

What's good for the goose, __________________

[Steve Todd]

Re: Complete these well known phrases:

Homework: find out who first came up with the first quote and what was meant by it

[M Gale]

Re: Complete these well known phrases:

Picasso, and in the same sense as the old "standing on the shoulders of giants" quote, attributed to either Isaac Newton or Bernard of Chartres. Nothing is invented in isolation.

In some cases, it's barely "invented" at all.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Speaking of shareholders: back when Apple was in its early days, Bushnell turned down an offer from Jobs to invest $50,000 in the fledgling company, an amount that would have given him a one-third ownership stake. Even after Apple's recent stock-price plummet, that investment would now be worth about $138.5bn; that's an ROI of about 280 million per cent."

So we should really listen to this guys advice...

[MrT]

Hindsight...

...is always the clearest.

[JimC]

> So we should really listen to this guys advice...

So who should you listen to - people who've learned from the past - or people who haven't...

[VinceH]

Optional

"So we should really listen to this guys advice..."

Well, if it was a book offering advice about investing, you probably shouldn't - but it's not.

[Trustme]

"So we should really listen to this guys advice..."

Well Google missed the opportunity to buy Facebook but I don't think anyone is questioning their business acumen or whether or not they're good at what they do.....

@RossK

It's not name dropping, relating an anecdote about the person the article about is not only germane to the conversation, he is actually one of the few people who have commented with personal experience of the man in question over an extended period of time and therefore is more qualified to make a comment and more welcome and informative than someone who just doesn't want to hear anything that might actually be true about the man and have to change or shift his opinion. I'm no lover of Jobs or his worshipers, but I never met the man and am interested to hear from people who have so I can have a better informed opinion, regardless of whether it supports my current opinion. Like any rational person.

[jake]

"he'd just seem like a jerk in bad clothing"

That's pronounced "smelly clothing".

Steve was a friend of mine. In that era, I always sat upwind ...

Yes, he was a jerk. So am I. Deal with it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "he'd just seem like a jerk in bad clothing"

But you're a man of the people, as at home being a jerk all over Reg comments threads as you are rubbing soldering irons with the great and stinky. You're not at all like that asshole Jobs who was just FAR too big for his boots and would never condescend to mix it up with us inferior intellects.

[frank ly]

re. ".. radical things that resonate."

Sounds like a snappy title for a book.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hypocrites need apply

Jobs was also a hypocrite. Apple are predominately `a company who take other peoples designs and ideas.

Apple store = White version of Giorgio Armani store from the 1980s. Silver metal rounded corner electronics = Dieter Rams design. Mag connector = Asian Rice cookers. The list goes on.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Hypocrites need apply

This old troll bait again. If it's so easy to copy designs and ideas, can I assume you're also a billionaire?

[Tom 7]

Re: Hypocrites need apply

It easy to copy design ideas - it takes a special heartlessness to make billions from it. He's jealous of course, but then so am I - I could have been very rich if I didn’t have some morals.

It is very important to remember that in any disruptive technology miracle that makes massive changes to society there will always be people who rise to the very top and are worshipped by others who wish for the same chance - which is basically being in the right spot to ride the wave with the ruthlessness to stay there.

We end up with a series of dull heroes, who are held up as examples of how to do things. If we all behaved like them I'd have just burned down your mud hut and carried of your wife - with a couple of mates who look scary but for some reason do as I say to get a share.

[Anonymous Coward]

Breakout

What did Jobs actually do at Atari? I understand he is credited for designing the VCS version of Breakout. So designing a product that was already designed on another platform, that sums up Apple perfectly!

[petur]

French

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose," as the Parisians would say.

Nice of El Reg to speak French (or properly copy it from somewhere), but I fail to see how this sentence relates to the article

[Cirdan]

Re: French

Petur-" "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose," as the Parisians would say.

Nice of El Reg to speak French (or properly copy it from somewhere), but I fail to see how this sentence relates to the article "

_____________________

It's a well-known saying in American English usage.

"There are parasites all over the computer world ready to take whatever we come up with," Jobs told Bushnell.

So, the more things change (Jobs is dead, PCs are on the downswing), the more they're the same (Kindle Fire, Facebook OS).

Or was I trolled?

...Cirdan...

[LinkOfHyrule]

Are you a total jerk? Your dress sense makes you look like a douche?

Chuck E. Cheese is now hiring and wants YOU to come and join us in one of many dynamic and exciting roles in our food creation and hygiene technician departments!

[John Smith 19]

Thing is

You can be a soap dodging techie but you catch more flies with honey than vinegar

If you're happy with your cave in the basement that's fine. But if you want occasional interactions with other people (some of them possibly of the female gender) and a shot at a pay rise you will have to embrace personal hygiene.

Jobs lasting legacy?

Persuading large number of people to buy the wolds most overpriced PC hardware.

[Mike Moyle]

Re: Thing is

"You can be a soap dodging techie but you catch more flies with honey than vinegar"

But you can catch even more with a pound of shit...

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: Thing is

you catch more flies with honey than vinegar

Vinegar keeps more flies away than honey does.

FTFY. HTH. HAND.

(Mind you, I am clean, stylish, urbane, articulate, and handsome. But I have my arrogance and contrariness to defend me against the unwanted attentions of the general public. Not everyone is so gifted, and so some must resort to poor hygiene.)

[Anonymous Coward]

Regardless of the arguments over Jobs

The advice is sound. Too many companies have HR departments who ruthlessly filter out anyone who's face doesn't fit or, who won't comply with policy and assimilate into the collective. Is it any wonder the likes of HP struggle so badly to get out of the rut they've got themselves into? They might talk the talk but in reality these companies can't fine their way to think differently.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Regardless of the arguments over Jobs

If you can't behave yourself with basic decorum and think that you can achieve greatness by bullying, crying when you don't get your own way, not washing and generally pissing everyone off, you have no place in any company I would run, or have worked for.

The days of the growling "genius" in the corner who occasionally puts out great work, but is unpredictable and can't follow basic company rules are over. Those sorts of people do as much to retard the work of others as they put out themselves in my experience anyway.

[Anonymous Coward]

Right place, right time

There's a lot of people talking about the genius or Jobs and/or the genius of Woz. What nobody seems to want to mention or admit (such a non-deterministic idea is not fashionable) is maybe these guys were good but they also just got lucky by being in the right place at the right time. Personally I think the world is full or Jobs's and Wozs, we only get to hear about the ones who got lucky and succeed. There's no magic formula, no special people, just a world where 0.0001% must get extremely successful and the rest don't - due to pure statistics and nothing else.....

[Anonymous Coward]

"...The truth is that very few companies would hire Steve, even today," Bushnell writes. "Why?..."

Well, his being dead might be a factor.

[Michael Wojcik]

Well, his being dead might be a factor.

On tonight's episode of AMC's award-winning The Working Dead, consumer-IT icon Zombie Steve Jobs rises from the grave and shambles into a shocking new CEO position at another Silicon Valley firm!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Steve was a friend of mine. In that era, I always sat upwind ..."

I'm confused. Three people [re]quoted this and effectively attributed it to Jake, but it's not in his original post and, seeing as there isn't an edit button, it can't have been there earlier. So from whence did this Stinky-Steve quote originate?

[bag o' spanners]

Re: "Steve was a friend of mine. In that era, I always sat upwind ..."

Possibly a vortex involving the space-time continuum and too much chocolate. Or possibly the crafty nesting arrangement employed by Vulture Central to place relies directly underneath the post they reply to? I'm just guessing. It's choc o'clock.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Steve was a friend of mine. In that era, I always sat upwind ..."

"I'm confused. Three people [re]quoted this and effectively attributed it to Jake, but it's not in his original post"

No, it's in some other post further down the conversation.

[Anonymous Coward]

do some radical things that resonate.

What? Like ...fart, maybe?

[2Fat2Bald]

Why the Vitriol?

So Woz has the stronger technical skills, and Steve had the stronger business sense? - in which case it makes sense to break it up the way they did. Why on earth would you get Woz to invest his time in doing something Steve is better at if all you get in return in freeing up Steve's time to do something Woz is better at? People seem to see this as the clever businessman getting rich on the genius of the engineer. But you could equally well see it as the engineer getting the businessman to sell his product for him.

And why do people slag off marketting skills? Frankly you can make the best product in the bloody world, cheaply enough to sell for the price of a cup of tea. If nobody knows about it and it's benefits, you're not going to sell many. People don't buy the "best" product - they buy the one they feel best about. Betamax was/is technically superior to VHS in many ways. But VHS was better marketted, became slightly more popular, and then used that popularity to get first dibs on top feature films and use it's volume sales to undercut Betamax. I recall in the past buying AMD chips and paying must less than i'd pay for the intel 486. Other people insisted on buying only "genuine" intel chips, but were totally incapable of explaining why they were supposed to be better, much less demonstrating that they were.

As regard IP protection - It costs money to set up a business. If you're just going to let someone else skip the RND phase by copying your design wholesale, then you've done all the work only to end up at an immediate competative disadvantage as you need to recoup RnD costs, and they don't. So they can undercut you....

Going back to the article. Yep. Creative personality types are often "difficult", if not actually downright disfunctional. This is generally true (it's where the phrase "Artistic Temperament" comes from - it's extra true of creative technical people for some reason. Not really news. Trust me, i've worked with some people who would wow you with their techical genius one moment, and the next moment say or do something so lamentably stupid that you'd want to weep or cringe with contact embarissment - some just couldn't talk to people outside of IT - especially people of the oppositve sex.

[ecofeco]

Jobs?

May he rest in hell.

[Lghost]

There is no c in grok

Which makes anyone who uses one ..

a) Unreliable, in whatever they assert, in the sentence in which they use the word ..

b) a word which does actually include, nay begins with, a c...

c) both...

[Master Rod]

All said and done, through Jobs vision, the Woz produced. It takes two to tango, and this was one hellova team.I miss Jobs, but I kind of wish Woz would come out of hiding.....

Master Rod

[Michael Wojcik]

I kind of wish Woz would come out of hiding

Your wish has been granted, my son.

Oh dear. Looks like that was a bit of a monkey's paw after all.