Steve Jobs, RIP
What an amazing and inspiring entrepreneur. What a loss.
Here's what I wrote about him, a few weeks ago, in the pages of NR:
The business world is famous for its difficult bosses, to put it as mildly as possible. There are screamers and throwers and silent treatment types – all kinds and shapes of cruelty. If you go to the right bars around the downtown area of any major city and get a stool close to a group of young-looking people in suits, you can hear some pretty alarming stories about their bosses. The American economy, it sometimes seems, is run by demanding and irrational psychopaths assisted by terrified fauns.
It’s hard, though, when you reach a certain age, not to instinctively side with the psychopaths.
Steve Jobs, the two-time impresario behind the astonishing success of Apple Computers, has a reputation for being – well, I won’t use the P word, so we’ll have to settle for “demanding.” He’s a demanding boss, from all accounts.
A friend of mine who spent some time in Cupertino – and that’s how the cool kids refer to Apple HQ: “Cupertino,” which is where it’s based deep in the Silicon Valley – has shared lots of stories about Jobs’ famous temper, his obsessive perfectionism, his willingness to shelve any project or product (or employee) that doesn’t meet his high standards.
“In a meeting with Steve, you have to be prepared for his questions,” my friend told me, adding darkly, “all of his possible questions, from how long a product will take to build to how it might be shipped to whether it should come in blue. When he asks a question, you have to be prepared.”
Or?
My friend shook his head, deep into an Angry Steve Flashback. “It’s not good.”
The stories of Steve’s temper are passed around Silicon Valley like business cards. Steve tossing a chair when a prototype wasn’t thin enough. Steve firing an engineer in an elevator when the engineer told him about the battery life of a new iPhone. Steve scrapping an entire product line because it wasn’t perfect, and had no hope to become perfect. Steve demanding more features. Steve insisting on better syncing. Steve shouting for thinner. Steve screaming for lighter. Steve terrifying his employees, his vendors, his business partners. Steve, engaged in furious email exchanges with journalists, bloggers, and random customers who happened to email him at the right moment, when he was taking a break from making his employees sweat and from engineering even higher standards.
And somehow, in the midst of all of this shouting and demanding and firing and insisting, Steve starts a movie studio, Pixar, and produces some of the most lasting and powerful animated movies ever made, like the “Toy Story” trilogy and the magnificent “Up.”
He didn’t accomplish any of this by being an understanding boss.
When a young engineer absent-mindedly left a working prototype of the unreleased newest iPhone at a Silicon Valley bar, it was big news in the tech world. One industry blog managed to get its hands on the unit, prompting Steve to call in the cops. Friends of the engineer said they expected him to be plucked off the street one day and disappear into an unmarked van. They were only half-joking.
It’s hard to keep that in mind, when you pass through the gleaming high-style of your local Apple store, with the beehive of purposeful, slightly scruffy young people milling around in t-shirts. The Apple Store is such a friendly place. That’s a big part of the Apple brand – ease of use, sleek design, shiny screens. When the company introduced its revolutionary Macintosh computer in the early 1980’s, the product photo showed the squat mini-looking unit with a smiley face on its screen. “Hi,” the computer was saying, thus giving birth to one of the most successful consumer brands ever.
Apple Computers are nice. They say “Hi.” Your grim, beige UNIX-based terminal at work, or your heavy black Dell at home don’t say “Hi.” They say “ILLEGAL MODE IN KERNEL 1009A5 RESTART” or whatever.
Apple Computers are also irritatingly smug, if that’s possible. Well, not the computers themselves – although the early Mac that said “Hi” did seem, somehow, pleased with itself – but the users, Lord help us! Mac users won’t shut up about their machines. They’re tireless missionaries of the Church of Steve: how much better they are than Windows-based computers, how much faster and virus-free, how much better looking, how much cooler, which is what it really comes down to. In movies and on television, when characters sit down to work on a computer – and even when one is just there, in the background – it’s almost always a Mac. In the painfully fashionable coffee shop around the corner from my house in Venice Beach, the hipsters all tap their fingers onto some kind of Apple product. Some will be typing onto a MacBook Air; some will be poking out text messages on an iPhone; some will be editing music or video on a MacBook Pro; some will be flipping the pages on an eBook on the iPad; and some will manage, somehow, to be doing three of these things at the same time.
And if there’s a Dell user in the pack somewhere, you’ll spot it instantly, like someone wearing a tuxedo with brown shoes.
When I say “hipsters,” of course, I’m speaking very broadly. I’m writing this essay on a MacBook Pro, which syncs automatically to my Dropbox storage file in the cloud, so if I choose to finish proofreading it at the local coffee shop I can do it easily, either on my impossibly slender MacBook Air, or my shiny Verizon-enabled iPad. When my editor calls, wondering where the piece is, his name will flash up on my iPhone, which will allow me to ignore it and get back to the important stuff, like making a new iTunes playlist and scooting farther away from the person using the HP.
In other words, I am one of those irritating Apple fanatics. If it makes you feel any better, no one is more irritated by this than I am. But given the tiniest opening, I’ll bore you senseless with my devotion to my Phone, my Pad, my Air, my Book. I’ll ignore your glazing eyes, your watch checking, your backing away, and I’ll just keep going: the machines are better designed, better made, with better software and easier to use. The MacBook Pro has revolutionized all media. The iPad is saving the newspaper business. The iPhone has liberated the world.
Well, not the whole world. Not Cupertino. Although that might change. Steve Jobs, the Tyrant of Cupertino, announced that he is stepping down as Apple’s CEO. A long battle with a form of pancreatic cancer has made it impossible for him to operate at the level of intensity that he’s famous for. His successor, Tim Cook, has assured customers and shareholders that Steve’s relentless perfectionism is embedded deep into the corporate culture. Apple, he insists, will remain Apple.
But when you start using weasel words like “corporate culture” you’re already tipping your hand. When Cupertino quaked under Tyrant Steve, no one needed to worry about the culture of the place. The culture was simple to understand: fear and unforgiving standards. It wasn’t an easy place to work, but that was part of the appeal: Apple’s engineers and designers didn’t love coming to work despite Steve’s insane temper and unpredictable rants, they loved coming to work because of those things. Because they knew Steve was trying to do great things, trying to revolutionize an entire market, trying to put incredible technology into a beautiful package and into the hands of ordinary people.
And that’s impossible to do without being “demanding.”
The story of Steve Jobs, from his hardscrabble upbringing to his second and third acts in American business, is a classic American story, one we should celebrate and teach in schools: a person with vision and drive and creative passion and an unwillingness to accept anything less than amazing, astonishing, and near-perfect.
It's a cliche, but it's true:
Only in America.
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Comments:
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
But that begs the question, James, as to whether we really do have the national spirit these days. My hunch, and that's all it really is, is that we do in fact have the necessary spirit, but that the government at virtually every level, is intent on suffocating that spirit and stamping it out. Otherwise, perhaps those products could me made here instead of China. And I sense, and hope, that the tide is finally reversing. But what do I know. I've been on pain meds for a week.
Jul '10
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
He couldn't build a computer worth a damn (Hello Intel) but he was good at gadgets that most people are now eschewing for cheaper, better devices. Hello Android.
Jul '10
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
Yeah, when China gives us all back our debt and stops shipping to us and prefers India, it won't be important that Americans can actually build things said the small man who can't fix his plumbing.
Feb '11
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
The first major wave of worldwide change in the second coming era was with the iMac. After years of beige boxes, suddenly colors were everywhere. Like the colors of the 1980s blasted the brown, wood-paneled malaise of the 70s, the iMac killed the the gray and grunge of the 90s. Everything from table lamps to George-ruttin'-Foreman grills was now adorned with colorful plastic. Technology was to be friendly and to serve us, not we it.
Thanks to Steve, gone were the days in which I would use Kaleidoscope to customize every aspect of the system, and even ResEdit to change every dialog box on the system. He was very controlling about how things looked and felt. But instead of playing with my system, I found myself actually using it.
The major thing Steve continued to teach us was not to cling to the past for its own sake. We got frustrated when we had to change the way we did things, but we were generally rewarded in the end. To flog the Henry Ford metaphor, I still miss my horse. But I could never go back.
Thank you, Steve. Prayers for your family.
May '10
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
Everything I do every day involves an Apple product -- I've owned Apple computers since I was 19. My business since 1997 is running Mac networks, I don't own a television because my desktop Mac is now an on-line video and music hub. I carry a first generation iPhone, an old iPod with a 20 gig drive is attached to my gym stereo. I'm writing this note on a MacBook Pro. That list is just a tiny slice of the Apple gear I've owned. What other companies can talk about consumer loyalty like that?
I interact with these products and believe they were made just for me. I do not think about what I need to do to use them, as these things "just work". They make up for my shortcomings and allow me to be more productive.
Steve Jobs was not a programmer, an electrical engineer, or an MBA. What he possessed was the singular driving desire to make things that were insanely great, and only accepted excellence from those who made the things he would later stand on stage and talk about. Sure, Steve was a difficult taskmaster, but achieving insane greatness requires that.
Edited on October 6, 2011 at 4:54amApr '11
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
Michael Tee
... said the small man who can't fix his plumbing. · Oct 5 at 7:45pm
Curiously, James and I shared some Twitter moments a few Saturdays back while repairing/replacing kitchen faucets. Successfully. iPhones figured in the telling of both tales.
Nov '10
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
May '11
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
It is good to have James' input on this but I suspect he is back writing his novel. His column at the Bleat two days ago was the best thing I have read in a very long time. It had something to do with having to deal with dog poop prepared him to deal with his daughter barfing dinner and it segued into a heartbreaking description of dealing with an aging dog. And it is much better than that description. Please read it.
Edited on October 6, 2011 at 5:17amRe: Steve Jobs, RIP
Michael Tee said: "Yeah, when China gives us all back our debt and stops shipping to us and prefers India, it won't be important that Americans can actually build things said the small man who can't fix his plumbing."
Zing! Thanks for the reminder, Mike; I'd forgotten how my height invalidated an assertion. Actually, I did fix the sink, if that changes anything.
Jul '10
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
"The story of Steve Jobs, from his hardscrabble upbringing to his second and third acts in American business, is a classic American story, one we should celebrate and teach in schools...."
Jobs' story could be taught, but what made Him write and follow the story can't.
Apr '11
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
History teaches us that men, who are short, learn nothing from history, which is long.
Jul '10
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
danceswithvowels
History teaches us that men, who are short, learn nothing from history, which is long. · Oct 5 at 8:28pm
So, Long is history? Sounds like a threat.
Sep '10
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
I'm old enough to remember when all computers were command-line text interface boxes. When the first Macintosh came out in 1984 it was a revelation. Thanks, Steve, for making the personal computer a sketchpad for all our ideas.
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
Michael Tee
Yeah, when China gives us all back our debt and stops shipping to us and prefers India, it won't be important that Americans can actually build things said the small man who can't fix his plumbing. · Oct 5 at 7:45pm
I hope you didn't mean for this comment to be as rude as it looks. Neither this post nor this site are appropriate spaces to take rude swipes at other Members or Contributors.
Sep '10
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
Hello
Oct '10
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Michael Tee
Yeah, when China gives us all back our debt and stops shipping to us and prefers India, it won't be important that Americans can actually build things said the small man who can't fix his plumbing. · Oct 5 at 7:45pm
I hope you didn't mean for this comment to be as rude as it looks. Neither this post nor this site are appropriate spaces to take rude swipes at other Members or Contributors. · Oct 5 at 9:44pm
Thanks for your vigilance, Diane. It is appreciated.
Apr '11
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Michael Tee ... said the small man who can't fix his plumbing. · Oct 5 at 7:45pm
I hope you didn't mean for this comment to be as rude as it looks. · Oct 5 at 9:44pm
I'd interpreted the comment as ruefully self-referential, hence my use of "curiously," above. Perhaps I missed some wider context, the only Lileks plumbing story I know not matching the description. As James pointed out.
Sorry for unwittingly participating in conduct unbecoming ...
Sep '10
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
On this point, James, you may like this, if you haven't already seen it, by Virginia Postrel: www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-26/how-steve-jobs-made-business-cool-again-1981-virginia-postrel.html
James Lileks: Let's not forget that his influence wasn't just on what the machines could do, but how they look. This isn't insignificant. One of the standard sneers against Macs was their emphasis on style and interface design - or at least it was, until Windows caught up, and then it was perfectly okay for computer interfaces to look good. (Win boxes are a different matter.) He was as much an aesthetic pioneer as a technological one.
Yes, this meant demanding of others what he couldn't do himself, but Walt Disney stopped animating in the 30s, and never personally built a Lincoln robot. When it comes to aesthetics, it's a matter of judgment, and his was pretty damned good. · Oct 5 at 5:46pm
May '10
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
James, you haven't said the half of it. I spent a little time answering support calls at Apple in '93, when the stock price was $15 and even plankton-in-the-food-chain like me could smell the stench of not just bankruptcy, but far worse (if you were a Machead), irrelevancy. I don't think anybody on the campus really thought Apple would make it to the 21st Century.
Jun '10
Re: Steve Jobs, RIP
Jimmy Carter
danceswithvowels
History teaches us that men, who are short, learn nothing from history, which is long. · Oct 5 at 8:28pm
So, Long is history? Sounds like a threat. · Oct 5 at 8:33pm
So long, Michael -- you're history.
[Jimmy, it's the adjective not the surname of Rob.]