Re: Steve Jobs: Golden Age Engineer Hero?

On Thu, 06 Oct 2011 12:27:01 -0600, Greg Goss <gossg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

ted@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) wrote:

I just ran across this appreciation of the late Steve Jobs:

http://pajamasmedia.com/vodkapundit/2011/10/05/steve-jobs-rip/?singlepage=true

and it struck me how much it sounds like a classic "Analog" hero-engineer
against the status quo...

Read the whole thing, but see this sample:

================
# Created the first "event" Super Bowl ad
# Reinvented the cell phone
# Revitalized and reinvented movie animation with Pixar
# Brought low the old, thieving record labels
# Started from scratch the largest music retailer
# Changed the way people buy, keep, travel with, and listen to music
# Created a physical retailing empire with greater profits-per-square-foot
than Tiffany's
# Apple is currently making people (and the competition) rethink the
laptop computer with its diskless MacBook Air

Oh, and Jobs by-the-way took the helm of a computer company that was
just months away from bankruptcy and turned it into the world's
most profitable and valuable computer maker, consumer
electronics firm, and cell phone manufacturer.
================

He's come a long way from the guy who chased Woz out of Apple, and
barricaded himself (and the Mac) against collor and hard disks till
the company almost crashed. Since I formed my impression of him in
the mid-eighties, I have a much more negative opinion of him than
those who know him more from the post-Pepsi Apple.

The biographies kinda gloss over Pixar from 86 to 95. The company was
around for most of a decade making demo videos to try to sell their
hardware. It was only after they gave up on their own hardware (I
think Toy Story was rendered on other hardware) and switched to media
that they turned into a success. The TV coverage mentions him buying
the company, then illustrate the purchase with "To Infinity and
Beyond!"

I'll grant his impact on the past decade (though my negative opinion
was already set from the Woz era), and grant the impact of his "event"
superbowl ad. And I don't think that I even comprehend the skills
required to run Tiffany's or Apple Stores compared to the
hole-in-the-wall computer retailers I tend to hang out at.

Remember the customer base, however. You're dealing with people who,
when their phone doesn't work right, will accept, "You're holding it
wrong" -- and will keep on buying from the company that told them
that.

--
Bill Snyder [This space unintentionally left blank]
.

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