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There's only one Woz, but we can all learn from him

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Re: There's only one Woz, but we can all learn from him

#21

Post by OhMeadhbh »

It's kinda funny... In '89 a friend and I were talking about starting a startup like the two Steve's (we didn't know about Ron Wayne back then.) We both knew exactly what Woz did, but were a bit sketchy on Jobs role in the early days. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Jobs was a layabout, only that the strengths he brought to the table were more abstract.

So I would also say... the kinds of things we learn from Woz are concrete and we get immediate feedback if we learned them wrong.

Re: There's only one Woz, but we can all learn from him

#22

Post by aix1 »

nekooooo wrote: post #11
doanbactam wrote: post #3

It’s a stark contrast to today's mindset where we often just throw more resources at the problem. His obsession with elegance over features is something I try to keep in mind, even if it's harder in modern web dev. " Let's make it shorter and punchier. "Woz's floppy disk controller design is still the gold standard for doing in software what competitors needed a whole board of chips to do. That kind of obsession with…

modern engineering is launching an electron to-do list app that uses 2gb of ram.

What I'm seeing more and more of is junior folks blindly taking LLM-generated code and including it into their systems, without even trying to understand it or think critically about what it does and where it might break.

Maybe I am living in the past, but it does make me think that they might be depriving themselves of an opportunity to develop key skills.

Re: There's only one Woz, but we can all learn from him

#24

Post by serial_dev »

nekooooo wrote: post #11
doanbactam wrote: post #3

It’s a stark contrast to today's mindset where we often just throw more resources at the problem. His obsession with elegance over features is something I try to keep in mind, even if it's harder in modern web dev. " Let's make it shorter and punchier. "Woz's floppy disk controller design is still the gold standard for doing in software what competitors needed a whole board of chips to do. That kind of obsession with…

modern engineering is launching an electron to-do list app that uses 2gb of ram.

Then they justify it because they vibe-coded a proof of concept in Tauri, and it was even worse.

Re: There's only one Woz, but we can all learn from him

#25

Post by omnimus »

postalcoder wrote: post #20
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #2

Woz is by far the person in computing history for whom I have the most respect. Dude is an absolute legend , and from everything I have heard is humble and kind on top of his crazy skills. If I could get to the point where I had even 10% of his skill and generosity of spirit, I would consider myself to have done pretty well.

I can't think of a single person who embodies the spirit of this site more than Woz. dang could replace the guidelines with a picture of Woz and we'd all know what it meant.

Let's not forget url of this site is Ycombinator. As far as i know that is very far from “friendly selfless genius inventor engineer”. It's more like “ambitious finance move fast and break things programmer”.

Re: There's only one Woz, but we can all learn from him

#26

Post by high_na_euv »

nekooooo wrote: post #11
doanbactam wrote: post #3

It’s a stark contrast to today's mindset where we often just throw more resources at the problem. His obsession with elegance over features is something I try to keep in mind, even if it's harder in modern web dev. " Let's make it shorter and punchier. "Woz's floppy disk controller design is still the gold standard for doing in software what competitors needed a whole board of chips to do. That kind of obsession with…

modern engineering is launching an electron to-do list app that uses 2gb of ram.

Which, at least works relibly across all platforms and devices unlike desktop frameworks?

People wouldnt use electron is they had good alternative

Re: There's only one Woz, but we can all learn from him

#27

Post by SkyMarshal »

omnimus wrote: post #25
postalcoder wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think of a single person who embodies the spirit of this site more than Woz. dang could replace the guidelines with a picture of Woz and we'd all know what it meant.

Let's not forget url of this site is Ycombinator. As far as i know that is very far from “friendly selfless genius inventor engineer”. It's more like “ambitious finance move fast and break things programmer”.

To be fair, Woz wasn't just a “friendly selfless genius inventor engineer”, he was also the co-founder of one of the most valuable tech companies in the world. And YC is, in their own words: "The Y combinator is one of the coolest ideas in computer science. It's also a metaphor for what we do. It's a program that runs programs; we're a company that helps start companies.". They're not entirely unrelated.

Re: There's only one Woz, but we can all learn from him

#28

Post by ndr42 »

Had to let this here: A TV clip on YouTube of an episode of “That’s Incredible”, featuring Apple co-founder Stephen “Woz” Wozniak (aged 38) running through a maze and nearly winning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoJexQjoMtk

(found on the blog of Cabel Sasser: https://cabel.com/woz-vs-wooz/)

Re: There's only one Woz, but we can all learn from him

#29

Post by keiferski »

Aloha wrote: post #7
ares623 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone chooses the wrong Steve to worship.

If you're an engineer, you should admire Woz, if you're a product manager or marketeer, Jobs. Jobs was a brilliant product manager and marketeer - every bit as brilliant as Woz is an engineer. The truth is, the sharpest engineers struggle to make a marketable consumer product - because they make it for themselves, and while thats quite laudable, however it's generally a tiny market compared to one targeted at normal…

I admire both and I find the push to Pick a Steve Team really irritating.

Re: There's only one Woz, but we can all learn from him

#30

Post by fragmede »

keiferski wrote: post #29
Aloha wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're an engineer, you should admire Woz, if you're a product manager or marketeer, Jobs. Jobs was a brilliant product manager and marketeer - every bit as brilliant as Woz is an engineer. The truth is, the sharpest engineers struggle to make a marketable consumer product - because they make it for themselves, and while thats quite laudable, however it's generally a tiny market compared to one targeted at normal…

I admire both and I find the push to Pick a Steve Team really irritating.

Both, the sum is greater than the parts. Neither of them would be there without the other.
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