Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Wozniak: “Actually, the movie was largely a lie about me”

plus.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 314 posts

Re: Wozniak: “Actually, the movie was largely a lie about me”

#191

Post by tomasien »

oleganza wrote: post #154
tomasien wrote: post #100

I hate the "Great Man" theory of history. It misses everything. Hitler was responsible for NAZIsm in Germany lets SO many people off the hook (including people in the US, UK, etc.) and "Jobs made Apple" takes credit away from so many others who not only deserve it, but in aggregate deserve ALL of it. I'm a Jobs fan in many - but a fan of what he actually did (minus being a douche), not the myth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

Solid point - the great man theory of history fails most noticeably in the Nazi movement though, so I think it was apt. My favorite example actually involves someone who, today of all days, it would be in poor taste to bring up.

Re: Wozniak: “Actually, the movie was largely a lie about me”

#192

Post by pjmorris »

ghshephard wrote: post #180
hboon wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly agree, but just one nit: Pixar was mostly John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, and many wonderful folks including many animators. While Jobs personally funded the company for a long time (10 years or so? That's really quite a vision), he wasn't really running it.

I've spent a few hours reading the history of Pixar (it's controversial as to what role Jobs had, particularly around the "founding" - which he really wasn't) - and while I've come to the conclusion that Steve Jobs had very little (if any) role in actually running Pixar, he appears to have had some "catalyzing" effect - Issacson never really dived into that aspect of Job's personality - it might be his negotiating sk…

> It may very well have been the case, that without the bad, there could never have been the good - they were inexorably linked.

I think there's something important to this notion. I once read a biography of Churchill that suggested Churchill's distrust of Hitler in the 1930's partly sprang from Churchill being the kind of egomaniac who could recognize an egomaniac. I'm sure I've done neither Churchill nor the book justice in this description, but I think there's support for the notion that personality doesn't simply or easily decompose into good parts and bad parts.

[1] 'The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940', William Manchester

Re: Wozniak: “Actually, the movie was largely a lie about me”

#194

Post by bestdayever »

ghshephard wrote: post #159
wirrbel wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jobs is a designer. Using existing pieces to create a good product. While this is an important skill to have, it is nothing I would idolize someone for, moreover, Jobs only was capable of focussing on design because countless Wozniaks did the plumbing (and really awesome hacking). This is _division of labor_. You just cannot build products alone. While Jobs did his job, he certainly was arrogant and a few times too o…

Anybody who worked anywhere near Jobs will observe he was one of the biggest assholes around. I know quite a few people who worked in, or near his sphere - and they are all pretty consistent on this point. And yet, who else in modern history has driven as many companies to such such success, and lead the creation of so many great products? We had a ton of the NeXT machines at my university, and I still believe they,…

>And yet, who else in modern history has driven as many companies to such such success, and lead the creation of so many great products?

Elon musk?

Re: Wozniak: “Actually, the movie was largely a lie about me”

#195

Post by commandar »

pan69 wrote: post #112
wwweston wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I remember correctly (haven't seen it since 1999), _Pirates of Silicon Valley_ has a scene depicting Woz discussing this with Jobs, stating he's going to do it because it's the right thing.

I recently watched this movie (again) and can confirm that this is correct. Even though _Pirates of Silicon Valley_ also skims over a lot of stuff, it's a far better movie and way more factual.

Agreed. I also found it particularly odd that Jobs essentially covers the almost exact same timespan that Pirates did, even though they had another decade of material to work with.

Pirates is definitely the better of the two for a plethora of reasons.

Re: Wozniak: “Actually, the movie was largely a lie about me”

#197

Post by frenchy »

atmosx wrote: post #140
WalterBright wrote: post #10

It makes you wonder how wrong other movie biographies are.

Holywood story-makers don't believe that reality is good for the crowds. So you get a sugar version, of what it could be . Some times you go so far as making movies like 'Argo' where a total fiasco which led to the demise of a president, is pictured in totally different set-up and served as a success. And here is the beauty of the Internet. We wouldn't know that, if information wasn't freely flowing online.

> Holywood story-makers don't believe that reality is good for the crowds.

This probably makes it sound more intentionally evil than it is. I think the real truth is that "Hollywood story-makers don't believe that reality is good for the box office."

Re: Wozniak: “Actually, the movie was largely a lie about me”

#198

Post by mratzloff »

CurtMonash wrote: post #55
jokoon wrote: post #17

I want a movie about bill gates

There was one excellent biography of Bill quite some time ago. The part I could verify personally (and there was a lot) was almost all correct, and whatever the exceptions were weren't bad enough for me to recall them now. I don't see it on my shelf now, but I think it was http://www.amazon.com/Gates-Microsofts-Reinvented-Industry-H... The cover looks familiar, the year is about right, and I have a vague memory of th…

It's older, but I enjoyed Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire. It came out just before Windows 95 was released, so naturally it focuses mostly on the early years. It seemed to be a pretty balanced portrayal of Gates from those years.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0887306292

Re: Wozniak: “Actually, the movie was largely a lie about me”

#199

Post by talmand »

hboon wrote: post #171
ghshephard wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anybody who worked anywhere near Jobs will observe he was one of the biggest assholes around. I know quite a few people who worked in, or near his sphere - and they are all pretty consistent on this point. And yet, who else in modern history has driven as many companies to such such success, and lead the creation of so many great products? We had a ton of the NeXT machines at my university, and I still believe they,…

I mostly agree, but just one nit: Pixar was mostly John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, and many wonderful folks including many animators. While Jobs personally funded the company for a long time (10 years or so? That's really quite a vision), he wasn't really running it.

From what I've read Jobs wanted a completely different future for Pixar (something like 3D rendering software for the masses) than what Lasseter, Catmull, and others wanted. It was their pushing for the future they saw and desired that's the reason behind the success of Pixar as we know it today. Jobs was supposedly looking to sell off Pixar and viewed it as a failure until Disney showed up.

Putting Pixar's success on Jobs alone is a huge disservice to the true believers that actually built Pixar.

Re: Wozniak: “Actually, the movie was largely a lie about me”

#200

Post by talmand »

Arjuna wrote: post #181

"And when Jobs (in the movie, but really a board does this) denied stock to the early garage team (some not even shown) I'm surprised that they chose not to show me giving about $10M of my own stock to them because it was the right thing. And $10M was a lot in that time." Nothing more need be said, really. This is the very definition of character and integrity.

What I want to know is when do we get a movie about Woz?
Post reply on HN