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Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

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Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#21

Post by increment_i »

urs2102 wrote: post #14

> Jobs: I think that the scale of the business has gotten large enough so that it’s going to be very difficult for anyone to successfully launch anything new. Playboy: No more billion-dollar companies hatched in garages? Jobs: No, I’m afraid not in computers. And this puts a responsibility on Apple, because if there’s going to be innovation in this industry, it’ll come from us. It’s the only way we can compete with t…

I'm thinking innovative tech that relieves people's pain could be promising.

I'm talking in a literal sense, not the marketing lingo "find the pain!" sense. For example, I stand a lot at work and my feet are throbbing right now from working over the weekend. I would pay good money for an elegantly designed device of some sort that would soothe this pain without me having to really do anything. No matter what walk of life you come from, every single day you will hear someone complain about some kind of pain they're feeling -- e.g. "Ahh, my x is killing me right now!"

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#22

Post by cromulent »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #18
ulyssesgrant wrote: post #3

Great read. Haven't finished it yet, but this answer was really perfect: "Jobs: Let me compare it with IBM. How come the Mac group produced Mac and the people at IBM produced the PCjr? We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market researc…

We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build. So is this only a good response because apple succeeded so well or should they have done market research and done even better? I ask because the logic for every startup is do market research (now called validation) in some fashion - even if it is the landing page approach. I guess I am asking, prior to the succes…

Different stages in the market maturity.

If you are inside the PC revolution and you have a chance to define where it is going, then who knows better than you?

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#23

Post by hcarvalhoalves »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #18
ulyssesgrant wrote: post #3

Great read. Haven't finished it yet, but this answer was really perfect: "Jobs: Let me compare it with IBM. How come the Mac group produced Mac and the people at IBM produced the PCjr? We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market researc…

We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build. So is this only a good response because apple succeeded so well or should they have done market research and done even better? I ask because the logic for every startup is do market research (now called validation) in some fashion - even if it is the landing page approach. I guess I am asking, prior to the succes…

> So is this only a good response because apple succeeded so well or should they have done market research and done even better?

How exactly can one do market research and arrive at something like the Mac? Okay, it may help indicate there is an opportunity, but this is the easy part, anyone can do that. It does nothing to indicate how to fulfill that opportunity, it's not the client's job to give a blueprint, and that's the hard part.

Imagine starting a restaurant business by asking people on the street what they like or what they think you should have on the menu... let's just say it's not going to star on Michelin.

> I guess I am asking, prior to the success of the Mac would any business person have gone along with the "no market research" approach?

There's a quote often attributed to Henry Ford:

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

I can think of plenty of prior successes that I doubt having started with a survey.

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#24

Post by mkolodny »

urs2102 wrote: post #14

> Jobs: I think that the scale of the business has gotten large enough so that it’s going to be very difficult for anyone to successfully launch anything new. Playboy: No more billion-dollar companies hatched in garages? Jobs: No, I’m afraid not in computers. And this puts a responsibility on Apple, because if there’s going to be innovation in this industry, it’ll come from us. It’s the only way we can compete with t…

Oculus VR / Facebook definitely has that potential.

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#25

Post by gumby »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #18
ulyssesgrant wrote: post #3

Great read. Haven't finished it yet, but this answer was really perfect: "Jobs: Let me compare it with IBM. How come the Mac group produced Mac and the people at IBM produced the PCjr? We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market researc…

We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build. So is this only a good response because apple succeeded so well or should they have done market research and done even better? I ask because the logic for every startup is do market research (now called validation) in some fashion - even if it is the landing page approach. I guess I am asking, prior to the succes…

Well, it's half bull. Apple _did_ have market data as they had already launched the Lisa and had seen what worked (and what didn't). People did like the bitmap display and mouse interface, but couldn't stand the cost or lack of applications (note that mac development was well under way when the Lisa launched).

In addition, they made a lot of changes post launch due to market acceptance, e.g. size of storage, cost etc. The Mac benefited from the fact that Apple was willing to stick with it even though the Apple II was still the cash cow and the Mac struggled.

So it's bull in the sense that they were quite attuned to what the market had to say.

But it's not bull in the sense that they really did go their own way, almost fatally (e.g. no floppy -- http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Hide_Under_This_D...).

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#26

Post by coldtea »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #18
ulyssesgrant wrote: post #3

Great read. Haven't finished it yet, but this answer was really perfect: "Jobs: Let me compare it with IBM. How come the Mac group produced Mac and the people at IBM produced the PCjr? We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market researc…

We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build. So is this only a good response because apple succeeded so well or should they have done market research and done even better? I ask because the logic for every startup is do market research (now called validation) in some fashion - even if it is the landing page approach. I guess I am asking, prior to the succes…

>So is this only a good response because apple succeeded so well or should they have done market research and done even better?

The gist is that it's not about how "well you do" money wise, but how well you do in producing what you think is good.

It's not advice for those who would prefer something subpar that would make them more money to something good that might not do as well. etc).

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#27

Post by urs2102 »

morbius wrote: post #17
urs2102 wrote: post #14

> Jobs: I think that the scale of the business has gotten large enough so that it’s going to be very difficult for anyone to successfully launch anything new. Playboy: No more billion-dollar companies hatched in garages? Jobs: No, I’m afraid not in computers. And this puts a responsibility on Apple, because if there’s going to be innovation in this industry, it’ll come from us. It’s the only way we can compete with t…

CoreOS was hatched in a garage. But I don't see them getting Apple-level anytime soon.

Why do you think CoreOS? A lot of the suggestions above make sense - I was just curious what your thoughts were on CoreOS?

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#28

Post by coldtea »

tdicola wrote: post #11
ddebernardy wrote: post #2

Quite prescient: > Jobs: The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people—as remarkable as the telephone.

Is it really that prescient? By 1985 there were lots of BBSes you could dial into and connect with people from across the nation. In fact what would become America Online was just starting out as a BBS. The internet was available at most colleges, and tools like email and usenet were in full use. I think his statement is like someone right now saying electric cars will be a huge thing in the future.

>Is it really that prescient? By 1985 there were lots of BBSes you could dial into and connect with people from across the nation.

Yeah, it's really that prescient.

The fact that BBS existed and there was some networking in colleges is irrelevant. Most people didn't even think a PC would be important for everybody, much less internet. It was seen as a totally geek / big business thing.

Read how the media pundits and even large corporations talked and wrote about the web in 1992-3 for example (as a fad, novelty, for nerds only, etc). Heck, even Microsoft took years to get it, and got behind Netscape.

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#29

Post by sopooneo »

coldtea wrote: post #26
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build. So is this only a good response because apple succeeded so well or should they have done market research and done even better? I ask because the logic for every startup is do market research (now called validation) in some fashion - even if it is the landing page approach. I guess I am asking, prior to the succes…

> So is this only a good response because apple succeeded so well or should they have done market research and done even better? The gist is that it's not about how "well you do" money wise, but how well you do in producing what you think is good. It's not advice for those who would prefer something subpar that would make them more money to something good that might not do as well. etc).

But this approach did make them more money.

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#30

Post by jchimney »

ihnorton wrote: post #12
tdicola wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really that prescient? By 1985 there were lots of BBSes you could dial into and connect with people from across the nation. In fact what would become America Online was just starting out as a BBS. The internet was available at most colleges, and tools like email and usenet were in full use. I think his statement is like someone right now saying electric cars will be a huge thing in the future.

On the other hand, how long did it take Microsoft to figure that out - remember the Windows 95 TCP/IP stack? edit: note, Windows 95 originally didn't have a TCP/IP stack! The point is, plenty of smart people missed this boat for years , and I don't think it was at all obvious in 1985 that getting on a network would be the driving use case for widespread computer adoption by "non-techie" people.

trumpet winsock and hours of troubleshooting different configs :) irq settings etc
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