How Woz Gets Things Done
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How Woz Gets Things Done
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Re: How Woz Gets Things Done
#2> When we first started with Apple computers, it was my dream that everyone would learn to program, and that was how they'd use their computer.
Aside from the GTD fluff, this is a great article about Woz :)
Re: How Woz Gets Things Done
#3Nice article. I think a better topic would be, "How Woz Got Things Done." For a quick read, try Chapter 3 of "Founders at Work", which is well worth the price of the whole book.
http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Problem...
This is Jessica Livingston's (of YC) interview of Woz. Specifically I love the way he talked about designing the Apple II. Even though it was hardware, it totally applied to the design and development of software. Perfectly suited to natural optimizers (aren't we all) who want to keep their finger on the pulse of every detail of their project.
This changed the way I treated my own work. No detail is too small and there's always plenty of room in my personal memory for whatever I need to remember. It's made a big difference.
Re: How Woz Gets Things Done
#4> When we first started with Apple computers, it was my dream that everyone would learn to program, and that was how they'd use their computer. Aside from the GTD fluff, this is a great article about Woz :)
I still think this is a valid goal, and would love to explore ways to make it happen.
Re: How Woz Gets Things Done
#5Nice article. I think a better topic would be, "How Woz Got Things Done." For a quick read, try Chapter 3 of "Founders at Work", which is well worth the price of the whole book. http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Problem... This is Jessica Livingston's (of YC) interview of Woz. Specifically I love the way he talked about designing the Apple II. Even though it was hardware, it totally applied to the…
Jessica Livingston posted her interview of Woz on the Founders at Work website. It's one of my favorite in the book because you really get a sense of the pure hacker/engineering genius Woz is. If you do not already own it, consider buying the book through edw519's link - it's an amazing trove. I bought my copy at Powell's Bookstore in Portland.
Re: How Woz Gets Things Done
#6Nice article. I think a better topic would be, "How Woz Got Things Done." For a quick read, try Chapter 3 of "Founders at Work", which is well worth the price of the whole book. http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Problem... This is Jessica Livingston's (of YC) interview of Woz. Specifically I love the way he talked about designing the Apple II. Even though it was hardware, it totally applied to the…
Agreed, that is a great chapter. JL's lead-in also sums it up perfectly - Woz is a hardware guy and it shows through in his thinking. But the notion of always thinking about and refining our models is what still sticks with me.
Re: How Woz Gets Things Done
#7Nice article. I think a better topic would be, "How Woz Got Things Done." For a quick read, try Chapter 3 of "Founders at Work", which is well worth the price of the whole book. http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Problem... This is Jessica Livingston's (of YC) interview of Woz. Specifically I love the way he talked about designing the Apple II. Even though it was hardware, it totally applied to the…
Jessica Livingston posted her interview of Woz on the Founders at Work website. It's one of my favorite in the book because you really get a sense of the pure hacker/engineering genius Woz is. If you do not already own it, consider buying the book through edw519's link - it's an amazing trove. I bought my copy at Powell's Bookstore in Portland. http://www.foundersatwork.com/steve-wozniak.html
Thanks for the link, wallflower. I forgot about that. (Buy the book anyway. You just don't know which chapter might change your life.)
This pretty much sums it up for me:
"When you design with very few parts, everything is so clean and orderly you can understand it more deeply in your head, and that causes you to have fewer bugs. You live and sleep with every little detail of the product."
Re: How Woz Gets Things Done
#8What the woz has for startups in that article...
"...I really urge you not to think you can start a whole company and business with just ideas on paper, because you'll end up owning so few of those ideas. You have to create a working model, something that you can show people and demonstrate that it works, and then you can start building a future for it."
Re: How Woz Gets Things Done
#9> When we first started with Apple computers, it was my dream that everyone would learn to program, and that was how they'd use their computer. Aside from the GTD fluff, this is a great article about Woz :)
I still think this is a valid goal, and would love to explore ways to make it happen.
It's all just a degree of abstraction. Someone could say you were "programming" if you were using Automator. Explain more specifically to what level you think people should be programming their computers, because I think it will never happen to the level of writing actual high-level language source code, ala Python. People like looking at and clicking on/touching/interacting with pretty pictures/icons.
Re: How Woz Gets Things Done
#10Nice article. I think a better topic would be, "How Woz Got Things Done." For a quick read, try Chapter 3 of "Founders at Work", which is well worth the price of the whole book. http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Problem... This is Jessica Livingston's (of YC) interview of Woz. Specifically I love the way he talked about designing the Apple II. Even though it was hardware, it totally applied to the…
Jessica Livingston posted her interview of Woz on the Founders at Work website. It's one of my favorite in the book because you really get a sense of the pure hacker/engineering genius Woz is. If you do not already own it, consider buying the book through edw519's link - it's an amazing trove. I bought my copy at Powell's Bookstore in Portland. http://www.foundersatwork.com/steve-wozniak.html
It's because I could never build anything, I just competed with myself to come up with ideas that nobody else would come up with.
Avoided local maxima of the at-that-time-doable, while still making -- completing designs on paper = iterating faster. Iterate more times than competition on paper, never build anything, then when time comes to build, you can supersede competition.
This approach may only work for perfectly logical, deterministic systems, like computers.