Steve Jobs Book Excerpt: Why he wore the black mock turtleneck uniform • Hacker News Board

Re: Steve Jobs Book Excerpt: Why he wore the black mock turtleneck uniform

#101

Post by vacri » Wed, Oct 12, 2011, 5:17 AM UTC

officemonkey wrote: post #65

vacri wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh... there are plenty of techies who wear the same clothes every day (sometimes literally), who do it because it feels right for them, and who aren't concerned about fashion or trends. Jobs is hardly unique in the 'I don't care' fashion stakes among techies. Period.

Jobs wasn't unconcerned with fashion. If he was, then he would wear any damn thing that was in his closet. He made a dedicated effort to create a fashion "brand" to the point that people know what kind of sneakers he wore. Jobs might not have been a great engineer or techie, but he was a great visionary, designer, and marketer. He created (and recreated) one of the greatest brands in America. I don't doubt he applied…

perhaps you should respond that Jobs did actually care to the guy I was responding to? :)

Re: Steve Jobs Book Excerpt: Why he wore the black mock turtleneck uniform

#102

Post by nerfhammer » Wed, Oct 12, 2011, 5:24 AM UTC

pitdesi wrote: post #46

noisebleed wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting.. I had never heard that, or anything about the Steven P. Jobs Foundation at all really. Now I'm curious to see the logo but I'm not having much luck finding it.

I too am curious and am no better at finding this logo online than you are, apparently ;) In case anyone is interested though, here are other logos that Paul Rand has designed: http://www.paul-rand.com/site/identity/ Amazing how many iconic logos are on that page. Jobs paid Rand $100k for the NeXT brand identity, and Rand created a 100 page brochure detailing the brand. Jobs on working with Rand: “I asked him if he w…

I wonder why he designed the logo of a tiny catering company in Connecticut

Re: Steve Jobs Book Excerpt: Why he wore the black mock turtleneck uniform

#103

Post by tjmc » Wed, Oct 12, 2011, 5:26 AM UTC

JunkDNA wrote: post #84

A bit of a meta-comment, but I'm starting to think that I'm going to end up reading all the surprising and interesting segments of this biography as blog posts. By the time the book arrives, I fear all that will be left to read is the boring stuff.

The thing I'd really like to see in the book (but don't expect to) is why Jobs said no to the Amiga team back in 1983-84 when they were desperately looking for investors. This was prior to the Mac being launched and Commodore eventually buying Amiga.

Apparently Jobs said the Amiga had "too much hardware" which confused chief engineer Jay Miner because all the Amiga's wizardry was handled by 3 custom chips. Wikipedia alleges that Jobs was just nervous about the Amiga upstaging the Mac, but it'd be great to know what his thoughts actually were. I suspect we'll never know...

Re: Steve Jobs Book Excerpt: Why he wore the black mock turtleneck uniform

#104

Post by kamaal » Wed, Oct 12, 2011, 5:30 AM UTC

officemonkey wrote: post #63

Aloisius wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which other CEO or person do you know which would wear the same clothes every day?? All the ones who wear suits?

That's the answer. At some point in our career, most of us end up wearing some kind of "uniform." I used to work for a engineering consulting firm. Kevin, the star engineer would wear polo shirts, blue jeans, and sneakers. Everyone one else at his level and above wore suit and tie. One day the new boss told Kevin that he needed to wear a button down shirt, suit and tie to meet with the client. Kevin told him "You can…

Well, Sorry at some places. Making it rain won't change anything. Heck, you may make it storm, or cause a earth quake to to happen or even a make Volcano to explode.

Some workplaces are so strict about dress codes, they just won't change for any reason. Especially large corporate bureaucracies. They have a crazy like beliefs that dressing in some way will help their business more than actual work will.

And going against those norms actually will work against you.

Re: Steve Jobs Book Excerpt: Why he wore the black mock turtleneck uniform

#105

Post by minikomi » Wed, Oct 12, 2011, 5:33 AM UTC

ramchip wrote: post #85

minikomi wrote: post #82

Very odd. I can find no reference to Sony's uniform having been designed by Issey Miyake, even in Japanese, other than this one anecdote. Edit: There is some allusion to it, yet no direct reference .. However, it seems he was generally interested in using Japanese fabrics to make clothes for workers in the 1970s, so it is definitely possible.

Actually, googling "三宅一生ソニー" returns a Sony time capsule: ソニーのユニフォームは何回かデザイン変わってますけど、1981年に採用が決まった最後のユニフォームはなんと三宅一生氏のデザインですよ。 Translation: The design for the Sony uniform has changed several times, but the last uniform for the hiring of 1981 was a design of Issey Miyake. Ref: http://www.sony.co.jp/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/capsule... Edit: there's an English version here http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateIn…

Weird. ソニー三宅一生制服, ソニー三宅一生作業服, both miss that site.. Needed ユニフォーム instead, or not at all!

Re: Steve Jobs Book Excerpt: Why he wore the black mock turtleneck uniform

#106

Post by aw3c2 » Wed, Oct 12, 2011, 5:50 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #21

michaelpinto wrote: post #11

The point of this article isn't the damned turtleneck -- the lesson to learn is that Jobs was best friends with Issey Miyake. Think about that for a minute: How many other folks who work in tech in the valley have any friends who even work in fashion design? Add to that that this is the same guy who hired Paul Rand the grandfather of American graphic design to come up with the logo for NeXT. This is also the same man…

He even hired Rand to do the logo for his private foundation, which he didn't even really care about. I found that kind of shocking; it is a move on par with having a typeface designed for your personal blog.

Those things would be a no-brainer for me if I was a billionaire.

Re: Steve Jobs Book Excerpt: Why he wore the black mock turtleneck uniform

#107

Post by ankeshk » Wed, Oct 12, 2011, 6:09 AM UTC

Interesting. I always thought how Jobs made the decision to wear the same clothes was similar to how Feynman made a decision to eat the same icecream (chocolate) all the time. They both thought it was pointless to decide about mundane things and would rather spend time on other more worthy problems.

Interesting to read about how he wore a uniform for better bonding purposes.

Re: Steve Jobs Book Excerpt: Why he wore the black mock turtleneck uniform

#108

Post by teyc » Wed, Oct 12, 2011, 6:15 AM UTC

michaelpinto wrote: post #11

The point of this article isn't the damned turtleneck -- the lesson to learn is that Jobs was best friends with Issey Miyake. Think about that for a minute: How many other folks who work in tech in the valley have any friends who even work in fashion design? Add to that that this is the same guy who hired Paul Rand the grandfather of American graphic design to come up with the logo for NeXT. This is also the same man…

The point is to make a good design decision up front, and then not having to worry about it every day.

Re: Steve Jobs Book Excerpt: Why he wore the black mock turtleneck uniform

#109

Post by bmahmood » Wed, Oct 12, 2011, 6:39 AM UTC

pyre wrote: post #32

[deleted] wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

The idea of imposing a standard uniform or wearing the same thing everyday can be viewed as a form of imposing conformity over individuality (mostly the uniform thing, and less the personal style thing). That said, for a US company (especially at that time), such thinking was definitely 'outside the box,' so it could also be viewed as being consistent with the 'Think Different' slogan.

In Jobs's case, I think it had more to do with efficiency. I believe Einstein also wore the same outfit every day, saying each person had a finite amount of time for thought, and he didn't want to waste it picking out clothes.

Re: Steve Jobs Book Excerpt: Why he wore the black mock turtleneck uniform

#110

Post by masklinn » Wed, Oct 12, 2011, 6:43 AM UTC

aw3c2 wrote: post #106

tptacek wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He even hired Rand to do the logo for his private foundation, which he didn't even really care about. I found that kind of shocking; it is a move on par with having a typeface designed for your personal blog.

Those things would be a no-brainer for me if I was a billionaire.

with taste