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

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

#131

Post by cycojesus »

ankeshk wrote: post #107

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.

That's just sad. At least in the ice-cream case just point a random flavor, none or little more effort spent and a whole new world of potential surprises.

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

#132

Post by ForrestN »

philwelch wrote: post #89
ForrestN wrote: post #71

I've read a number of times references to the sweaters coming from St. Croix, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Croix_(clothing) http://www.stcroixshop.com/stcroix/default.asp?s_id=0&#38 ; An interesting mystery! A lifetime's supply of Issey Miyake would surely obviate the need to by them from this random shop, right? Am I missing something? For what it's worth, I hope they come from Miyake, who's a geniu…

Perhaps Issey Miyake designed the turtleneck and had St. Croix actually make them.

That's next to impossible for a ton of reasons.

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

#133

Post by ForrestN »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #127
ForrestN wrote: post #71

I've read a number of times references to the sweaters coming from St. Croix, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Croix_(clothing) http://www.stcroixshop.com/stcroix/default.asp?s_id=0&#38 ; An interesting mystery! A lifetime's supply of Issey Miyake would surely obviate the need to by them from this random shop, right? Am I missing something? For what it's worth, I hope they come from Miyake, who's a geniu…

Unless I've missed it, nowhere on their shop page does it say that Jobs wore their turtlenecks, merely that he was a "fan" of theirs, and the Wikipedia fact is uncited (now marked as such).

Another link, from the WaPo:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/steve-job...

"Jobs preferred $175 St. Croix cotton and microfiber mock black turtlenecks. According to Bernhard Brenner, the founder of Knitcraft, St. Croix’s parent company, Jobs bought about two dozen black turtlenecks each year."

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

#134

Post by spinchange »

ary wrote: post #58

When reading this keep in mind that the Mac was still a skunkworks project inside of Apple when Jobs attempted to institute a uniform policy. Some of the comments have suggested this doesn't jive with the "Think Different" ethos he pushed. The Think Different campaign was initiated in 1997 shortly after his return to Apple. Many things transpired and he matured quite a bit in the intervening ~16/17 years.

It's okay to acknowledge he could be a man of contradictions- both in his youth and later years.

Remember that he told the Mac group they were pirates inside Apple and the 1984 television ad. He could be both a conformist and nonconformist at the same time, or if he felt it suited it him.

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

#135

Post by adestefan »

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…

That explains why the NeXT and OS/2 logos look so much alike. I've always wondered why that was the case.

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

#136

Post by adestefan »

kamaal wrote: post #104
officemonkey wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 agai…

Surprisingly, most large corporate bureaucracies, except for finance, don't have a dress code. I've seen more dress codes in the medium sized companies.

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

#137

Post by adestefan »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #20
Homunculiheaded wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually tried this my freshman year of college: wardrobe of nearly identical shirts, pants and sweaters. I was actually inspired by the idea that whenever cartoon characters opened their closets you'd see it full of just their signature outfit. I didn't use the term 'personal brand' but I had the idea, and also loved the convenience. Turns out that if you're not Steve Jobs this doesn't work so well. After I had en…

On a more practical note but along a related thread, a couple of years ago I threw out all of my socks and bought a stack of the exact same plain black socks. Now I never have to worry about matching socks, when a hole appears I just throw that sock out, when I'm getting low on socks I throw out the lot and buy them new.

I tried this until I noticed that the socks from the same brand are a slightly different color across packs. Now I have the problem of trying to match 12 pairs of gray socks that are mostly a different shade of gray.

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

#138

Post by Keyframe »

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…

What I got from the story is a confirmation of what I already suspected. Steve Jobs basically created Sony 2. He hinted numerous times on how he modeled everything he did with apple was based on sony. He made Sony, but did it right.

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

#139

Post by khafra »

jamesbritt wrote: post #92
boop wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of the article is not the turtlenecks or who Steve Jobs knew. The point is that Steve Jobs was unique and followed his own path. Which other CEO or person do you know which would wear the same clothes every day?? Most people wouldn't and would fear they would get laughed at for doing so. But Steve was unique. Wearing the same clothes every day made sense for Steve and that is why Steve did that, period. He…

But Steve was unique. Wearing the same clothes every day made sense for Steve and that is why Steve did that, period. He wasn't concerned about fashion or trends or what others thought - he did what he felt was right. Period. I applaud that, but it hardly makes anyone unique. More than a few people have decided that, for example, a white t-shirt and blue jeans every day is a simple solution to a ultimately unimportan…

> I applaud that, but it hardly makes anyone unique.

It does, at the very least, put Steve Jobs on a level no lower than that of Ernest P. Worrell.

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

#140

Post by ary »

warmfuzzykitten wrote: post #112
ary wrote: post #58

When reading this keep in mind that the Mac was still a skunkworks project inside of Apple when Jobs attempted to institute a uniform policy. Some of the comments have suggested this doesn't jive with the "Think Different" ethos he pushed. The Think Different campaign was initiated in 1997 shortly after his return to Apple. Many things transpired and he matured quite a bit in the intervening ~16/17 years.

jibe

Thanks. Wish I'd seen that typo before my ability to edit went away.
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