Wozniak: “Actually, the movie was largely a lie about me” • Hacker News Board

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

#161

Post by SimHacker » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 12:00 PM UTC

philh wrote: post #144

atmosx wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woz wrote that it was the board's decision and not Job's. But if you take a depiction of Jobs , Zuckerberg and Gates who are the most prominent examples of tech entrepreneurship, you get back-stabbing friends, socially unacceptable behaviors,a huge ego, etc. Given the fact that most of the times we get the sugar version of the story via Hollywood or books... I wonder if you have to be like that in order to get so hig…

> Given the fact that most of the times we get the sugar version of the story via Hollywood or books... Do we? I'd expect to get the version of the story that sells, which is likely to have added drama. Might it be that Jobs, Zuckerberg and Gates are more prominent than Page and Brin, precisely because of all the stuff we criticise them for?

Don't forget Bezos. My friend who was an early Amazon employee who worked down the hall from him tells me Bezos is a fucking psychopath.

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

#162

Post by bliss » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 12:10 PM UTC

tomelders wrote: post #52

I thought Ashton Kutcher was robbed of a career defining performance by a director and a writer who didn't give a shit about anything.

His career is already defined, take it you've not seen "Dude, Where's My Car?"

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

#163

Post by scholia » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 12:22 PM UTC

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…

Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry--and Made Himself the Richest Man in America, by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews.

Yes, it's by far the best biography of Gates, and extremely detailed. However, the first edition was published on January 21, 1994.

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

#164

Post by varjag » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 12:35 PM UTC

vasilipupkin wrote: post #158

phaus wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should read or reread Woz's comment from OP. He was already quite successful, and widely respected. He may not have ended up being a billionaire without Jobs, but he wouldn't have been a failure. Jobs on the other hand struggled in nearly every aspect of his life, he couldn't stick with college, he got a job at Atari based on someone else's work, he was such a giant douche to everyone there that they wanted to fi…

My guess is if it werent't for Wozniak, Steve Jobs would have found himself another Wozniak or would have put himself into a situation where he would have not needed a Wozniak. What has Wozniak accomplished since he left Apple?

> My guess is if it werent't for Wozniak, Steve Jobs would have found himself another Wozniak or would have put himself into a situation where he would have not needed a Wozniak.

Unless you're religious or believe in fate, Jobs life would probably be very different. He could become a successful artist or car salesman or crack cocaine dealer, but unlikely a tech visionary.

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

#165

Post by kabouseng » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 12:39 PM UTC

gnaffle wrote: post #151

kabouseng wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then take all the credit for the ideas, saying it came to him in a dream...pffft (touch interface for the iPhone).

When did he say that?

I'll have to go search for a link. But it was during the keynote unveiling of the original iPhone if I remember correctly, where actually two of the engineers came to him to demonstrate the capacitive touch screens or panels that were only just beginning to receive main stream attention.

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

#166

Post by epaladin » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 12:44 PM UTC

wwweston wrote: post #98

jpmattia wrote: post #64

> Woz: 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. I have to say: That speaks volumes. And Woz, if you ever happen to read this: It's still a pile of dough in the year 2014.

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.

They should have just put Pirates of Silicon Valley in theaters, as opposed to "Jobs". Sure, it wasn't just about the guy in the turtleneck, but it was fantastic.

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

#167

Post by oskarth » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 12:50 PM UTC

Dn_Ab wrote: post #54

Sidenote: You can tell Woz is an amazing genuinely good person with no hint of pretension or self importance. A lot can be discerned about famous personalities by who they choose to follow. For example, you can tell whether the person has little utility for social networks but maybe started out following a scattering of experts relevant to their interests. Usually though, the personality is using their handful of fol…

Or maybe they follow few people because of limited resources. You can't infer someone's humility bases on the amount of people they follow on twitter. Why do they follow "big" people? Maybe because they are friends, someone they look up to or just someone they want to keep track off. In other words, the exact same reason you follow someone.

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

#168

Post by corin_ » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 1:08 PM UTC

SimHacker wrote: post #161

philh wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given the fact that most of the times we get the sugar version of the story via Hollywood or books... Do we? I'd expect to get the version of the story that sells, which is likely to have added drama. Might it be that Jobs, Zuckerberg and Gates are more prominent than Page and Brin, precisely because of all the stuff we criticise them for?

Don't forget Bezos. My friend who was an early Amazon employee who worked down the hall from him tells me Bezos is a fucking psychopath.

Worth keeping in mind that the nicest people will still have a few people who hate them, and the worst people will still have a few people who love them - whether they're top CEOs or just anyone in life. That said your friend's opinion may well be in the majority, I've no idea.

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

#169

Post by virtualsue » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 1:22 PM UTC

larrys wrote: post #107

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.

Agree. One thing missing from Wozniak's comment is that in the end Jobs did whatever he had to and created great products that many of us use. Woz doesn't seem to want to acknowledge the fact that creating great things in life or in business involves stepping on some toes and doing all sorts of shenanigans. Woz certainly didn't have the stomach to be Jobs but Jobs did. And with that you get credit perhaps you don't d…

I doubt he was jealous so much as annoyed at the way he was portrayed in the Jobs film. I was annoyed at how he was portrayed myself, and I don't have any particular axe to grind.

I also seriously doubt the validity of your statements regarding David Geffen and his clients. That's just pure speculation on your part, unless you have some sort of amazing citation(s) you can dig up to support what you said.

None of us will ever know what Wozniak or Jobs would have achieved if they had never worked together.

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

#170

Post by wobbleblob » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 1:27 PM UTC

jpmattia wrote: post #64

> Woz: 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. I have to say: That speaks volumes. And Woz, if you ever happen to read this: It's still a pile of dough in the year 2014.

Yeah, I found that last sentence you quoted somewhat baffling. At the current exchange rate and inflation levels, $10M is about an order of magnitude more than I'm likely to make in my entire working career.