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

9to5mac.com

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

#21

Post by tptacek »

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.

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

#22

Post by egiva »

>>So it's interesting that here we have a story about how Steve Jobs tried to introduce a company uniform at Apple that emulated Sony. Especially odd given the "think different" slogan of the era.I'd say that to be different in the areas most important to you (usually creative endeavors), you strip all the layers and unnecessary fluff off of your life and boil everything down to pure essence. For that reason, wearing the same thing every day actually liberates your senses and allows you to focus creative energies elsewhere.

This obviously doesn't apply to you if you are a fashion designer =) Jobs was a pretty busy guy, so i'm guessing that removing that extra decision each day actually helped his productivity and creativity.

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

#23

Post by jcurbo »

nostromo wrote: post #5

Many articles have been written lately about how an outsider drop-out like Jobs would have never been given an opportunity to succeed in East Asia. So it's interesting that here we have a story about how Steve Jobs tried to introduce a company uniform at Apple that emulated Sony. Especially odd given the "think different" slogan of the era. In any case, I love the idea of a personal brand that doesn't change -- and a…

Actually I've read in several places that Steve Jobs actively admired and wanted to emulate Sony, so the uniform thing is not surprising.

There's some info in this interview with John Sculley: http://www.cultofmac.com/63295/john-sculley-on-steve-jobs-th...

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

#24

Post by rapind »

Homunculiheaded wrote: post #13
nostromo wrote: post #5

Many articles have been written lately about how an outsider drop-out like Jobs would have never been given an opportunity to succeed in East Asia. So it's interesting that here we have a story about how Steve Jobs tried to introduce a company uniform at Apple that emulated Sony. Especially odd given the "think different" slogan of the era. In any case, I love the idea of a personal brand that doesn't change -- and a…

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…

I've been doing this for years now (like 5 or 6). White t-shirt (always the same, no logos or designs) and jeans (I rotate between 2 different designs of light and dark). I don't think I was inspired by anyone, I just feel like it's me and I can't be bothered to shop (which is also me).

I try to mix it up a bit once in a while, but it always feels weird and I come back to my uniform.

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

#26

Post by singh »

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…

That is truly what set Jobs apart. His left and right side of the brain were constantly in bed together while those of his peers (and dare I say most techies today) were satisfied with self-pleasure.

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

#27

Post by mikepmalai »

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…

I had a completely different take on the article. I think the real lesson is Jobs was on a constant quest to learn/adopt from the best. Many of his future breakthroughs were the result of visiting places like Xerox PARC or learning from visionaries like Akio Morita.

It reinforces my view that Steve Jobs' brilliance was his ability to piece together seemingly disparate observations/lessons (in a mosaic theory like fashion) into a single game changing vision.

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

#28

Post by mathattack »

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 do too. One pool of identical whites and one of blacks. Moves the matching problem from O(n) to O(1) and it's ok if you lose an odd one here or there.

Unlike Jobs, nobody notices.

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

#29

Post by mathattack »

I find it very strange that non-conformist Jobs who hated 1984ish IBM would be pro-uniform. It's a good story in the overload of Jobsian mythology. It shows a different side of him - that he worried about culture in addition to product, that he wasn't always consistent, and that even He could make design mistakes. Much more human a story than the usual fluff.

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

#30

Post by elliottkember »

WiseWeasel wrote: post #18
Jun8 wrote: post #8

"...its ability to convey a signature style..." This is important yet overlooked! There is a lot of advice for up and coming founders on HN (and other places) ranging from scalability minutiae to naming your company, which are all important of course, but there is very little advice on how to dress to create a personal signature style. Why hasn't a site that aims to do this hackers/startup founders crop up, with advi…

I think the typical young tech founder signature style is sandals or flip-flops, shorts and an assortment of stupid/funny t-shirts. Sweaters are deprecated.

Hoodies are still de rigeur.
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