Here’s the high quality copy of the whole video:
https://archive.org/details/wwdc-1997-fireside-chat-steve-jo...
Steve Jobs Insult Response (1997) [video]
31–40 of 173 posts
Re: Steve Jobs Insult Response (1997) [video]
#32One thing that's interesting here is how Jobs doesn't answer the specific technical question: How does Java address the ideas embodied in OpenDoc? Instead, Jobs answers the question behind the question: What role should new technologies play at Apple going forward? This is a very useful technique to practice. When asked a question whose premise you don't agree with, you can become confrontational on that point. Or yo…
> Jobs answers the question behind the question: What role should new technologies play at Apple going forward?
I saw the questions behind the question being more how do you, a non-technical person, lay claim to a technology company, and, why are you deprecating this technical thing I loved and may have worked on. There is an undeniable, underlying bitterness animating the ask, and one can’t ignore that if attempting to genuinely respond.
Re: Steve Jobs Insult Response (1997) [video]
#33One thing that's interesting here is how Jobs doesn't answer the specific technical question: How does Java address the ideas embodied in OpenDoc? Instead, Jobs answers the question behind the question: What role should new technologies play at Apple going forward? This is a very useful technique to practice. When asked a question whose premise you don't agree with, you can become confrontational on that point. Or yo…
I'm not disputing your point - This is a very useful technique to practice - this awareness of what people are really asking. Unfortunately this is a twin edged sword - politicians for example will frequently reach in to the question they've been asked and answer the question they want to answer, not the real question that's beneath the surface. So much so, to the point that they look disingenuous or false. Jobs' speech here was very prescient or rather it was in essence him setting out what he wanted Apple to be, from where it was in 1997.
Re: Steve Jobs Insult Response (1997) [video]
#34One thing that's interesting here is how Jobs doesn't answer the specific technical question: How does Java address the ideas embodied in OpenDoc? Instead, Jobs answers the question behind the question: What role should new technologies play at Apple going forward? This is a very useful technique to practice. When asked a question whose premise you don't agree with, you can become confrontational on that point. Or yo…
This is the Robert McNamara strategy for answering questions: don't answer the question that was asked, instead answer the question you wanted to be asked, and by the end of it the asker will usually have forgotten that they actually asked a different question. It's pretty common, but I think few people were as explicit/honest about it as McNamara (later in life, that is).
Re: Steve Jobs Insult Response (1997) [video]
#35No post body was provided.
Re: Steve Jobs Insult Response (1997) [video]
#36One thing that's interesting here is how Jobs doesn't answer the specific technical question: How does Java address the ideas embodied in OpenDoc? Instead, Jobs answers the question behind the question: What role should new technologies play at Apple going forward? This is a very useful technique to practice. When asked a question whose premise you don't agree with, you can become confrontational on that point. Or yo…
Right. His answer effectively dismisses the question on the basis of it being invalid, or even dumb. And points out the larger philosophy that customer experience trumps technology. It's a classy way to come out on top of an argument, but a) it doesn't work in all situations, and b) not everyone can think on their feet in that way in front of an audience. It's an admirable trait of charismatic people, but it's also a…
Is Jobs' answer technically a non-sequitur rebuttal to a technical question? Only that charisma has "carried the motion" through
Re: Steve Jobs Insult Response (1997) [video]
#37I can't believe people compare Jobs with Musk. Jobs was so much better put together in public and seems like he can still be very coherent and persuasive even when angry (likely in this video) and insulted in public.
That’s because back then your interaction with the public was maybe twice a year. Now it’s daily. Apples and oranges.
Re: Steve Jobs Insult Response (1997) [video]
#38Some context, all from wikipedia:
OpenDoc
In March 1992, the historic AIM alliance was launched with OpenDoc as a foundation.Taligent adopted OpenDoc, and promised somewhat similar functionality although based on very different underlying mechanisms. While OpenDoc was still being developed, Apple confused things greatly by suggesting that it should be used by people porting existing software only, and new projects should instead be based on Taligent since that would be the next OS. In 1993, John Sculley called Project Amber (a codename for what would become OpenDoc) a path toward Taligent.[5][6] Taligent was considered the future of the Macintosh, and work on other tools like MacApp was considerably deprioritized.
CyberDog
Cyberdog included email and news readers, a web browser and address book management components, as well as drag and drop FTP. OpenDoc allowed these components to be reused and embedded in other documents by the user. For instance, a "live" Cyberdog web page could be embedded in a presentation program, one of the common demonstrations of OpenDoc.
A serious problem with the OpenDoc project that Cyberdog depended on, was that it was part of a very acrimonious competition between OpenDoc consortium members and Microsoft. The members of the OpenDoc alliance were all trying to obtain traction in a market rapidly being dominated by Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer. At the same time, Microsoft used the synergy between the OS and applications divisions of the company to make it effectively mandatory that developers adopt the competing Microsoft Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology. OpenDoc was forced to create an interoperability layer in order to allow developers to use it, and this added a great technical burden to the project.
Kaleida
Kaleida Labs formed in 1991 to produce the multimedia cross-platform Kaleida Media Player and the object oriented scripting language ScriptX that was used to program its behavior. The system was aimed at the production of interactive CD ROM titles, an area of major effort in the early 1990s. When the system was delivered in 1994, it had relatively high system requirements and memory footprint, and lacked a native PowerPC version on the Mac platform. Around the same time, rapid changes in the market, especially the expansion of the World Wide Web and the Java programming language, pushed the interactive CD market into a niche role. The Kaleida platform failed to gain significant traction and the company was closed in 1996.
Taligent
Taligent OS and CommonPoint mirrored the sprawling scope of IBM's complementary Workplace OS, in redundantly overlapping attempts to become the ultimate universal system to unify all of the world's computers and operating systems with a single microkernel. From 1993 to 1996, Taligent was seen as competing with Microsoft Cairo and NeXTSTEP, even though Taligent didn't ship a product until 1995 and Cairo never shipped at all. From 1994 to 1996, Apple floated the Copland operating system project intended to succeed System 7, but never had a modern OS sophisticated enough to run Taligent technology.
In 1995, Apple and HP withdrew from the Taligent partnership, licensed its technology, and left it as a wholly owned subsidiary of IBM. In January 1998, Taligent Inc. was finally dissolved into IBM. Taligent's legacy became the unbundling of CommonPoint's best compiler and application components and converting them into VisualAge C++[5][6] and the globally adopted Java Development Kit 1.1 (especially internationalization).[7]
In 1996, *Apple instead bought NeXT and began synthesizing the classic Mac OS with the NeXTSTEP operating system.*
Re: Steve Jobs Insult Response (1997) [video]
#39My favorite part is when audience clap to “some mistakes will be made and that’s good because that means decisions will be made “. As a guy who just quit 18 year career at multi billion dollar corporation, that was the biggest reasons for my quitting.
Re: Steve Jobs Insult Response (1997) [video]
#40I can't believe people compare Jobs with Musk. Jobs was so much better put together in public and seems like he can still be very coherent and persuasive even when angry (likely in this video) and insulted in public.
That’s because back then your interaction with the public was maybe twice a year. Now it’s daily. Apples and oranges.
> back then your interaction with the public was maybe twice a year. Now it’s daily.
If you choose it to be. Plenty of CEOs are relatively recluse. For example, Apple’s, today.