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

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

#51

Post by adharmad » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 12:46 AM UTC

rtpg wrote: post #2

For those who haven't yet, I'd highly recommend reading "Steve Jobs", the biography by Isaacson. It portrays pretty much all of these events like Woz describes them, and is a very complete portrait of Jobs. Woz' status at HP as referenced isn't really covered, but his actions during the Apple I and II launches are pretty complete. EDIT: I'd like to point out that this book covers everything, up to Jobs death, and is…

Seconded. The book is great! A small nitpick though is that it does not go into as much detail into the making of the iPod, iPhone and iPad products as much as the earlier Apple products (Apple, Macintosh etc.). Would have loved to read more insider accounts on the evolution of the Apple product in the 2000s.

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

#52

Post by tomelders » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 12:52 AM UTC

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.

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

#53

Post by CurtMonash » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 12:56 AM UTC

anonymfus wrote: post #47

WalterBright wrote: post #10

It makes you wonder how wrong other movie biographies are.

Worst are probably "A Beautiful Mind" and "The Pentagon Wars".

There are many contenders for the title. E.g., I'm thinking of one about Cole Porter that focused on his heterosexual love affair ...

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

#54

Post by Dn_Ab » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 12:59 AM UTC

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 followed people as an importance signalling factor. Often they will be following somewhere between -5e6 to 10 hugely important to unbelievably hugely important people; people with names like Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, Paris Hilton, Bono, Lord Vishnu and Kanye West.

On the other hand we have those like Steve Wozniak - following nearly 5000 people and deigning to reply to someone even the likes of HN commenter OGC is completely unaware of.

That is, in all seriousness, an incredible sign of sustained humility.

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

#55

Post by CurtMonash » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 1:00 AM UTC

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 the author being named "Steven".

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

#56

Post by caycep » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 1:06 AM UTC

rtpg wrote: post #2

For those who haven't yet, I'd highly recommend reading "Steve Jobs", the biography by Isaacson. It portrays pretty much all of these events like Woz describes them, and is a very complete portrait of Jobs. Woz' status at HP as referenced isn't really covered, but his actions during the Apple I and II launches are pretty complete. EDIT: I'd like to point out that this book covers everything, up to Jobs death, and is…

folklore.org, a site maintained by Andy Herzfeld, also has some good tidbits about the rest of the Apple and specifically the Mac team.

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

#57

Post by ama729 » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 1:08 AM UTC

anonymfus wrote: post #47

WalterBright wrote: post #10

It makes you wonder how wrong other movie biographies are.

Worst are probably "A Beautiful Mind" and "The Pentagon Wars".

"A Beautiful Mind" is the worst I've ever seen:

    - Most characters didn't exist, they are *inspired* by real persons
    - He never had visual hallucinations, only auditory
    - The hallucinations started *after* college
    - He and his wife divorced in 1963, they only remarried in 2001.
    - The pen laying and the Nobel ceremony never happened
    - Near the end of the movie, he say he's taking "new meds" while in real life, 
      he stopped taking them after the mid 70's and he's vocal about it. 
      The scenarist added it because he or she feared it would encourage people 
      not taking med. 
    - Etc.

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

#58

Post by caycep » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 1:09 AM UTC

phaus wrote: post #28

nostromo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me they are the quintessential yin-yang startup duo. You don't have to pick a favorite. You don't need to figure out which one pulled more weight. It seems likely that if you removed one, the other would have failed. edit: chill out folks, I don't mean either guy would have been a penniless itinerant without the other. I'm saying they were much more successful together than apart. I know it's popular here to hate…

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…

That isn't to say Jobs didn't have his own talents, but he had to find the best way to use them. He said himself that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that happened to him. Some would argue that the later years w/ the iMac, iPod, iOS, etc wouldn't have happened without this.

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

#59

Post by clockworkelf » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 1:16 AM UTC

yeukhon wrote: post #38

This is probably a better documentary because his friends and co-workers are all in this documentary... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC3qFtgeogE

Here is a 1986 documentary from the PBS show "Entrepreneurs" about Jobs at Pixar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Owau3YHs5E

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

#60

Post by logicallee » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 1:19 AM UTC

waterlesscloud wrote: post #14

danso wrote: post #6

> When I first met Jobs, I had EVERY Dylan album. I was a hardcore fan. I had bootlegs too. Jobs knew a few popular Dylan songs and related to the phrase "when you ain't got nothin' you got nothing to lose." I showed Jobs all my liner notes and lyrics and took him to record stores near San Jose State and Berkeley to buy Dylan bootlegs. I showed him brochures full of Dylan quotes and articles and photos. I brought Job…

Woz did things everyone knows they can't do, so he's marginalized as a freak. Jobs did things everyone thinks they can do, so he's worshipped as a god. I'm half-kidding. Half not.

I think even when there is a single founder, those are the two things you have to do.

I think investors, employees, and the public, want/need to be lied to about how easy it all is. You have to do impossible things but then completely deny all the work that goes into it, and act like it's just because you're great.