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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

#61

Post by stralep »

kylewpppd wrote: post #35
mathattack wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So I would argue that the matching problem with many different styles of socks is O(n^2), since we first must select one sock appropriate for the occasion, then rummage through all the other socks to select its match. This does have the problem that your algorithm may never finish if your laundry eats socks like mine does. And that with all identical pairs, I assert the solution is O(n), since there is a chance that…

If ordering is made by color&design, matching drops to O(n log(n)).

Again, with ordering, searching drops to O(log n)

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

#62

Post by [deleted] »

vacri wrote: post #54
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…

Uh... there are plenty of techies who wear the same clothes every day (sometimes literally), who do it because it feels right for them, and who aren't concerned about fashion or trends. Jobs is hardly unique in the 'I don't care' fashion stakes among techies. Period.

[deleted]

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

#63

Post by officemonkey »

Aloisius wrote: post #51
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…

Which other CEO or person do you know which would wear the same clothes every day?? All the ones who wear suits?

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't make me wear a suit and tie. My clients don't care what I wear." The simple moral of the story was clear: "if you make it rain, you make the rules."

OTOH, he wore jeans, sneakers, and a polo shirt every day. He was hardly a rebel.

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

#64

Post by mathattack »

farnsworth wrote: post #59
mathattack wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a sock has a hole, it gets tossed. Now that I think of it, the mixed sock problem can actually be worse than O(n^2). For instance, if I decide that I want to wear my Marvin the Martian socks, and can only find one in the sock drawer, then it's a big problem. Look in the other drawers. Look under the bed. Look in the dryer. Repeat. Repeat. Until the other one is given up for lost.

It doesn't depend just on n since you aren't just searching through n available socks, you are searching k places with n_k socks in each place and with p_k confidence that you have thoroughly searched each place. I can't think of a more general problem that this might correspond to.

Will it get solved when we straighten out this whole P NP business?

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

#65

Post by officemonkey »

vacri wrote: post #54
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…

Uh... there are plenty of techies who wear the same clothes every day (sometimes literally), who do it because it feels right for them, and who aren't concerned about fashion or trends. Jobs is hardly unique in the 'I don't care' fashion stakes among techies. Period.

Jobs wasn't unconcerned with fashion. If he was, then he would wear any damn thing that was in his closet.

He made a dedicated effort to create a fashion "brand" to the point that people know what kind of sneakers he wore.

Jobs might not have been a great engineer or techie, but he was a great visionary, designer, and marketer. He created (and recreated) one of the greatest brands in America. I don't doubt he applied the same principles to his wardrobe as he did to his company.

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

#66

Post by stretchwithme »

Multiplayer wrote: post #49
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…

I used to do that when I was ceo of a company. I had a blue jeans and white button down shirt uniform, but, I didn't even know it - I was just so focused on the products. I must of had 20 of each. One day we had a company meeting and everyone came to the meeting in my uniform. It was hilarious and awesome. And that's when I found out.

Reminds me of how one first visit between teams at Apple and IBM had both showing up in each other's "uniforms".

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

#67

Post by 9999 »

3oheme wrote: post #34
rastafark wrote: post #19

I always figured he was inspired by Tom Wolfe, who always wore a white suit in public. Wolfe emerged in the sixties and wrote novels about the counter culture movement. Job's references to things like 'the whole earth catalog' and other 60s icons always seem to point to his style.

Any book or interview to read more? It sounds interesting

This interview from Fresh Air on NPR is really excellent:

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/12/139383916/tom-wolfe-chroniclin...

Wolfe explains why he wore the suit and how it worked in practice when touring around with Kesey. Really great.

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

#68

Post by stretchwithme »

mathattack wrote: post #29

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.

Just when you think a maverick is following the maverick game plan, he deviates.

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

#69

Post by donedam »

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…

The Kaiser-Frazer Service Station logo on the Paul Rand site (in minimized form) looks eerily like the ipod!
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