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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

#91

Post by froo »

boop wrote: post #39
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…

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…

>> person do you know which would wear the same clothes every day??

Paul Barnett, who was a lead video game designer for Warhammer Online. He wore the same clothes everyday for convenience (going out and purchasing a set of shirts/jeans/shoes in a single stroke) - which he would then change on a yearly/6monthly basis.

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

#92

Post by jamesbritt »

boop wrote: post #39
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…

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…

But Steve was unique. Wearing the same clothes every day made sense for Steve and that is why Steve did that, period. He wasn't concerned about fashion or trends or what others thought - he did what he felt was right. Period.

I applaud that, but it hardly makes anyone unique. More than a few people have decided that, for example, a white t-shirt and blue jeans every day is a simple solution to a ultimately unimportant decision. Lots of people , OTOH, just wear whatever is nearest because they really don't give a crap about their appearance and they're happy that way.

There are real reasons to consider Jobs special. Hyperventilating over what amounts to a not-uncommon solution to dressing oneself trivializes him.

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

#93

Post by kragen »

tptacek wrote: post #21
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.

If someone had a font designed for their personal blog (or book or whatever), it might be because they are really proud of the blog (or book &c.). Or it might be because they really like font design.

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

#94

Post by kragen »

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…

Previous discussion of this question:

http://www.mail-archive.com/kragen-tol@canonical.org/msg0008...

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1696125

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

#95

Post by stream_fusion »

thenewgreen wrote: post #72

What is a brand? It's a symbol that identifies a good or service. The best brands are instantly recognizable, and apple with a bite missing... or a guy in black turtleneck. Both were brilliant moves. He branded himself as "the" innovator of our times. Was the turtleneck intentional marketing?

I suspect it was a marketing decision. The consistency of his clothing choice, helps to reinforce the brand (in this case Steve and Apple) in the public mind via his portrayal in media. For those who are aware he always chose the same clothes it's merely an idiosyncratic trait, however for the wider public who are only dimly aware of leading computer figures, it aids recognition ("ahh that's that guy, who runs Apple") above the background noise. There's a bit of an analogy with brand connection/consistency in choosing similar product names eg - iMac, iPod, iPhone. Consistency, helps cross-recognition and positive association. It's all a carefully crafted narrative for the public mind.

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

#96

Post by zargath »

I see it as: remove focus away from anything but the product. The stage is boring, the screen is boring, the slides maybe not boring but simple, the person is not interessting. Steve was already rock star. Just like the ring in LOTR movies. How you make impact with such a small product. Steve wanted everybody to hunger for creations and his work.

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

#97

Post by sandGorgon »

dockd wrote: post #52
pitdesi wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

There's an entire book devoted to how he came up with the NeXT logo; you get to watch the design evolve. The book was probably published by NeXT itself; good luck finding one. I somewhat regret not "borrowing" the copy I saw lying around a computer lab at school.

Is it this book : http://www.modernism101.com/rand_next.php THE SIGN OF THE NEXT GENERATION OF COMPUTERS FOR EDUCATION

There is an interesting comment posted about this topic by someone whose father worked as a technical writer on NeXT http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1590

Paul Rand was hired to design the logo for 50k, with the following rules: he would ask some questions concerning the mission of NEXT, and then he would leave. There will be no updates, no revisions, no meetings. he will return with a logo and if it is accepted, another 50k would be paid to him.

Mr. Rand returned with this small brochure (not the 100+ page document that is written about all over the net.. i think people got the 100 from the price of the logo design). This NEXT logo brochure really brings you into the mind of a great designer. Steve Jobs was so overtaken by this proposal, that he asked Mr. Rand if he could make copies... to use as marketing material to potential investors.

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

#98

Post by SoftwareMaven »

jarek wrote: post #79
alabut wrote: post #40

It's the same rationale as the fashion designer Michael Kors and why he's been wearing the same black shirt, black blazer and dark jeans for years - to become "post-fashion" and have his own signature style that he doesn't have to think about and coordinate every day. And much like Jobs, he used to dress like a hippie flower child early in his career and he realized sometime later how dated that looked, so he needed…

There's no such thing as a timeless look. The only look I can think of going back to as late as the 60s - only 50 years - that could reasonably be claimed to be "timeless" is the business suit - and even that is becoming to look... unsuitable in an increasing number of settings.

Jeans and a tshirt go much further back than that.

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

#100

Post by sid0 »

stralep wrote: post #61
kylewpppd wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

However, that actually requires ordering socks, which as we all know is O(not gonna happen).
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