Steve Jobs Insult Response - Highest Quality

▶ this video The libre/open app issue has been brought up by Apple nay-sayers for time immemorial; Steve Job's response is brilliant here, frankly quite timeless and ultimately (in my view) apropos. "You've gotta start from the customer experience and work backwards to the technology."

For those interested, AllAboutSteveJobs.com keeps a pretty good repository of Jobs moments. My personal favorite is his 1997 WWDC talk [1]. In one talk he demonstrates what it is to be a great leader organizationally, publicly, and as a product visionary. He also opens himself up to harsh criticism from people who were, in a lot of ways, rightfully pissed at him. He takes both tough questions and ad hominem attacks gracefully and reframes the narrative in a positive way without disparaging the questioner [2]. To me, this is in stark contrast to the staged events with canned/screened questions that most tech leaders run today. He also lays out much of the vision for products that are still being rolled out 10-20 years later. Crazy. Really recommend watching the full thing if you have time, but also linking to a little excerpt from one of the best moments. [1] (full video): link [2] (insult excerpt): ▶ this video

Most of the people who worked directly under Steve Jobs knows he is an Asshole. At the same time they all loves him. You may want to watch [1] Steve Jobs Insult Response. And you can imagine most people are the guy asking that question. [1] ▶ this video

This reminds me of [Steve Job's response about OpenDoc at a conference]( ▶ this video ) where he points out that focus on the tech isn't as important as focus on the product. Companies are pitching the technology first and not the product, but customers want the product.

Reminded me of this video: "Steve Jobs handling a tough question at the 1997 Worldwide Developer Conference." ▶ this video

Hah. These are the same weirdos who spoke like this to Jobs: ▶ this video There's a big difference between geeks and hippies. Too many of the former here and not enough of the latter here - people who can understand other people, culture etc and then think about how technology can fit into ones life.

Something like that used to be Apple’s driving force under Steve Jobs (definitely no longer under Tim Cook). ▶ this video > You’ve go to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can’t start with the technology and try to figure out where you’re going to try to sell it.

These critiques are so tiresome. Like he forced people to buy macs or something. You're not the audience. For the average consumer the fact they don't even have to think about unscrewing something is a major part of the appeal. The walled garden is a plus for them not a negative. And then ending with the sanctimonious line about selling. Like you eat off of selling nothing. Go screw in whatever you like just understand your critique comes across as little more than entitled griping against a majority. You're the people he fought against the entire time, people obsessed with their own personal agenda/minutia with no understanding of the overarching mission or who the customer is. This video comes to mind ▶ this video Design without an audience in mind is not design. Don't dismiss the work simply because you're not the audience.

This is quite a defensive posture. In my current role I've been able to see an incredible raft of insanity, not be obtuse or arrogant enough to dismiss solutions or the intelligence of those who made them, but literally make a communal list of refactor candidates. Then slowly but surely wrangle people and political capital to my side to eventually change them. Years later we still have cruft leftover but there are many many projects, some multi-year, which are now complete. I also see a single-mindedness to specific technical implementations where a more mature view would be to see tech as a business and us less as artisans than blue collar workers. > steve jobs on "You're right, but it doesn't matter" ▶ this video

> As Jobs said in his chat, "we put a gun to their heads and shot them dead". (I'm paraphrasing Jobs here, but he said something close to that - it was equally brutal, anyway.) Say good-bye to PowerTalk, OpenDoc, Copland, and their ilk. Good riddance, I say. At least one man was very upset with this. ▶ this video

But he was also famously reasonable at times when most people would have been just mean. [0] He had a complex and conflicting personality. [0] ▶ this video

That was never Apple's thing. Apple always changes things as it pleases and expects the developers to suck it up. ▶ this video