|
college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my
9 Z: _9 J& I1 d- @! C& qparents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work E. i$ o! d; O! _
out okay.”8 p- k: M! o1 X/ Q
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He didn’t actually want to leave Reed; he just wanted to quit paying tuition and taking E* [; U! _- u( E0 {* |5 R% A
classes that didn’t interest him. Remarkably, Reed tolerated that. “He had a very inquiring
+ q! [6 ^& S. J; ]5 D* A8 vmind that was enormously attractive,” said the dean of students, Jack Dudman. “He refused3 [7 x5 s8 g7 _2 Z0 H0 i
to accept automatically received truths, and he wanted to examine everything himself.”( N; d0 |- \/ m0 c% ^) J
Dudman allowed Jobs to audit classes and stay with friends in the dorms even after he# o$ ^2 N6 A( F \: ~5 y
stopped paying tuition.) [) ~. h0 g/ K. t* i
, E( X# a7 \' u6 {
“The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest& K6 L. l) ]; N
me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting,” he said. Among them was a; r4 B; q- _( v
calligraphy class that appealed to him after he saw posters on campus that were beautifully. L5 t* x" E4 f% G
drawn. “I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space5 _4 ]0 C4 \. `( d7 K8 B
between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was/ o: E0 h' B0 R) Q2 l8 A
beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it
, [) ~. f, f# lfascinating.”8 F( b( l4 k- t) ?6 f
7 X2 m( g5 X OIt was yet another example of Jobs consciously positioning himself at the intersection
/ p! M9 Z$ I8 y+ @# l nof the arts and technology. In all of his products, technology would be married to great
/ Z$ l+ Q( [- I, l1 h: _+ ]+ @* `% ldesign, elegance, human touches, and even romance. He would be in the fore of pushing7 \2 O, c3 N; E/ p8 X% N- l
friendly graphical user interfaces. The calligraphy course would become iconic in that7 @" f s3 D/ n6 R, J! f
regard. “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have3 g3 B% H i3 ]1 t* o/ }% F
never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just" g) ]% }/ s1 C) a8 p. N- h. ]% l
copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them.”& _" b5 o$ [9 @; u/ p! Z
& b& F! |' U$ @/ J nIn the meantime Jobs eked out a bohemian existence on the fringes of Reed. He went) N- [! v8 W! S! g3 ^. M
barefoot most of the time, wearing sandals when it snowed. Elizabeth Holmes made meals( e! \! ~+ |# ]3 w
for him, trying to keep up with his obsessive diets. He returned soda bottles for spare
) o7 K$ n2 Y% J* \change, continued his treks to the free Sunday dinners at the Hare Krishna temple, and6 s% G4 y0 k4 N0 X0 L6 Y
wore a down jacket in the heatless garage apartment he rented for $20 a month. When he+ {$ v5 a" V, E) W: I
needed money, he found work at the psychology department lab maintaining the electronic+ l* w, {, t7 I+ T$ y
equipment that was used for animal behavior experiments. Occasionally Chrisann Brennan( ]2 p4 O; A4 ]& N: a! s W6 o
would come to visit. Their relationship sputtered along erratically. But mostly he tended to; X/ U e n3 G# F j: \
the stirrings of his own soul and personal quest for enlightenment.
# n5 [2 x4 B. L' ?2 K( P8 h! e" W' V$ Y! B8 X J \" f/ C( x
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& X2 i; u8 [1 Q
“I came of age at a magical time,” he reflected later. “Our consciousness was raised by
9 {1 Q$ _. v' J o' h! xZen, and also by LSD.” Even later in life he would credit psychedelic drugs for making
/ n$ J+ M" l/ J2 A( \& ~/ h/ lhim more enlightened. “Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important3 u/ y' S% P. c& R
things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t
% f- z7 O# [( Y9 \- fremember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was
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; j% Y* v1 L8 I$ C1 t) Eimportant—creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the
$ j' S/ {6 X- `1 `9 T8 J+ Fstream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.”
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% V3 s3 p7 ]" W/ I/ U( h
CHAPTER FOUR% c# r/ O- ]4 \/ A
1 J( U0 s/ t7 Z( H. d) g$ |! v& T( W) U1 U/ ^
# u* N9 m+ a6 d3 T, k* HATARI AND INDIA
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/ e3 o, G7 `0 I! b$ ]Zen and the Art of Game Design, ]! P) B# M% r& _( m
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# \6 N3 G) Q( V/ OAtari
+ B4 b8 ^ }2 ^# G1 W8 P: `
% v0 W6 H% a; ]3 d+ l" m3 M; MIn February 1974, after eighteen months of hanging around Reed, Jobs decided to move1 n/ i1 O5 ]# {9 u O" S
back to his parents’ home in Los Altos and look for a job. It was not a difficult search. At& I/ S2 D8 U$ D2 ^
peak times during the 1970s, the classified section of the San Jose Mercury carried up to2 w4 u7 R, e6 l* t
sixty pages of technology help-wanted ads. One of those caught Jobs’s eye. “Have fun,0 B5 w9 b9 p5 a5 B/ \) X( `8 I
make money,” it said. That day Jobs walked into the lobby of the video game manufacturer5 Z y" r* J# J! l3 r& |. t
Atari and told the personnel director, who was startled by his unkempt hair and attire, that
4 G1 P5 w$ U. O) whe wouldn’t leave until they gave him a job.7 E0 I' o. X# v' X3 E' c, c3 J
0 v' w! M9 T( E1 i3 b$ B9 R
Atari’s founder was a burly entrepreneur named Nolan Bushnell, who was a charismatic+ p- ^ r5 d4 U( I
visionary with a nice touch of showmanship in him—in other words, another role model# f8 T: q9 ^5 M- {8 X6 C4 ^
waiting to be emulated. After he became famous, he liked driving around in a Rolls,
. U* ?6 O, d3 P3 ismoking dope, and holding staff meetings in a hot tub. As Friedland had done and as Jobs
) `) Z$ I5 y) Z# B) Z+ cwould learn to do, he was able to turn charm into a cunning force, to cajole and intimidate
& o* `& t9 z1 z7 }and distort reality with the power of his personality. His chief engineer was Al Alcorn,* _7 n! ~3 a) ]" {- b$ q8 u
beefy and jovial and a bit more grounded, the house grown-up trying to implement the
v4 F" x9 v5 X1 B5 Q& Yvision and curb the enthusiasms of Bushnell. Their big hit thus far was a video game called
% \2 R1 @& {. Q& GPong, in which two players tried to volley a blip on a screen with two movable lines that
9 o( k3 z; |8 Q* zacted as paddles. (If you’re under thirty, ask your parents.). o- m5 x; c& i% N
7 p: v: F: V9 L: ~: e! p4 }6 ^When Jobs arrived in the Atari lobby wearing sandals and demanding a job, Alcorn was
' W5 N; w2 i7 g. Pthe one who was summoned. “I was told, ‘We’ve got a hippie kid in the lobby. He says he’s
( n' E( g* x0 d/ s" u6 cnot going to leave until we hire him. Should we call the cops or let him in?’ I said bring4 J$ O3 r9 ]2 I" a) {; ~) |8 s
him on in!”
- ~: ^5 ?6 u$ ?9 P) d+ J1 `% C k( F7 b* ^ r/ H: e
Jobs thus became one of the first fifty employees at Atari, working as a technician for
/ B6 a; }4 C6 B* F$5 an hour. “In retrospect, it was weird to hire a dropout from Reed,” Alcorn recalled. “But 4 I( ~; z6 ~% G8 T
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2 W- m& a$ ~% G# ]0 }I saw something in him. He was very intelligent, enthusiastic, excited about tech.” Alcorn
" `: j5 c5 W0 A. \assigned him to work with a straitlaced engineer named Don Lang. The next day Lang
5 ~/ ~/ b7 p% Wcomplained, “This guy’s a goddamn hippie with b.o. Why did you do this to me? And he’s2 _+ |# ?* I, ~! v/ c. i' y1 R
impossible to deal with.” Jobs clung to the belief that his fruit-heavy vegetarian diet would
6 O ^0 P5 s" s3 P F t3 aprevent not just mucus but also body odor, even if he didn’t use deodorant or shower; u; {1 Y5 d) q9 r
regularly. It was a flawed theory.$ A: R1 I9 y. t- T
5 v0 N3 `' U2 M+ |$ U# @" ^- B! x2 ULang and others wanted to let Jobs go, but Bushnell worked out a solution. “The smell0 ^5 ?+ q$ w/ W) d3 G6 n
and behavior wasn’t an issue with me,” he said. “Steve was prickly, but I kind of liked him.
, i6 }: ~6 F' D% eSo I asked him to go on the night shift. It was a way to save him.” Jobs would come in after
( F8 U' f# Z H3 c/ V- |Lang and others had left and work through most of the night. Even thus isolated, he became
& a3 A1 J4 C+ x0 Q% d' Eknown for his brashness. On those occasions when he happened to interact with others, he6 j, y1 M4 ^, _4 t
was prone to informing them that they were “dumb shits.” In retrospect, he stands by that
x5 u: w: {- l% N \; ]7 l6 Rjudgment. “The only reason I shone was that everyone else was so bad,” Jobs recalled.
1 x$ z5 x, l+ J$ ^6 \* B8 ~8 w1 B/ i
Despite his arrogance (or perhaps because of it) he was able to charm Atari’s boss. “He
P: j2 u& P: D7 Lwas more philosophical than the other people I worked with,” Bushnell recalled. “We used* U9 l" E7 a4 R, x3 G, L0 }
to discuss free will versus determinism. I tended to believe that things were much more
! D5 B) M7 U$ H! E/ p/ ~( hdetermined, that we were programmed. If we had perfect information, we could predict$ X8 d2 p5 C6 [) B# \% \
people’s actions. Steve felt the opposite.” That outlook accorded with his faith in the power
$ Q! F6 u4 s* B* qof the will to bend reality.
0 _5 u* Z% p, g8 S0 [! ?
. O' b9 v* ?, |$ H' \4 ?Jobs helped improve some of the games by pushing the chips to produce fun designs,
) K3 L& ^4 L) r6 ~( {: A% a6 Iand Bushnell’s inspiring willingness to play by his own rules rubbed off on him. In6 Y( R( ^4 D% U; j8 ?: {, K
addition, he intuitively appreciated the simplicity of Atari’s games. They came with no
# P# A0 F, S, w* h4 w$ Q a/ Jmanual and needed to be uncomplicated enough that a stoned freshman could figure them
4 D, [1 d/ a" u$ S0 R7 ?out. The only instructions for Atari’s Star Trek game were “1. Insert quarter. 2. Avoid
7 \( A9 r; r; t2 D+ NKlingons.”
" O5 y8 Z( L/ H0 {+ `. L/ K% ]/ \) h% N" z4 F
Not all of his coworkers shunned Jobs. He became friends with Ron Wayne, a
) `5 L( @/ ^8 R# y6 adraftsman at Atari, who had earlier started a company that built slot machines. It
) M* U A1 ^2 R$ [subsequently failed, but Jobs became fascinated with the idea that it was possible to start" g4 j. b; G- H8 e+ |; J! ]9 ?" \6 S
your own company. “Ron was an amazing guy,” said Jobs. “He started companies. I had
$ }1 s. z" |6 v* o) bnever met anybody like that.” He proposed to Wayne that they go into business together;
. Q1 v0 }3 Y/ {& c- F! M2 |- |1 @9 QJobs said he could borrow $50,000, and they could design and market a slot machine. But$ t% G4 B0 n$ X# a" e ]
Wayne had already been burned in business, so he declined. “I said that was the quickest6 C0 k$ H" [7 M& G0 `
way to lose $50,000,” Wayne recalled, “but I admired the fact that he had a burning drive to8 o! Z4 M: O9 t
start his own business.”9 W8 C8 E. I5 O) g/ o) ?
. q7 ~, F p, R1 p; U6 K' |One weekend Jobs was visiting Wayne at his apartment, engaging as they often did in9 i4 x: e3 Q- K2 c$ {
philosophical discussions, when Wayne said that there was something he needed to tell' p; l5 ~: }" Q0 o+ V6 V
him. “Yeah, I think I know what it is,” Jobs replied. “I think you like men.” Wayne said* y$ o8 z4 a" l" X F( b
yes. “It was my first encounter with someone who I knew was gay,” Jobs recalled. “He
4 F; g8 _/ x' |9 A2 Q' Pplanted the right perspective of it for me.” Jobs grilled him: “When you see a beautiful # f: P- @' ^! }& ?
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1 {$ z: L- S( X6 V1 Zwoman, what do you feel?” Wayne replied, “It’s like when you look at a beautiful horse.
[2 M6 n- U$ M1 c: M# pYou can appreciate it, but you don’t want to sleep with it. You appreciate beauty for what it
6 l9 ^: O) B- B' b! C+ ois.” Wayne said that it is a testament to Jobs that he felt like revealing this to him. “Nobody" c( k8 [! l& Q1 O* V+ q# x
at Atari knew, and I could count on my toes and fingers the number of people I told in my
" w! a2 ?7 C4 v! Y" \0 lwhole life. But I guess it just felt right to tell him, that he would understand, and it didn’t9 S! F; h0 m) @4 A! D% N
have any effect on our relationship.”
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4 b; [* m* g" l& W6 t
One reason Jobs was eager to make some money in early 1974 was that Robert8 ^: ]9 s# O7 d5 k
Friedland, who had gone to India the summer before, was urging him to take his own( b- A& T2 d# J) s8 d% k6 e
spiritual journey there. Friedland had studied in India with Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaj-ji),
* Z. H2 l( s3 J' S( q6 X" swho had been the guru to much of the sixties hippie movement. Jobs decided he should do
, }' o' V: j. w7 Hthe same, and he recruited Daniel Kottke to go with him. Jobs was not motivated by mere( b( C# Y2 l0 r* c4 h5 p( |
adventure. “For me it was a serious search,” he said. “I’d been turned on to the idea of
+ ~) q& F3 V) Ienlightenment and trying to figure out who I was and how I fit into things.” Kottke adds" I T o1 B& e6 y" [% M) r
that Jobs’s quest seemed driven partly by not knowing his birth parents. “There was a hole" t. C4 F ~0 f# @/ N
in him, and he was trying to fill it.”! i2 D- j8 N ~5 y
! t/ o+ s* z) ]5 K" s; cWhen Jobs told the folks at Atari that he was quitting to go search for a guru in India,& l7 t3 l% Q+ t7 k# f
the jovial Alcorn was amused. “He comes in and stares at me and declares, ‘I’m going to2 h& r) y5 j1 C9 S
find my guru,’ and I say, ‘No shit, that’s super. Write me!’ And he says he wants me to help
5 H" d' q1 q- g. H, k+ ]3 l/ gpay, and I tell him, ‘Bullshit!’” Then Alcorn had an idea. Atari was making kits and
7 T. m3 L9 N2 s. _shipping them to Munich, where they were built into finished machines and distributed by a- r0 ~. d: Q% {# z
wholesaler in Turin. But there was a problem: Because the games were designed for the
6 r: f7 m( f! Q2 v- i* ]8 U" yAmerican rate of sixty frames per second, there were frustrating interference problems in! o1 d8 G4 h$ A. Y8 u5 u! O
Europe, where the rate was fifty frames per second. Alcorn sketched out a fix with Jobs and" c/ \3 N* m0 y: w8 W
then offered to pay for him to go to Europe to implement it. “It’s got to be cheaper to get to/ G! i2 ^: d0 u8 ?
India from there,” he said. Jobs agreed. So Alcorn sent him on his way with the$ o$ v. ~8 `* y
exhortation, “Say hi to your guru for me.”
0 F7 d/ }0 {. T# B6 h$ y$ m
/ Y' t4 }7 d; [1 j2 z0 CJobs spent a few days in Munich, where he solved the interference problem, but in the
; a& C) D( G0 e# y5 qprocess he flummoxed the dark-suited German managers. They complained to Alcorn that" b9 X% @1 h- H
he dressed and smelled like a bum and behaved rudely. “I said, ‘Did he solve the problem?’
. p6 V" e3 [) M sAnd they said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘If you got any more problems, you just call me, I got more
* ]; O* w0 Q; d# w" Q. |guys just like him!’ They said, ‘No, no we’ll take care of it next time.’” For his part, Jobs
( m5 h: V6 x% H$ E& O. {was upset that the Germans kept trying to feed him meat and potatoes. “They don’t even
1 Y. b! G4 r: i1 I/ B: g2 |have a word for vegetarian,” he complained (incorrectly) in a phone call to Alcorn.: K/ d8 @' J4 W! l9 ]7 K
8 T) N5 L! H2 `; CHe had a better time when he took the train to see the distributor in Turin, where the3 h5 M8 z! P& Z t9 R
Italian pastas and his host’s camaraderie were more simpatico. “I had a wonderful couple of
4 i/ {; I' I& T! c' K! n+ ^weeks in Turin, which is this charged-up industrial town,” he recalled. “The distributor
& ? ?6 b# Q0 u6 Atook me every night to dinner at this place where there were only eight tables and no menu.- n* Y$ _% M4 q
You’d just tell them what you wanted, and they made it. One of the tables was on reserve 4 A5 M9 }1 |1 l! U/ L0 p
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3 s8 H- A" k0 E3 {8 ?0 o. r# m1 l/ [) x) d+ f) a' M
& \2 ]0 |9 r0 w6 N1 ffor the chairman of Fiat. It was really super.” He next went to Lugano, Switzerland, where
+ X6 L# U1 i. C) s: ~$ n* N0 Qhe stayed with Friedland’s uncle, and from there took a flight to India.; ~0 y. D+ p% s$ ?7 f8 p
3 l* k1 r; X6 |8 C$ AWhen he got off the plane in New Delhi, he felt waves of heat rising from the tarmac,
4 R. R3 G- U. seven though it was only April. He had been given the name of a hotel, but it was full, so he
" W; f- b5 n) J0 N. k1 uwent to one his taxi driver insisted was good. “I’m sure he was getting some baksheesh,
J! m/ | _- h0 c C' ebecause he took me to this complete dive.” Jobs asked the owner whether the water was
; s7 `- C1 J7 r% E2 N+ m: ufiltered and foolishly believed the answer. “I got dysentery pretty fast. I was sick, really% q5 m" i, A: D
sick, a really high fever. I dropped from 160 pounds to 120 in about a week.”' j- ^( ?9 V* Z
5 Z- @' L# \! q6 [
Once he got healthy enough to move, he decided that he needed to get out of Delhi. So) f) m: c$ }! l8 N% i6 |1 N: k' Y- n
he headed to the town of Haridwar, in western India near the source of the Ganges, which
# d, o8 G+ e3 ~7 ?1 U' S7 H ^8 swas having a festival known as the Kumbh Mela. More than ten million people poured into
: D/ U# Z5 _5 T: y6 Ca town that usually contained fewer than 100,000 residents. “There were holy men all* y( f0 K0 Y# M2 z6 a* m
around. Tents with this teacher and that teacher. There were people riding elephants, you
) b$ r8 Y7 F" Sname it. I was there for a few days, but I decided that I needed to get out of there too.”4 u% ~# M4 c0 v t2 `' p' z
+ `# j+ j$ w* z3 N% u8 u: dHe went by train and bus to a village near Nainital in the foothills of the Himalayas.
" N! g. z, ~; k9 ]That was where Neem Karoli Baba lived, or had lived. By the time Jobs got there, he was$ e3 ?! v- m5 H) T4 N
no longer alive, at least in the same incarnation. Jobs rented a room with a mattress on the7 f- d( H& ?7 Z3 G: n6 Z
floor from a family who helped him recuperate by feeding him vegetarian meals. “There
$ S& |0 u- o4 W1 w7 N4 J3 e; [was a copy there of Autobiography of a Yogi in English that a previous traveler had left,
, o Y& Z( v1 Z8 Kand I read it several times because there was not a lot to do, and I walked around from; V% b* y* Y% Q7 M6 r) M
village to village and recovered from my dysentery.” Among those who were part of the
. [6 {5 b/ C' B' }community there was Larry Brilliant, an epidemiologist who was working to eradicate- h/ R7 {0 }+ v; i- O# z! ?+ d
smallpox and who later ran Google’s philanthropic arm and the Skoll Foundation. He3 T9 y# h/ E' c( T( B
became Jobs’s lifelong friend.6 Y* d+ Y1 b1 }$ I7 @- W6 j
2 V5 j" n l Y6 s6 `3 w5 JAt one point Jobs was told of a young Hindu holy man who was holding a gathering of
H( |8 K, I4 G9 B! zhis followers at the Himalayan estate of a wealthy businessman. “It was a chance to meet a$ w$ n. c0 f% {# V
spiritual being and hang out with his followers, but it was also a chance to have a good
X( d. u; w8 s) G/ K/ U9 ameal. I could smell the food as we got near, and I was very hungry.” As Jobs was eating,, H4 i+ r5 f& d& K9 u7 w
the holy man—who was not much older than Jobs—picked him out of the crowd, pointed
: S: }$ e8 E5 M$ j7 S7 e3 w6 L2 ?at him, and began laughing maniacally. “He came running over and grabbed me and made a
$ e* A7 e; z2 Gtooting sound and said, ‘You are just like a baby,’” recalled Jobs. “I was not relishing this
/ j- U5 H" r: Z, h. Zattention.” Taking Jobs by the hand, he led him out of the worshipful crowd and walked
4 M" k- H1 Z- H5 W6 u0 G) Ihim up to a hill, where there was a well and a small pond. “We sit down and he pulls out9 Q4 A- M! _" W: {
this straight razor. I’m thinking he’s a nutcase and begin to worry. Then he pulls out a bar
; {8 ?+ q! r2 g: Jof soap—I had long hair at the time—and he lathered up my hair and shaved my head. He
* @/ B6 t% u: H# l2 U# z! Ytold me that he was saving my health.”
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Daniel Kottke arrived in India at the beginning of the summer, and Jobs went back to2 R" Q/ f4 d* E+ m! j! d$ _+ f
New Delhi to meet him. They wandered, mainly by bus, rather aimlessly. By this point Jobs6 E+ W) {# G) u( p
was no longer trying to find a guru who could impart wisdom, but instead was seeking - G% t7 [! G( G* ^2 I* i
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enlightenment through ascetic experience, deprivation, and simplicity. He was not able to7 v, E7 z, f, L/ @, W+ X. u/ C9 y" L
achieve inner calm. Kottke remembers him getting into a furious shouting match with a
' R, L% m& o3 F$ i, a1 b$ hHindu woman in a village marketplace who, Jobs alleged, had been watering down the
) [1 Y3 T- Z9 v) y% Hmilk she was selling them.% X2 E8 }& A, n G
5 W1 |) W. X0 o+ T5 I
Yet Jobs could also be generous. When they got to the town of Manali, Kottke’s
8 _& g3 g1 S% E7 D6 jsleeping bag was stolen with his traveler’s checks in it. “Steve covered my food expenses, i0 m+ g3 {: x5 h) g
and bus ticket back to Delhi,” Kottke recalled. He also gave Kottke the rest of his own+ ?! n# g1 `' J3 ^/ H
money, $100, to tide him over.
9 b* S M, `) ^2 `
9 n. G0 r+ w8 d$ w; Z2 LDuring his seven months in India, he had written to his parents only sporadically,. O4 L2 y8 i% \5 P8 Z* {
getting mail at the American Express office in New Delhi when he passed through, and so2 O, C: K/ V, ~2 o( |
they were somewhat surprised when they got a call from the Oakland airport asking them
+ K- C O3 B. J: E% e& Bto pick him up. They immediately drove up from Los Altos. “My head had been shaved, I
5 r. }& t5 U, q* |* dwas wearing Indian cotton robes, and my skin had turned a deep, chocolate brown-red from
& _. y) n+ M; d4 @the sun,” he recalled. “So I’m sitting there and my parents walked past me about five times
7 q& A. x9 m! E- ^9 N: x( P nand finally my mother came up and said ‘Steve?’ and I said ‘Hi!’”
3 C! k6 ? Q5 U; {- ~1 ^" V( ^; f. G7 b9 @& X" N
They took him back home, where he continued trying to find himself. It was a pursuit
7 J p0 c) O( u9 o& Q" \with many paths toward enlightenment. In the mornings and evenings he would meditate
1 F) R- \7 r5 W* gand study Zen, and in between he would drop in to audit physics or engineering courses at$ Q' y) f- W; B! \$ Y* H+ q1 l
Stanford.# Q& E3 k8 Z; X% k$ {
0 E6 f) I1 u7 ^" f+ ]The Search
& t1 m# I' x. l- }( n, n Y5 e* V0 H
Jobs’s interest in Eastern spirituality, Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, and the search for! m2 }' [; d% j, W7 ]/ _
enlightenment was not merely the passing phase of a nineteen-year-old. Throughout his life
9 R2 Y" s) j7 T7 Y, ^8 Ghe would seek to follow many of the basic precepts of Eastern religions, such as the
* [# H! f5 X" O ?$ Z( eemphasis on experiential prajñā, wisdom or cognitive understanding that is intuitively. L$ N6 H8 ]# n5 _9 \5 g( H3 c
experienced through concentration of the mind. Years later, sitting in his Palo Alto garden,1 l+ H8 D! @5 {, m
he reflected on the lasting influence of his trip to India:8 T$ `$ o1 X$ C" D
. r, P, A' L8 P# C+ [
Coming back to America was, for me, much more of a cultural shock than going to4 c8 z. c5 S0 H3 R. X
India. The people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do, they use9 c; n3 N# x- l& T( ~- l6 {& O
their intuition instead, and their intuition is far more developed than in the rest of the world.9 @- m( N# E. x4 b1 u# c# y1 d' Q6 v; p
Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a. `" x% J% [# e4 F
big impact on my work.
0 J; {3 n! V- r6 w V& q3 G6 S- U6 r! @% t& D
Western rational thought is not an innate human characteristic; it is learned and is the4 R D0 Y8 W/ Y
great achievement of Western civilization. In the villages of India, they never learned it.* S; ?2 q2 ]: w5 o6 B5 t
They learned something else, which is in some ways just as valuable but in other ways is
) e P7 v1 w/ i6 \4 z/ Y9 @not. That’s the power of intuition and experiential wisdom. 7 j; C0 Y: w# U7 L9 K4 L* R6 R7 C7 Y
7 Q! b# [5 t& }9 b
D7 B! F+ w, l, M$ v: }$ z( L5 o3 _# E3 _, U* v0 Q+ f0 I$ {
* f- z: O# B, I" Q! M
$ h* L; v1 f4 |' H; H) A6 f, S% k+ f2 d. w$ a9 e$ W3 z2 Z
# c: ]' O: t$ o3 M3 b4 x8 B
7 r* k" d9 Z1 }4 l. G( N' t4 o6 W x% j9 R
Coming back after seven months in Indian villages, I saw the craziness of the Western; G" b! B ^# L
world as well as its capacity for rational thought. If you just sit and observe, you will see
" f7 e: ?1 ?" M3 qhow restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does& {9 x1 E1 u/ C7 n! E& a
calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things—that’s when your intuition
2 K2 f2 R9 L% wstarts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your5 K" m% l. v' S1 m7 L0 h
mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much
" @% w3 @- W( g; z/ nmore than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.
! d! l: Q$ k1 K$ o1 K- q# z8 }
/ H/ X# _! L* W0 \1 A1 U6 n; T! \Zen has been a deep influence in my life ever since. At one point I was thinking about7 [5 g' B0 m$ c N' z
going to Japan and trying to get into the Eihei-ji monastery, but my spiritual advisor urged. _! t; Y7 s! B% ^
me to stay here. He said there is nothing over there that isn’t here, and he was correct. I6 ]& q( v: ]- j7 L+ z& O6 |3 N
learned the truth of the Zen saying that if you are willing to travel around the world to meet
! X/ I) l& e5 L1 Ka teacher, one will appear next door.
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9 K8 U U; |: f8 p8 p/ d: k) C1 {2 y' B& S- v6 [% G
Jobs did in fact find a teacher right in his own neighborhood. Shunryu Suzuki, who
0 {7 I \& @1 Y6 Xwrote Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind and ran the San Francisco Zen Center, used to come to/ T: z) [* y r# p
Los Altos every Wednesday evening to lecture and meditate with a small group of4 y4 q: Z/ u: J9 }# D* R) L
followers. After a while he asked his assistant, Kobun Chino Otogawa, to open a full-time
( A3 M2 W- F. }4 P+ Kcenter there. Jobs became a faithful follower, along with his occasional girlfriend, Chrisann! V }+ ~3 D" F, \& }6 R
Brennan, and Daniel Kottke and Elizabeth Holmes. He also began to go by himself on
6 M" r, C1 G2 a- Iretreats to the Tassajara Zen Center, a monastery near Carmel where Kobun also taught.
( O, ~3 ^8 B1 k9 G8 I5 a7 H
1 b9 J. i" B* N3 D9 ?! D JKottke found Kobun amusing. “His English was atrocious,” he recalled. “He would& q A; `9 ~/ `' J" ^) M
speak in a kind of haiku, with poetic, suggestive phrases. We would sit and listen to him,3 K x' Y7 E( x' W W9 E c" U& o
and half the time we had no idea what he was going on about. I took the whole thing as a# h+ k% c( o6 I9 E% e
kind of lighthearted interlude.” Holmes was more into the scene. “We would go to Kobun’s
; ]* f) u/ |! y Zmeditations, sit on zafu cushions, and he would sit on a dais,” she said. “We learned how to# M; N$ s$ g' x
tune out distractions. It was a magical thing. One evening we were meditating with Kobun* Z* x ~ |( @) `; }) Y: F
when it was raining, and he taught us how to use ambient sounds to bring us back to focus$ r1 g( l- ?( J* o! x( g9 f
on our meditation.”
$ \ R" ~& g9 Z3 ^& E* m
6 U9 `" w/ P* D" I& B$ R8 Z. QAs for Jobs, his devotion was intense. “He became really serious and self-important and
* W: L; Q2 a/ m6 M" ~8 s' ojust generally unbearable,” according to Kottke. He began meeting with Kobun almost
' Z# i7 [, I! [# f3 T3 kdaily, and every few months they went on retreats together to meditate. “I ended up
! ?/ Z3 g9 \5 ], Tspending as much time as I could with him,” Jobs recalled. “He had a wife who was a nurse
; O7 r) M& h& K2 r: @7 L" l: Iat Stanford and two kids. She worked the night shift, so I would go over and hang out with
3 Q" x3 ?; s. F/ L8 y1 ?) `him in the evenings. She would get home about midnight and shoo me away.” They
7 F; m/ U6 ?% I5 d2 d: o( |# bsometimes discussed whether Jobs should devote himself fully to spiritual pursuits, but5 t# y- G) L+ |/ i
Kobun counseled otherwise. He assured Jobs that he could keep in touch with his spiritual( q% J/ J5 ~ n% V* v3 L6 q
side while working in a business. The relationship turned out to be lasting and deep;1 i1 x& V* e E
seventeen years later Kobun would perform Jobs’s wedding ceremony. 1 O# n/ S6 I4 j9 H/ ~# O. @
$ {2 N& o; i, @! p1 g
' c) `& o7 z* S. X& L3 z- F
0 V% ~" S2 W& j( q% ]+ H; ?5 Y: J# V' I7 i
" m0 R4 Q- Y# s1 _0 b( N
Y: |, m8 \5 Y# ]: M @: l- \4 q4 ^8 v' P5 s7 o3 `3 y
- K7 T. ^9 S! t' o
! B/ R' @, u4 R6 v1 Z2 o( \Jobs’s compulsive search for self-awareness also led him to undergo primal scream
5 p2 R `; D- Utherapy, which had recently been developed and popularized by a Los Angeles" V A- b" m9 [: W( `7 N
psychotherapist named Arthur Janov. It was based on the Freudian theory that
- h4 G0 ~1 A- D ^$ q& {psychological problems are caused by the repressed pains of childhood; Janov argued that0 k; R* e! J( J* @" X7 T y
they could be resolved by re-suffering these primal moments while fully expressing the/ D6 d# r1 q3 A
pain—sometimes in screams. To Jobs, this seemed preferable to talk therapy because it
0 ?: ~8 Z$ s6 O A7 C6 Linvolved intuitive feeling and emotional action rather than just rational analyzing. “This
8 s: m- F+ k* Y; awas not something to think about,” he later said. “This was something to do: to close your3 J" S4 R" T. _- K- }
eyes, hold your breath, jump in, and come out the other end more insightful.”
* A) B& l' |5 s! r. O$ v* }+ d/ b/ P* r+ j0 B: N! i- c% _
A group of Janov’s adherents ran a program called the Oregon Feeling Center in an old0 O6 e: g& s% o. P0 D# g8 H
hotel in Eugene that was managed by Jobs’s Reed College guru Robert Friedland, whose
! C0 F- R& S: M- [All One Farm commune was nearby. In late 1974, Jobs signed up for a twelve-week course
1 X/ Y0 P6 W+ Z; J9 }1 Vof therapy there costing $1,000. “Steve and I were both into personal growth, so I wanted
0 Z! g: A; W9 y9 _3 ~; q9 a ?to go with him,” Kottke recounted, “but I couldn’t afford it.”! v$ f. S v0 B
3 j8 p& B5 i0 b! R# M* d( Y
Jobs confided to close friends that he was driven by the pain he was feeling about being" M5 Q2 }7 a o2 b
put up for adoption and not knowing about his birth parents. “Steve had a very profound
/ Q& ?& @$ Y1 V8 e5 w- ~desire to know his physical parents so he could better know himself,” Friedland later said.4 G/ q) H: M3 v( p
He had learned from Paul and Clara Jobs that his birth parents had both been graduate1 M. M1 ?9 s) [7 R
students at a university and that his father might be Syrian. He had even thought about
`3 j& e" D8 e; L% S* V' M" v. Qhiring a private investigator, but he decided not to do so for the time being. “I didn’t want# {6 ^7 j% }' G, m" [" \
to hurt my parents,” he recalled, referring to Paul and Clara.
# u4 A8 t5 B: R' e
/ x0 k- h+ C, V8 U6 f( [; F“He was struggling with the fact that he had been adopted,” according to Elizabeth2 o% [/ ]" v) t0 A# E8 _7 t7 p
Holmes. “He felt that it was an issue that he needed to get hold of emotionally.” Jobs6 N& t1 R5 V' ^1 |
admitted as much to her. “This is something that is bothering me, and I need to focus on it,”% X w* F7 `8 o& t4 s
he said. He was even more open with Greg Calhoun. “He was doing a lot of soul-searching- x, d5 H; O9 t, \0 n5 u
about being adopted, and he talked about it with me a lot,” Calhoun recalled. “The primal# a2 {- {" _* \& H4 f# I" q- k0 z# Y
scream and the mucusless diets, he was trying to cleanse himself and get deeper into his Q; M( N/ ]" E1 Y, U& y
frustration about his birth. He told me he was deeply angry about the fact that he had been& ~) \8 }8 C) w9 i& ^1 T
given up.”
3 s* \. `5 h4 M4 b, \
' s! @: V# j9 a) C9 D CJohn Lennon had undergone the same primal scream therapy in 1970, and in December
8 `! L* j3 t, y8 {2 Vof that year he released the song “Mother” with the Plastic Ono Band. It dealt with
! H5 z& W* P8 q8 }; VLennon’s own feelings about a father who had abandoned him and a mother who had been. |7 b4 `3 @) V7 E: Q5 w$ k5 j
killed when he was a teenager. The refrain includes the haunting chant “Mama don’t go,0 f8 _+ e6 ]" n5 Q. f& ?" A
Daddy come home.” Jobs used to play the song often.
/ E: ^ q3 W4 R. j1 R0 e5 _$ h3 _( P) i! c: r" U1 x
Jobs later said that Janov’s teachings did not prove very useful. “He offered a ready-
3 j( C& k j" e1 @8 @made, buttoned-down answer which turned out to be far too oversimplistic. It became
F8 x9 B: W& i1 J$ k( xobvious that it was not going to yield any great insight.” But Holmes contended that it) B8 f3 {$ }$ k( |$ P4 O
made him more confident: “After he did it, he was in a different place. He had a very - f# c" l! a( @, M" g
4 l) Q0 r( `. O1 E, \
, Y9 ]; U7 z! L/ |: _. M$ n% S- t8 S+ {0 v8 ~, p
. H" V2 M6 P8 U
7 l6 `. Y4 R, d0 h& P# W7 D" M" J+ F7 l
# }! l a/ c+ k! z8 _0 n7 X) D; E$ I8 A3 U5 P* h
n) y9 n2 V( Z; X9 s$ d% s
8 n) [# ~- A: _* `8 Z; Y! x# Tabrasive personality, but there was a peace about him for a while. His confidence improved
. q _/ U- f8 A( Yand his feelings of inadequacy were reduced.”9 n! H" }3 W6 ]7 M% p$ K( o& g% E( n0 q
+ x3 A- l& l+ fJobs came to believe that he could impart that feeling of confidence to others and thus: P/ n7 i' }4 z- v1 r/ X0 a9 I
push them to do things they hadn’t thought possible. Holmes had broken up with Kottke
, ^4 m! ~( ]: zand joined a religious cult in San Francisco that expected her to sever ties with all past
1 Y2 P! w% P( B* l Pfriends. But Jobs rejected that injunction. He arrived at the cult house in his Ford Ranchero
2 N- H1 z( l3 | }- u q* d& n1 tone day and announced that he was driving up to Friedland’s apple farm and she was to5 ~$ X0 _! ^$ \; [
come. Even more brazenly, he said she would have to drive part of the way, even though7 m' {" J q! i
she didn’t know how to use the stick shift. “Once we got on the open road, he made me get
* Z; ~& y) y' X0 Mbehind the wheel, and he shifted the car until we got up to 55 miles per hour,” she recalled.7 {1 e1 U( }3 C* |( M& `/ f/ c
“Then he puts on a tape of Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, lays his head in my lap, and goes
3 y% B* v# n J7 Rto sleep. He had the attitude that he could do anything, and therefore so can you. He put his
L5 `1 B5 h: D- H2 a+ e* z/ glife in my hands. So that made me do something I didn’t think I could do.”
: I7 V& g9 V' |' k9 Q; O
$ B0 G/ h3 |( a% ~' I$ O/ PIt was the brighter side of what would become known as his reality distortion field. “If
# {+ Z! w; c/ }. P6 c; g; ^you trust him, you can do things,” Holmes said. “If he’s decided that something should
9 b, g3 ^1 J3 [" t G7 ^: `& Phappen, then he’s just going to make it happen.”
. P5 \2 e( c, f5 {, j7 Q8 d
1 a. d* t# D T2 D g9 ~1 e. pBreakout) e8 V6 t& I$ _$ h, \
, v7 ]" p+ l6 a( L* f+ n& m6 {) c
One day in early 1975 Al Alcorn was sitting in his office at Atari when Ron Wayne
' f, F" ?% i2 _3 w! W4 bburst in. “Hey, Stevie is back!” he shouted.
' ]" ]3 H3 v1 o9 Y7 @9 d2 c% J& H/ e# }; r, I
“Wow, bring him on in,” Alcorn replied.& \0 t7 B" C! c- [$ l
3 c+ k. O! u8 Y2 @( w' V! l
Jobs shuffled in barefoot, wearing a saffron robe and carrying a copy of Be Here Now,
$ ^ @6 K' l2 A9 @' s- R4 m' vwhich he handed to Alcorn and insisted he read. “Can I have my job back?” he asked.
9 ^% K7 s) X& g+ i1 _( k3 j# s# v
u* z! x7 c+ r1 d+ ~0 F“He looked like a Hare Krishna guy, but it was great to see him,” Alcorn recalled. “So I
$ s/ z5 B$ G- A# d+ C, [/ Dsaid, sure!”! j2 \/ R7 t3 w% N; f$ m4 Y6 e# \
+ B) G: Q. X4 r \, L2 r. k
Once again, for the sake of harmony, Jobs worked mostly at night. Wozniak, who was6 h" L; T+ q2 j3 k8 N8 B; i: T
living in an apartment nearby and working at HP, would come by after dinner to hang out5 N9 r6 r: T8 b( k, ]# j- m
and play the video games. He had become addicted to Pong at a Sunnyvale bowling alley,# `/ z: G( P3 @, ]- e
and he was able to build a version that he hooked up to his home TV set.
+ g8 d5 R' W1 k9 U, d% n
) Q2 Y4 @3 A* L0 MOne day in the late summer of 1975, Nolan Bushnell, defying the prevailing wisdom& {4 z* O" y; Y9 F" I4 y- h
that paddle games were over, decided to develop a single-player version of Pong; instead of
) M+ f2 f* F# |competing against an opponent, the player would volley the ball into a wall that lost a brick
" Y: P% q6 U0 K' n# |: A( |$ J: Fwhenever it was hit. He called Jobs into his office, sketched it out on his little blackboard,4 }* r4 e+ j5 H, W- R# w
and asked him to design it. There would be a bonus, Bushnell told him, for every chip/ Z% ~& f' J S: o
fewer than fifty that he used. Bushnell knew that Jobs was not a great engineer, but he
5 d( Y% {4 U" u+ \+ _- kassumed, correctly, that he would recruit Wozniak, who was always hanging around. “I
% M. M% \9 h: \' |+ z9 \6 elooked at it as a two-for-one thing,” Bushnell recalled. “Woz was a better engineer.” : @& O" D; O8 Z1 g( y
. D3 Y4 }- |% }' b& J. Y& t
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; K# b6 V6 }7 J
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; F9 j6 j( R8 S1 O* C% \
n$ V6 v7 A" N9 \% }+ n+ I( k3 BWozniak was thrilled when Jobs asked him to help and proposed splitting the fee. “This2 E( s( h8 j2 A' B$ I3 G
was the most wonderful offer in my life, to actually design a game that people would use,”& `+ l8 H& J# m
he recalled. Jobs said it had to be done in four days and with the fewest chips possible.
9 ^3 t, U Y+ @4 ?1 h o" WWhat he hid from Wozniak was that the deadline was one that Jobs had imposed, because# E# x2 K( f- e0 i5 Y
he needed to get to the All One Farm to help prepare for the apple harvest. He also didn’t
) ?- P* b2 O9 Z3 G" T2 J U1 Wmention that there was a bonus tied to keeping down the number of chips." g, O' B8 g. G: u* ]1 X$ P9 A
& N% K1 r+ o" E4 f* O
“A game like this might take most engineers a few months,” Wozniak recalled. “I7 v- [: \7 a0 M& Y8 r
thought that there was no way I could do it, but Steve made me sure that I could.” So he
4 n( X$ h1 V3 W8 |2 sstayed up four nights in a row and did it. During the day at HP, Wozniak would sketch out
" y! ?7 Y0 v/ K+ J( L- ghis design on paper. Then, after a fast-food meal, he would go right to Atari and stay all
" `5 p; H( O! u) [* |night. As Wozniak churned out the design, Jobs sat on a bench to his left implementing it8 r3 `, ?$ y0 ?
by wire-wrapping the chips onto a breadboard. “While Steve was breadboarding, I spent
& X6 G: [1 P* Gtime playing my favorite game ever, which was the auto racing game Gran Trak 10,”
- p: J; A3 f2 x0 X" |% UWozniak said.
; Q V3 m& j: s- N5 J, w8 N4 I* i4 P+ J! v! S+ \) ]
Astonishingly, they were able to get the job done in four days, and Wozniak used only
* p$ c5 u. K% F0 Cforty-five chips. Recollections differ, but by most accounts Jobs simply gave Wozniak half
0 _( k D4 q3 zof the base fee and not the bonus Bushnell paid for saving five chips. It would be another
3 U! f. F5 r6 {" l. d3 B7 _ten years before Wozniak discovered (by being shown the tale in a book on the history of# }1 p- ], V* Q+ Q( F/ E
Atari titled Zap) that Jobs had been paid this bonus. “I think that Steve needed the money,
7 B3 x* {! U+ D) z1 ]and he just didn’t tell me the truth,” Wozniak later said. When he talks about it now, there1 |( e2 H$ I. ^! f; z/ R, i
are long pauses, and he admits that it causes him pain. “I wish he had just been honest. If
; x4 D3 I& g3 S2 r: X6 jhe had told me he needed the money, he should have known I would have just given it to2 P/ Q: `6 q. d
him. He was a friend. You help your friends.” To Wozniak, it showed a fundamental4 A8 a& B" Q- ?/ G" K# t* T
difference in their characters. “Ethics always mattered to me, and I still don’t understand% W4 { D/ h, \5 W+ S8 k
why he would’ve gotten paid one thing and told me he’d gotten paid another,” he said.6 ]" }8 b3 F, I
“But, you know, people are different.”
/ i. x9 |1 ^2 o: ~
2 R3 L) ]7 B n9 [: ~, UWhen Jobs learned this story was published, he called Wozniak to deny it. “He told me1 {% W3 _1 ^ M( y m
that he didn’t remember doing it, and that if he did something like that he would remember" |$ v( M4 P; _. @5 d# `) z: @, [
it, so he probably didn’t do it,” Wozniak recalled. When I asked Jobs directly, he became
4 |0 _- `8 u G7 punusually quiet and hesitant. “I don’t know where that allegation comes from,” he said. “I( ^, @) Z" ?, y' o8 V
gave him half the money I ever got. That’s how I’ve always been with Woz. I mean, Woz
2 L; O- e% U) Bstopped working in 1978. He never did one ounce of work after 1978. And yet he got
' e& q4 ?3 X* N- Y0 L, Aexactly the same shares of Apple stock that I did.”
( G. v& M' D4 C8 U4 g5 g. `: a \0 o: d$ k* t8 ^
Is it possible that memories are muddled and that Jobs did not, in fact, shortchange
& D E8 e5 c2 A# T/ CWozniak? “There’s a chance that my memory is all wrong and messed up,” Wozniak told6 j3 U( p3 P# i( d7 g
me, but after a pause he reconsidered. “But no. I remember the details of this one, the $3507 i4 R" F, ?6 N& ~$ V) \
check.” He confirmed his memory with Nolan Bushnell and Al Alcorn. “I remember- t r* N( d2 b5 Y" c* D
talking about the bonus money to Woz, and he was upset,” Bushnell said. “I said yes, there - `& z0 |3 e+ _. P
7 B" N5 `" M0 P3 T* f' {. C
# S9 g0 h0 c" x5 [
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# P+ D" t! a7 g* Z! b, {: Z# Rwas a bonus for each chip they saved, and he just shook his head and then clucked his5 C6 ~& f; _* `/ g
tongue.”
/ b6 I4 i: Y& r) a) |- F% v: k, Y( E& A3 p
Whatever the truth, Wozniak later insisted that it was not worth rehashing. Jobs is a% Z! R3 [* v# D! A
complex person, he said, and being manipulative is just the darker facet of the traits that
) w0 e& l1 t( M" ?make him successful. Wozniak would never have been that way, but as he points out, he3 j) D: r B @' i/ \
also could never have built Apple. “I would rather let it pass,” he said when I pressed the- Z; L% l2 Y T& X1 |7 _' A3 {
point. “It’s not something I want to judge Steve by.”, m& b2 q; L5 C6 e$ g5 |. }; J$ Q# {
" ~/ Y, x( e2 @* cThe Atari experience helped shape Jobs’s approach to business and design. He
6 R5 m) }7 r/ `% |$ w9 y" C* |3 C* vappreciated the user-friendliness of Atari’s insert-quarter-avoid-Klingons games. “That
2 k2 a- h* _' D, W+ g0 \8 lsimplicity rubbed off on him and made him a very focused product person,” said Ron0 g$ Y, Q% [! I9 d
Wayne. Jobs also absorbed some of Bushnell’s take-no-prisoners attitude. “Nolan wouldn’t g: d6 ?) n# y& ~; q8 q! k: x
take no for an answer,” according to Alcorn, “and this was Steve’s first impression of how5 k; \! P( T6 \
things got done. Nolan was never abusive, like Steve sometimes is. But he had the same
7 i& ]3 k+ m" y% ^driven attitude. It made me cringe, but dammit, it got things done. In that way Nolan was a
! s5 \2 Z. u( L4 H; ^" L" Cmentor for Jobs.”
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. [* C! H% _! X4 J6 n' B8 a7 sBushnell agreed. “There is something indefinable in an entrepreneur, and I saw that in. S# p8 c g S2 d$ Q; m
Steve,” he said. “He was interested not just in engineering, but also the business aspects. I9 S& W) C9 [# R. q: g# \
taught him that if you act like you can do something, then it will work. I told him, ‘Pretend
/ j/ O* b0 M( i3 h; K! U' e/ cto be completely in control and people will assume that you are.’”3 b. |9 [6 n ]4 a
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4 b4 `8 S1 I# o' hCHAPTER FIVE4 B9 q8 }. L4 X: w# {' w
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THE APPLE I
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Turn On, Boot Up, Jack In . . . * o# M" i6 {( N
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3 a& o4 H) q1 W! K) O) L+ YDaniel Kottke and Jobs with the Apple I at the Atlantic City computer fair, 1976
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: c: H7 J$ e$ r5 y. u错误!超链接引用无效。) W+ m( b2 ~# C8 M6 h7 b
3 n$ i/ X Y) u0 `8 c1 ?In San Francisco and the Santa Clara Valley during the late 1960s, various cultural currents
4 h& ?0 j- B" z2 E4 y& e+ Qflowed together. There was the technology revolution that began with the growth of" W! B" g7 U5 @' D4 O; t- A- z
military contractors and soon included electronics firms, microchip makers, video game1 R* O: @( W/ @) Z( g3 O
designers, and computer companies. There was a hacker subculture—filled with wireheads,
4 ^0 b+ |; u( l jphreakers, cyberpunks, hobbyists, and just plain geeks—that included engineers who didn’t
* ?" P3 {- c' F2 J7 Y2 A+ Kconform to the HP mold and their kids who weren’t attuned to the wavelengths of the3 {; C! N& @ _$ q4 K* \* U0 P
subdivisions. There were quasi-academic groups doing studies on the effects of LSD;
5 l6 Z j! T3 G. Q" A" e3 N f# Hparticipants included Doug Engelbart of the Augmentation Research Center in Palo Alto,
8 w2 L8 S% C1 b; \& J2 J* lwho later helped develop the computer mouse and graphical user interfaces, and Ken( I1 S: ]5 d8 }5 X- D# R) t" N/ {
Kesey, who celebrated the drug with music-and-light shows featuring a house band that/ R1 W* }7 V' h2 }
became the Grateful Dead. There was the hippie movement, born out of the Bay Area’s; ^ r8 `& I+ `
beat generation, and the rebellious political activists, born out of the Free Speech# ^- ` y' C8 `* m
Movement at Berkeley. Overlaid on it all were various self-fulfillment movements pursuing$ B5 {) f1 }8 H) N( r" ?( J
paths to personal enlightenment: Zen and Hinduism, meditation and yoga, primal scream
( A3 L+ W6 M, j; C% Z* Aand sensory deprivation, Esalen and est.; u3 |( }& l6 L5 c
This fusion of flower power and processor power, enlightenment and technology, was
9 V5 G# o" v& R0 \1 T% Y9 _: o! y2 I- uembodied by Steve Jobs as he meditated in the mornings, audited physics classes at; ^ V/ J4 t- f( |5 I
Stanford, worked nights at Atari, and dreamed of starting his own business. “There was just+ b: A& M$ j' b4 y. K) G( c# _) I
something going on here,” he said, looking back at the time and place. “The best music
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0 `6 V3 \" E" mcame from here—the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin—and so x+ _) r, ?& w% {6 f2 Y, a! w, f
did the integrated circuit, and things like the Whole Earth Catalog.”4 y3 _3 Q" l! S+ w' a3 M" P
Initially the technologists and the hippies did not interface well. Many in the
# ?1 `2 \, c) s1 scounterculture saw computers as ominous and Orwellian, the province of the Pentagon and: i: `. R( g- d7 d9 g) j
the power structure. In The Myth of the Machine, the historian Lewis Mumford warned that
, b0 r9 g: F( u! w' dcomputers were sucking away our freedom and destroying “life-enhancing values.” An
# Q& o' P) Y2 q, e9 U8 Dinjunction on punch cards of the period—“Do not fold, spindle or mutilate”—became an, ?7 v. x6 K: L/ M) Q# J
ironic phrase of the antiwar Left.1 R6 H& H8 Z H' d
But by the early 1970s a shift was under way. “Computing went from being dismissed as [1 S# P: A9 ]1 `. c( f; j4 R
a tool of bureaucratic control to being embraced as a symbol of individual expression and( o3 N; G# _+ e
liberation,” John Markoff wrote in his study of the counterculture’s convergence with the
6 C$ g& `5 c5 Z D! Ecomputer industry, What the Dormouse Said. It was an ethos lyrically expressed in Richard9 u, k. k" _/ F
Brautigan’s 1967 poem, “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace,” and the$ o" J/ E: U/ b9 P
cyberdelic fusion was certified when Timothy Leary declared that personal computers had
2 T# }5 j; ?) k$ u% }# P7 ebecome the new LSD and years later revised his famous mantra to proclaim, “Turn on, boot
5 R. R, o4 A. u+ ~up, jack in.” The musician Bono, who later became a friend of Jobs, often discussed with
' c# c% W' M3 g1 w" mhim why those immersed in the rock-drugs-rebel counterculture of the Bay Area ended up0 E' _0 p+ z9 H7 w3 n
helping to create the personal computer industry. “The people who invented the twenty-first
P3 u; G7 {3 c7 L$ H. n3 P Icentury were pot-smoking, sandal-wearing hippies from the West Coast like Steve, because
) i' ` y+ v2 _/ t: s8 J1 Wthey saw differently,” he said. “The hierarchical systems of the East Coast, England,
! \' G2 Y3 j1 tGermany, and Japan do not encourage this different thinking. The sixties produced an
; o; |/ X" C$ e2 uanarchic mind-set that is great for imagining a world not yet in existence.”
, z- ]7 U# s+ U4 c% `- v* tOne person who encouraged the denizens of the counterculture to make common cause
) }& g& B7 A1 z- V( Fwith the hackers was Stewart Brand. A puckish visionary who generated fun and ideas over
4 g( `: F7 b- L8 {many decades, Brand was a participant in one of the early sixties LSD studies in Palo Alto.
& p: n1 C1 G. _2 vHe joined with his fellow subject Ken Kesey to produce the acid-celebrating Trips Festival,
}) R q d/ r+ k" k% c3 eappeared in the opening scene of Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and worked& u- }% G; J& d- X1 j
with Doug Engelbart to create a seminal sound-and-light presentation of new technologies
* R, ?1 x+ s, ^1 r9 o5 {called the Mother of All Demos. “Most of our generation scorned computers as the1 r+ ?6 a+ U- a
embodiment of centralized control,” Brand later noted. “But a tiny contingent—later called
5 [& s, T. Y1 n. |5 Z5 w ?6 |5 \hackers—embraced computers and set about transforming them into tools of liberation.# d! L% G( R# b, \3 ~' u1 ~
That turned out to be the true royal road to the future.”+ r5 Q& w$ R( B; w: W* ]0 [
Brand ran the Whole Earth Truck Store, which began as a roving truck that sold useful
8 e& }. ?6 T; mtools and educational materials, and in 1968 he decided to extend its reach with the Whole
2 } ?& @2 Y" r6 T' Q* ^Earth Catalog. On its first cover was the famous picture of Earth taken from space; its
8 V/ p/ R' Z5 {( {subtitle was “Access to Tools.” The underlying philosophy was that technology could be
% t. _) l8 o- R. j8 ]/ L( i3 X* Tour friend. Brand wrote on the first page of the first edition, “A realm of intimate, personal5 V5 X3 k$ y* L! M- \
power is developing—power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own
) W b, n. f* e. o2 }/ U* Tinspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested.# c7 i7 Q. m1 J- m. A
Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted by the Whole Earth Catalog.”
; A: B) N3 p; e4 G: B, U7 qBuckminster Fuller followed with a poem that began: “I see God in the instruments and; R: y4 @! O7 y5 ^
mechanisms that work reliably.” 3 V+ h8 A a9 T ]' j; J1 A# Z
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! d+ j# m- g9 H" k! C! pJobs became a Whole Earth fan. He was particularly taken by the final issue, which came
: s2 X% f4 k4 m/ x% N- ]out in 1971, when he was still in high school, and he brought it with him to college and
5 q! }& p! k% `% z$ T( tthen to the All One Farm. “On the back cover of their final issue” Jobs recalled, “was a8 ?- G2 ]' `; Z& k" z7 R( ?
photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking
# {5 d1 Y) ~: @8 u8 eon if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: ‘Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.’”
0 i" U! e& w3 z# F; n) ABrand sees Jobs as one of the purest embodiments of the cultural mix that the catalog9 R7 `. y7 G5 b3 j
sought to celebrate. “Steve is right at the nexus of the counterculture and technology,” he
+ K/ W% x7 K5 K% `! O" asaid. “He got the notion of tools for human use.”. ^. j# G/ E# a) a) ?
Brand’s catalog was published with the help of the Portola Institute, a foundation+ c4 M n: w9 `
dedicated to the fledgling field of computer education. The foundation also helped launch, k3 a8 _' T0 _; s/ S4 ^, Y) c6 j
the People’s Computer Company, which was not a company at all but a newsletter and0 y- t7 M* I: i9 ~3 _& ^) d
organization with the motto “Computer power to the people.” There were occasional- A) @# c: l0 t
Wednesday-night potluck dinners, and two of the regulars, Gordon French and Fred Moore,
! |6 h/ E/ b/ [, n4 {2 wdecided to create a more formal club where news about personal electronics could be
A! v# M8 j- z( d7 zshared.
7 H% u e5 B0 }8 AThey were energized by the arrival of the January 1975 issue of Popular Mechanics,
, ?7 H3 [) l% M4 Ewhich had on its cover the first personal computer kit, the Altair. The Altair wasn’t much—$ I) _9 i* }. o8 z
just a $495 pile of parts that had to be soldered to a board that would then do little—but for1 G4 p, P; o6 T/ M7 O7 I9 A) L) v
hobbyists and hackers it heralded the dawn of a new era. Bill Gates and Paul Allen read the
3 Z) B; c# C+ w7 ]( I& Gmagazine and started working on a version of BASIC, an easy-to-use programming" a% |5 Y- J! @8 m, ?
language, for the Altair. It also caught the attention of Jobs and Wozniak. And when an
( c3 P6 H+ I5 CAltair kit arrived at the People’s Computer Company, it became the centerpiece for the first
3 H6 [: v y2 N. G) r1 r4 {meeting of the club that French and Moore had decided to launch.0 u/ M& b$ P5 n1 k& g& S ^7 A
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The group became known as the Homebrew Computer Club, and it encapsulated the Whole
# Z) d! a1 k. _8 G7 ^. W( hEarth fusion between the counterculture and technology. It would become to the personal
2 L1 `/ I7 y$ [/ @" Hcomputer era something akin to what the Turk’s Head coffeehouse was to the age of Dr.
0 F+ [, [( ?! V% x+ {Johnson, a place where ideas were exchanged and disseminated. Moore wrote the flyer for7 J+ _* F8 M- R4 I8 m: M5 R4 x
the first meeting, held on March 5, 1975, in French’s Menlo Park garage: “Are you
; ?4 D& r/ G; c2 Z" a( Fbuilding your own computer? Terminal, TV, typewriter?” it asked. “If so, you might like to8 j9 B( e9 V3 @- y, V
come to a gathering of people with like-minded interests.”3 b) g( g+ b7 {, E! @3 {
Allen Baum spotted the flyer on the HP bulletin board and called Wozniak, who agreed
) g5 C) f6 J8 G0 c5 Y( [, n. w/ R+ ]to go with him. “That night turned out to be one of the most important nights of my life,”. a9 W' l. x4 B, u1 e4 t0 W
Wozniak recalled. About thirty other people showed up, spilling out of French’s open9 k5 `* k$ l6 K$ k x5 L) ~, K
garage door, and they took turns describing their interests. Wozniak, who later admitted to
# n% d( }9 Q3 U0 r c9 c- v8 Abeing extremely nervous, said he liked “video games, pay movies for hotels, scientific3 W" F; E( c) [# D% C
calculator design, and TV terminal design,” according to the minutes prepared by Moore.
3 K) Y! D' I7 {There was a demonstration of the new Altair, but more important to Wozniak was seeing& A0 G, n3 Q% S. b# c
the specification sheet for a microprocessor.0 p/ y/ s) W% }; |) t& d3 b9 Y; y
As he thought about the microprocessor—a chip that had an entire central processing6 {. U1 B; ^) J9 p, r1 B
unit on it—he had an insight. He had been designing a terminal, with a keyboard and . q# k/ R& V, A2 @$ r
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* P3 Z, D) r8 t+ Q% K: zmonitor, that would connect to a distant minicomputer. Using a microprocessor, he could! N I+ i% }) c9 u9 m' O
put some of the capacity of the minicomputer inside the terminal itself, so it could become
$ C* m2 d4 t* m7 p3 T8 f% M; |( `& ~a small stand-alone computer on a desktop. It was an enduring idea: keyboard, screen, and F$ t- B9 H, i/ c
computer all in one integrated personal package. “This whole vision of a personal computer. _# s9 o+ l m4 o5 q: k
just popped into my head,” he said. “That night, I started to sketch out on paper what would7 g8 b1 |& [ ?5 ^, E4 B, `0 W
later become known as the Apple I.”7 Q" [: y: [ |6 X0 m, `! Q* u
At first he planned to use the same microprocessor that was in the Altair, an Intel 8080.2 v$ Y; g5 ~1 Z* H5 ^
But each of those “cost almost more than my monthly rent,” so he looked for an alternative.
. p+ E1 c. x/ _& IHe found one in the Motorola 6800, which a friend at HP was able to get for $40 apiece.& a; S( L; K/ y6 M' ^
Then he discovered a chip made by MOS Technologies that was electronically the same but5 p; ]: z* F# `5 Y
cost only $20. It would make his machine affordable, but it would carry a long-term cost.6 @3 t; g( I. X# U }4 r
Intel’s chips ended up becoming the industry standard, which would haunt Apple when its
' ]2 _$ N4 d0 }# ucomputers were incompatible with it." K7 Y2 f, Q8 g/ t. T5 }8 s
After work each day, Wozniak would go home for a TV dinner and then return to HP to0 Q8 c% d( m8 J2 r: w! s
moonlight on his computer. He spread out the parts in his cubicle, figured out their
6 d6 [( K7 `1 g, d( ]; {% Eplacement, and soldered them onto his motherboard. Then he began writing the software! M- ?- s7 O5 L% H
that would get the microprocessor to display images on the screen. Because he could not! e" b; t+ ^% Q; c I5 `
afford to pay for computer time, he wrote the code by hand. After a couple of months he
V. |% u9 M( Z% X6 awas ready to test it. “I typed a few keys on the keyboard and I was shocked! The letters. u* q7 i0 k3 X" l: |. Z" G
were displayed on the screen.” It was Sunday, June 29, 1975, a milestone for the personal* Q$ {5 m. z, T( I- v' ?
computer. “It was the first time in history,” Wozniak later said, “anyone had typed a
3 d! ^" B7 t4 i Z* N3 Ucharacter on a keyboard and seen it show up on their own computer’s screen right in front
# `- t4 V$ Q+ D7 j5 Eof them.”
' _! G, K& y2 v2 aJobs was impressed. He peppered Wozniak with questions: Could the computer ever be
3 {) ?. K! I! H( }networked? Was it possible to add a disk for memory storage? He also began to help Woz/ X4 f5 ]6 g, u
get components. Particularly important were the dynamic random-access memory chips.
9 l# }3 ?/ Y. hJobs made a few calls and was able to score some from Intel for free. “Steve is just that sort
$ o! d7 [, W/ D- Rof person,” said Wozniak. “I mean, he knew how to talk to a sales representative. I could! Z: K$ Y5 U2 E' p7 |1 o
never have done that. I’m too shy.”
% k0 r. S i- [Jobs began to accompany Wozniak to Homebrew meetings, carrying the TV monitor and" [, [% O' `1 }1 G( r
helping to set things up. The meetings now attracted more than one hundred enthusiasts and
" O& d; A1 R7 h o+ E+ K$ Bhad been moved to the auditorium of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Presiding+ U, R" E* k$ g4 x& e0 J7 i
with a pointer and a free-form manner was Lee Felsenstein, another embodiment of the' E- U: j+ A2 m
merger between the world of computing and the counterculture. He was an engineering' T g1 I3 s7 Q' R4 b, C! j; _
school dropout, a participant in the Free Speech Movement, and an antiwar activist. He had3 a3 P* y$ B7 W, D" C+ w) r# [% V- x
written for the alternative newspaper Berkeley Barb and then gone back to being a' Z! D1 M9 I @- P! l' R
computer engineer., _5 b$ k% s) Y! X: v
Woz was usually too shy to talk in the meetings, but people would gather around his/ D. I5 Q3 O- h
machine afterward, and he would proudly show off his progress. Moore had tried to instill- n- q: h$ ^% T
in the Homebrew an ethos of swapping and sharing rather than commerce. “The theme of
" D8 }) ?$ V7 x9 ^; g9 jthe club,” Woz said, “was ‘Give to help others.’” It was an expression of the hacker ethic
) T. q J5 M% {( P3 X( dthat information should be free and all authority mistrusted. “I designed the Apple I
# N$ `, s# I* K& V# Obecause I wanted to give it away for free to other people,” said Wozniak. 0 V' m: p- F! F3 Z I- c
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, r; H+ E, Z8 D6 Z( I+ f# J9 CThis was not an outlook that Bill Gates embraced. After he and Paul Allen had
1 S. I5 J* [1 icompleted their BASIC interpreter for the Altair, Gates was appalled that members of the7 B! j p$ | _, q: D+ h7 N
Homebrew were making copies of it and sharing it without paying him. So he wrote what o% c& ^% l9 Q. t- ?) a. v
would become a famous letter to the club: “As the majority of hobbyists must be aware,4 {6 Z+ k2 K3 Q8 ?# d
most of you steal your software. Is this fair? . . . One thing you do is prevent good software
' ]9 i" z, s O5 I- p/ z+ L' sfrom being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? . . . I would
6 |* N8 s c6 T% m ~4 nappreciate letters from anyone who wants to pay up.”7 u4 B! u, V/ Q
Steve Jobs, similarly, did not embrace the notion that Wozniak’s creations, be it a Blue% A7 m% s7 J9 ?7 V5 @
Box or a computer, wanted to be free. So he convinced Wozniak to stop giving away copies* n) V$ z0 H3 L R
of his schematics. Most people didn’t have time to build it themselves anyway, Jobs1 n- S4 V& b% U: n; r
argued. “Why don’t we build and sell printed circuit boards to them?” It was an example of- w3 D: [: E i9 B
their symbiosis. “Every time I’d design something great, Steve would find a way to make
' s' I1 u1 V2 u- ^3 N" R7 U' Z* ~. s: Rmoney for us,” said Wozniak. Wozniak admitted that he would have never thought of doing
4 j Q1 U# V+ ]. Q" X3 c/ cthat on his own. “It never crossed my mind to sell computers. It was Steve who said, ‘Let’s+ r* `- C3 g/ a# u0 H, w% z) w- t
hold them in the air and sell a few.’”
" Z8 w' y, `5 h2 OJobs worked out a plan to pay a guy he knew at Atari to draw the circuit boards and then7 C2 G$ R" i8 M/ c
print up fifty or so. That would cost about $1,000, plus the fee to the designer. They could N4 X. D; l8 z) v+ X" k' n7 c# x
sell them for $40 apiece and perhaps clear a profit of $700. Wozniak was dubious that they
3 O6 p; t+ H' ncould sell them all. “I didn’t see how we would make our money back,” he recalled. He
' {$ R7 G! S6 S! }; J+ Ywas already in trouble with his landlord for bouncing checks and now had to pay each+ |! j% Z) B" U4 s4 {& T8 G. |1 O
month in cash., S S4 j5 j" }5 a$ Z. W' w* y
Jobs knew how to appeal to Wozniak. He didn’t argue that they were sure to make9 @/ p1 B# |# t9 u, L
money, but instead that they would have a fun adventure. “Even if we lose our money,
+ T) w. B0 V: [ `8 l3 Zwe’ll have a company,” said Jobs as they were driving in his Volkswagen bus. “For once in$ E/ s$ e. g0 J' a) c& [5 N
our lives, we’ll have a company.” This was enticing to Wozniak, even more than any
4 I5 ]! x* e# k& J9 _1 Eprospect of getting rich. He recalled, “I was excited to think about us like that. To be two
8 ^# X9 _. g0 A' f7 Jbest friends starting a company. Wow. I knew right then that I’d do it. How could I not?”3 x; X0 R# G' d$ a4 P- {: I' w, }
In order to raise the money they needed, Wozniak sold his HP 65 calculator for $500,
- S- E7 f, D; a8 Q/ z+ Wthough the buyer ended up stiffing him for half of that. For his part, Jobs sold his3 M; C# s4 Y4 R3 v" E; E( Z, l
Volkswagen bus for $1,500. But the person who bought it came to find him two weeks later/ Z' G+ ?9 H2 M g, T: X/ R
and said the engine had broken down, and Jobs agreed to pay for half of the repairs.
# t* m9 i0 e' W$ c. C ZDespite these little setbacks, they now had, with their own small savings thrown in, about8 O# f+ u; w K0 F6 y1 s; |
$1,300 in working capital, the design for a product, and a plan. They would start their own
; ~! @. j0 }. T# O) `: }$ [7 dcomputer company.
' @2 n# {/ i3 ~
M- R) h5 S7 f, M错误!超链接引用无效。0 Q$ T. Q) Q5 l/ ]) |& c
$ M3 b" T* J9 L2 J/ t; INow that they had decided to start a business, they needed a name. Jobs had gone for
, I3 u& P1 F" e' zanother visit to the All One Farm, where he had been pruning the Gravenstein apple trees,. y! u' ^8 F/ i5 r
and Wozniak picked him up at the airport. On the ride down to Los Altos, they bandied
/ \) O$ i9 E9 v$ laround options. They considered some typical tech words, such as Matrix, and some, c& d, ^0 e0 m$ k
neologisms, such as Executek, and some straightforward boring names, like Personal
; f/ |' i B! D. Z1 KComputers Inc. The deadline for deciding was the next day, when Jobs wanted to start - M9 C, D1 N2 D. o6 V6 Q+ Z
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