|
college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my
4 m7 g; v& \8 V2 n6 U. Vparents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work
1 S7 s$ x% N* @: h, Zout okay.”
0 e; M5 V& i4 o5 z- L G/ Z! o: M, J4 S. v
He didn’t actually want to leave Reed; he just wanted to quit paying tuition and taking
9 F- g8 {' ?/ ]. iclasses that didn’t interest him. Remarkably, Reed tolerated that. “He had a very inquiring# T0 Z5 H/ A1 i# F- u
mind that was enormously attractive,” said the dean of students, Jack Dudman. “He refused% ?" w% H, O, A/ k" r$ F
to accept automatically received truths, and he wanted to examine everything himself.”
5 G$ [. _) `- K/ q8 q) U0 y* pDudman allowed Jobs to audit classes and stay with friends in the dorms even after he
3 G8 W/ c& `. Ustopped paying tuition.: n! |1 C- Z- j: |: E2 Y
, m5 V3 U9 z, M: \
“The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest2 m7 `$ W& _: E8 Z- s
me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting,” he said. Among them was a' d. i# j7 G" m: |) ^
calligraphy class that appealed to him after he saw posters on campus that were beautifully- l; ?4 G; A0 Q9 H
drawn. “I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space
* e0 h8 u+ ^9 g- s7 p8 Ebetween different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was
. C# `5 ?% A* ?beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it
# k: `: m: p5 Cfascinating.”0 ?1 a' T# ^1 H
* M6 x5 v# |2 H( V+ y, y0 ~
It was yet another example of Jobs consciously positioning himself at the intersection
2 {9 b& j1 ~( }2 Iof the arts and technology. In all of his products, technology would be married to great! a5 Y ^3 p: g) C; e) V9 j' w
design, elegance, human touches, and even romance. He would be in the fore of pushing
) B! l+ \, r, U: b8 | [friendly graphical user interfaces. The calligraphy course would become iconic in that
" Q( k( l0 b+ M+ |2 oregard. “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have
0 p8 @0 f- [ M& b# |never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just$ J+ h6 r4 P/ G3 p+ Y- Q
copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them.”- _& q+ o+ @7 H6 E% G, y% N
# ]: N9 ?0 k C3 F# m) EIn the meantime Jobs eked out a bohemian existence on the fringes of Reed. He went
1 c& G3 f P6 Q/ H; Ebarefoot most of the time, wearing sandals when it snowed. Elizabeth Holmes made meals+ ?3 K9 S6 S5 a9 Y* H
for him, trying to keep up with his obsessive diets. He returned soda bottles for spare
: ?2 H, N1 u, Q# Z. W. V: ^change, continued his treks to the free Sunday dinners at the Hare Krishna temple, and* Y3 m4 W- ~( E2 j( E
wore a down jacket in the heatless garage apartment he rented for $20 a month. When he0 k: j6 l3 T9 E: g, ~
needed money, he found work at the psychology department lab maintaining the electronic- `9 S# U N T2 w& r
equipment that was used for animal behavior experiments. Occasionally Chrisann Brennan$ B3 l, i6 t5 N% N9 G) ~
would come to visit. Their relationship sputtered along erratically. But mostly he tended to
' } J/ k9 l l) z9 t9 othe stirrings of his own soul and personal quest for enlightenment.
8 H& ^+ J; X7 `4 h- N$ v( \: ]
$ @) h' O$ V$ p7 c8 @6 n7 }/ c# R. `' D
9 y1 t- `, u( Y4 i$ g" B. x+ x& A; b; a( K! p' v
“I came of age at a magical time,” he reflected later. “Our consciousness was raised by
' _. p$ H! E6 vZen, and also by LSD.” Even later in life he would credit psychedelic drugs for making
x5 |& Y6 H% ]. t/ khim more enlightened. “Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important
0 C0 x! \$ c% Dthings in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t
( T- o# Z) _7 q- b5 [$ fremember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was " C" Q9 W; [0 r, ~$ Z" R% ^" h j3 L t
6 V; @6 q3 T7 \5 w. o
- t$ H& b# [' r2 r6 c& i/ V6 t
4 k2 N& X! {/ S, h
) g. W2 l$ ]1 K. j8 L
8 V! U8 u* R* r) ~
" `5 ^" ?6 Y" [0 ~6 ^$ t Z* a' Q( m0 E* n$ _
* e. e( m' g9 x; u5 A; u7 ?
9 s- V/ H2 Q( x$ P: c, J& h0 \7 Uimportant—creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the- k% q' `0 t6 S+ {: B( I6 Y& m2 R
stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.”* i. L8 f+ n( o7 C$ M5 E
) ~$ v! N: s& t+ J. w( W& i. W- G
( ?6 H/ V( \. [$ |) [4 F" A; I5 q1 u* S- T; K, @8 U/ V- A- E+ u! q
# f' Y4 a' S: _. P6 A# _+ \
. m6 \" T0 Z9 pCHAPTER FOUR& w# h$ l" T/ J; \ \: ^1 d
0 r: V$ }, c+ G
$ Q1 \" z6 _$ J! D
2 B# v6 v" T# ]ATARI AND INDIA' }) g1 m+ _. `; Q( _
+ _4 a" E/ W) S( d
z4 G$ p" c2 p+ q4 V& v
$ H- q. p) D, P7 Q6 v3 t
+ h' q% N5 @- D% d( F7 \& z% g6 fZen and the Art of Game Design
3 K* }# H! H$ h- C( Z* b& i# U2 a+ `4 x! ^/ Y
5 K4 o' r+ Q0 a( E
# r: m+ d w+ D- E& ]; Y: S1 H% f- ~" \. R
Atari
" n' Q1 Q" i! |( T4 e' ^' o% m# X4 L/ p0 s0 m
In February 1974, after eighteen months of hanging around Reed, Jobs decided to move/ G7 Z# y( Y. G( Q
back to his parents’ home in Los Altos and look for a job. It was not a difficult search. At" j" z& c; [% V. G; J6 d
peak times during the 1970s, the classified section of the San Jose Mercury carried up to4 \' T) R. a+ L' ^4 g
sixty pages of technology help-wanted ads. One of those caught Jobs’s eye. “Have fun,
& A2 i4 {8 A; K3 {/ Q* V" mmake money,” it said. That day Jobs walked into the lobby of the video game manufacturer; e7 w) }& \; R/ N
Atari and told the personnel director, who was startled by his unkempt hair and attire, that% `: M$ t9 |( f6 j f) _+ x% q7 Q
he wouldn’t leave until they gave him a job.% X; M5 R3 z4 l8 z$ q* g. t, U* l# I
% g3 {; D" k- V
Atari’s founder was a burly entrepreneur named Nolan Bushnell, who was a charismatic
: ~) K3 Q. M% ]/ l5 V4 Tvisionary with a nice touch of showmanship in him—in other words, another role model
3 ]. n. @( H dwaiting to be emulated. After he became famous, he liked driving around in a Rolls,
; X. O+ \& R8 xsmoking dope, and holding staff meetings in a hot tub. As Friedland had done and as Jobs5 E* g+ ]8 |6 A1 d4 H: ^
would learn to do, he was able to turn charm into a cunning force, to cajole and intimidate3 F) h) P* L! D5 Z3 \' |* J0 {
and distort reality with the power of his personality. His chief engineer was Al Alcorn,! l- _& z! |4 k' {5 H% Y! N% @& p! e
beefy and jovial and a bit more grounded, the house grown-up trying to implement the7 v4 ^, g$ u! M3 g4 b! m* U
vision and curb the enthusiasms of Bushnell. Their big hit thus far was a video game called
5 F6 h& M/ x/ X8 a1 E& l' X/ V* KPong, in which two players tried to volley a blip on a screen with two movable lines that" U G$ G y6 {; V8 q
acted as paddles. (If you’re under thirty, ask your parents.)
: n3 v# N! K* Z; s3 a' N" ]* v8 u
% P, q5 a. `, C/ p2 M5 fWhen Jobs arrived in the Atari lobby wearing sandals and demanding a job, Alcorn was
' o4 |1 K/ p1 K; I, ithe one who was summoned. “I was told, ‘We’ve got a hippie kid in the lobby. He says he’s
% |4 S1 C, s& }1 mnot going to leave until we hire him. Should we call the cops or let him in?’ I said bring- G- a2 @4 I0 H2 v" v
him on in!”' Y- d6 o5 Y* s( {) b4 y
5 h% W; s5 J: M$ X" H, T! }: uJobs thus became one of the first fifty employees at Atari, working as a technician for: n9 S9 {; C% y' L4 t
$5 an hour. “In retrospect, it was weird to hire a dropout from Reed,” Alcorn recalled. “But
1 C: b- o1 {) {; I/ @7 r! T& P1 X9 Z8 Q
) R; H" `2 A+ H3 r) C2 T( ~% n4 U
& Y3 z. V9 R* @6 m+ V4 ^! c( P" x5 j; x$ r
# e9 u$ [7 l8 C# j/ E' q
& s" i4 [/ _. t d2 H/ E
3 p# M' c- E" x3 Z
9 G8 @1 A" p7 e7 ~% w8 J4 t
5 N* f" E' Y5 a$ N7 Z! ]I saw something in him. He was very intelligent, enthusiastic, excited about tech.” Alcorn2 S! n2 ]+ y4 k6 K6 o3 h5 l
assigned him to work with a straitlaced engineer named Don Lang. The next day Lang+ I4 @) B( [$ X% W5 w/ b
complained, “This guy’s a goddamn hippie with b.o. Why did you do this to me? And he’s# P$ C1 P, o2 G( L
impossible to deal with.” Jobs clung to the belief that his fruit-heavy vegetarian diet would( x& h: D9 M( n, }
prevent not just mucus but also body odor, even if he didn’t use deodorant or shower/ L [- s1 l& t2 ?$ K9 u( u
regularly. It was a flawed theory.! j9 r, f) Y* x$ R' X/ {( s
% C" g' `( o, o5 ^: d1 D0 L9 B1 zLang and others wanted to let Jobs go, but Bushnell worked out a solution. “The smell
$ k: D- O9 S# t( \and behavior wasn’t an issue with me,” he said. “Steve was prickly, but I kind of liked him.% g3 Y0 a) R8 ?1 K* ^6 Z
So I asked him to go on the night shift. It was a way to save him.” Jobs would come in after
0 l+ x6 \1 g5 ~5 {Lang and others had left and work through most of the night. Even thus isolated, he became
0 [# N0 R) B% x: A. Q! H7 q7 Yknown for his brashness. On those occasions when he happened to interact with others, he$ T+ E. y2 `; s, W2 n) a
was prone to informing them that they were “dumb shits.” In retrospect, he stands by that
9 e; o6 d3 T" o6 e+ D! q. \judgment. “The only reason I shone was that everyone else was so bad,” Jobs recalled.
7 Z/ P3 p5 K) w% o9 d# x- D; B
% j, i7 ~. g6 H& FDespite his arrogance (or perhaps because of it) he was able to charm Atari’s boss. “He
0 l9 H- Q5 G5 X! x; k dwas more philosophical than the other people I worked with,” Bushnell recalled. “We used
) Z# Y) L8 m6 p! lto discuss free will versus determinism. I tended to believe that things were much more/ E. m H- e# s8 ~4 h$ z
determined, that we were programmed. If we had perfect information, we could predict# P# O* K1 @4 I, T6 U
people’s actions. Steve felt the opposite.” That outlook accorded with his faith in the power4 J# f6 J0 |* Y
of the will to bend reality.
1 t! G3 w3 S' D
% K1 R" {" A5 \8 yJobs helped improve some of the games by pushing the chips to produce fun designs,
$ h6 |7 e$ e \" R: Oand Bushnell’s inspiring willingness to play by his own rules rubbed off on him. In
2 ]/ B% `& X/ L4 \% D8 caddition, he intuitively appreciated the simplicity of Atari’s games. They came with no& i$ A+ C$ k2 F' @# e
manual and needed to be uncomplicated enough that a stoned freshman could figure them
- w% P7 o: X) O. uout. The only instructions for Atari’s Star Trek game were “1. Insert quarter. 2. Avoid3 G3 Z6 n. r6 d: u: ^
Klingons.”4 p- |0 T% ?* `9 E3 X
2 E9 t6 x5 s& \6 C7 A. zNot all of his coworkers shunned Jobs. He became friends with Ron Wayne, a- }6 M) R' V7 e( s
draftsman at Atari, who had earlier started a company that built slot machines. It; n. M$ z% I# k5 C- \$ n
subsequently failed, but Jobs became fascinated with the idea that it was possible to start. H" C( `0 C/ k1 x
your own company. “Ron was an amazing guy,” said Jobs. “He started companies. I had
- T2 p" ^8 a$ Y0 b. Snever met anybody like that.” He proposed to Wayne that they go into business together;
' ` v( M' R1 `Jobs said he could borrow $50,000, and they could design and market a slot machine. But
' u. ~' `, ~5 S" ~+ b" x: NWayne had already been burned in business, so he declined. “I said that was the quickest
1 I) d1 a1 h$ N! Q6 O: Pway to lose $50,000,” Wayne recalled, “but I admired the fact that he had a burning drive to6 {# j% d4 @. O. P
start his own business.”
- y" b' Z% N( F Q# J$ \
6 t& l3 a+ F E7 d, @- [: D8 W8 FOne weekend Jobs was visiting Wayne at his apartment, engaging as they often did in$ l D z7 j" C. w; z6 ]6 M9 w
philosophical discussions, when Wayne said that there was something he needed to tell3 _) |5 q7 f6 B4 U! R r
him. “Yeah, I think I know what it is,” Jobs replied. “I think you like men.” Wayne said; C. u$ Z7 `3 K
yes. “It was my first encounter with someone who I knew was gay,” Jobs recalled. “He
3 k' v. ~1 |" @. Hplanted the right perspective of it for me.” Jobs grilled him: “When you see a beautiful / m% v! ^* j5 c6 u
' Y3 A" z& }$ D3 V) |& X \& G7 P3 j* H. G
9 O% h2 w! V: g) Z
( f( R8 {$ U( Z9 V3 S# g* l, ~# o6 A: }& Z3 F
8 f" L, R: V: ?3 b% ?0 y1 G- S: ~8 G0 M) @0 @, Y
$ L# a4 r- j9 y1 `9 |
/ j$ c6 P. t" C
woman, what do you feel?” Wayne replied, “It’s like when you look at a beautiful horse.+ ^" t b, U! W, T$ _$ W$ w
You can appreciate it, but you don’t want to sleep with it. You appreciate beauty for what it7 K4 @- ?$ N8 A: x
is.” Wayne said that it is a testament to Jobs that he felt like revealing this to him. “Nobody
, i) ^ L5 L1 ?1 g0 N0 f: z6 bat Atari knew, and I could count on my toes and fingers the number of people I told in my
$ Y6 Q: \# s8 l7 x5 K1 V ^4 rwhole life. But I guess it just felt right to tell him, that he would understand, and it didn’t" W/ q3 ~: k+ m) n
have any effect on our relationship.”; Z* C0 X( W* F0 d/ ?$ T
. M3 ?$ D- m3 d; z
India/ j2 n+ X+ A* ~# v
1 _: |2 p# e& S) m, G' I( kOne reason Jobs was eager to make some money in early 1974 was that Robert0 p" `" J% q) ~7 M
Friedland, who had gone to India the summer before, was urging him to take his own( y# o) l# Y$ y" G5 e" J) c# p
spiritual journey there. Friedland had studied in India with Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaj-ji),! ^/ t7 ~# [2 _2 S/ @9 T
who had been the guru to much of the sixties hippie movement. Jobs decided he should do
2 e( |/ g$ L# Y! Z( H$ uthe same, and he recruited Daniel Kottke to go with him. Jobs was not motivated by mere
" k/ M; N, R% iadventure. “For me it was a serious search,” he said. “I’d been turned on to the idea of
, R4 f$ G+ ?$ z% s/ O# M' C) aenlightenment and trying to figure out who I was and how I fit into things.” Kottke adds1 j% Y& l( @8 \' N6 E
that Jobs’s quest seemed driven partly by not knowing his birth parents. “There was a hole. t) Q/ t. U" ~6 c, |; I1 o
in him, and he was trying to fill it.”; T; z( s9 ]6 v1 O( D2 E: T# X- L1 P
6 y) @4 L' J5 m1 U: c
When Jobs told the folks at Atari that he was quitting to go search for a guru in India,% U' v3 x8 u+ p/ u! ~7 d3 k, b
the jovial Alcorn was amused. “He comes in and stares at me and declares, ‘I’m going to
* W" m0 l& `! B- M' ~6 B6 L# _find my guru,’ and I say, ‘No shit, that’s super. Write me!’ And he says he wants me to help
. K4 ^7 ^9 a* h- E3 v x/ J/ upay, and I tell him, ‘Bullshit!’” Then Alcorn had an idea. Atari was making kits and
# O- y' n' a- _. b; Hshipping them to Munich, where they were built into finished machines and distributed by a" Y1 a' V8 K0 p8 X2 x: ~; W
wholesaler in Turin. But there was a problem: Because the games were designed for the
/ ~9 c8 }$ R0 n0 ]& R$ g xAmerican rate of sixty frames per second, there were frustrating interference problems in1 {+ R0 l' q+ K9 F: g
Europe, where the rate was fifty frames per second. Alcorn sketched out a fix with Jobs and
: G4 X. r. r7 N6 F/ q' xthen offered to pay for him to go to Europe to implement it. “It’s got to be cheaper to get to. t! N8 C( ], P2 U
India from there,” he said. Jobs agreed. So Alcorn sent him on his way with the
+ e" `/ e+ Z. h4 l, c2 I1 Yexhortation, “Say hi to your guru for me.”
7 C% n4 I! C9 i: B
3 H0 K' m( V- eJobs spent a few days in Munich, where he solved the interference problem, but in the* {9 M% K$ t2 T! _1 O
process he flummoxed the dark-suited German managers. They complained to Alcorn that
! |# O$ }0 d9 u4 U1 K2 w6 fhe dressed and smelled like a bum and behaved rudely. “I said, ‘Did he solve the problem?’
+ F! p+ |( _8 lAnd they said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘If you got any more problems, you just call me, I got more
7 H7 `5 p! V7 Oguys just like him!’ They said, ‘No, no we’ll take care of it next time.’” For his part, Jobs* V1 [8 n1 c% e3 r4 L) A8 [8 N# y" ?
was upset that the Germans kept trying to feed him meat and potatoes. “They don’t even
6 u) z0 u" @! yhave a word for vegetarian,” he complained (incorrectly) in a phone call to Alcorn.
; P5 Q: S3 P5 ]5 Y
8 I6 [" A- X( D, b9 N8 tHe had a better time when he took the train to see the distributor in Turin, where the# B4 m4 z4 W; S
Italian pastas and his host’s camaraderie were more simpatico. “I had a wonderful couple of4 Q2 t+ {( F; e! D: `
weeks in Turin, which is this charged-up industrial town,” he recalled. “The distributor
. p* J! l6 N$ G. [% |/ Btook me every night to dinner at this place where there were only eight tables and no menu.
& _% H. i2 \5 EYou’d just tell them what you wanted, and they made it. One of the tables was on reserve
" ?6 \9 ?/ C& I& s, ^1 [
9 T( c" {# x6 w9 O
( T( y4 ^5 V/ E5 P
; @* E8 G7 E# @, l3 V+ L- i( a( H" D+ R* r! m9 R' [" N
6 {, s( v! D) @' X4 k# M1 s
6 U8 X( d8 }) O z* V X0 X3 R6 A6 |5 a
; u ]! V ~* N- `; a3 H
2 z2 Y& u$ E9 d8 K
for the chairman of Fiat. It was really super.” He next went to Lugano, Switzerland, where
# p1 H: L# m# i- a: B* @he stayed with Friedland’s uncle, and from there took a flight to India." p# n2 H( k, V- [
$ d8 W2 e. ?1 ~3 j& I
When he got off the plane in New Delhi, he felt waves of heat rising from the tarmac," S2 L0 Z, I( W/ D9 |- H
even though it was only April. He had been given the name of a hotel, but it was full, so he0 j; E% f |2 X7 p w }. J6 J0 t
went to one his taxi driver insisted was good. “I’m sure he was getting some baksheesh,& J) ]# x1 H1 Y: @" E" ^
because he took me to this complete dive.” Jobs asked the owner whether the water was* _& t# `( N& J. i" L# O
filtered and foolishly believed the answer. “I got dysentery pretty fast. I was sick, really( D# z8 y* B' {4 |% V, l' L9 `
sick, a really high fever. I dropped from 160 pounds to 120 in about a week.”
- W1 [1 W/ I; U& u% |$ w
5 t- ^6 V$ \# L" M) BOnce he got healthy enough to move, he decided that he needed to get out of Delhi. So
9 \6 t3 D6 B h$ a. Y0 nhe headed to the town of Haridwar, in western India near the source of the Ganges, which
% B8 Z) n7 w5 A5 {2 W1 Zwas having a festival known as the Kumbh Mela. More than ten million people poured into8 F! E. o4 j- B
a town that usually contained fewer than 100,000 residents. “There were holy men all8 R0 _ K$ \8 {, Y1 Y5 B
around. Tents with this teacher and that teacher. There were people riding elephants, you
9 S% V" ]: _5 M3 v; s! oname it. I was there for a few days, but I decided that I needed to get out of there too.”
/ @6 X, P. [' G. f, c2 X) o( b2 d; s% \' I% C
He went by train and bus to a village near Nainital in the foothills of the Himalayas.( w3 z+ C$ S }7 p, j* q1 ?
That was where Neem Karoli Baba lived, or had lived. By the time Jobs got there, he was: }: y. M" ]/ K4 ?8 i! N) e) w% L5 a
no longer alive, at least in the same incarnation. Jobs rented a room with a mattress on the
) E8 w* S6 J" Tfloor from a family who helped him recuperate by feeding him vegetarian meals. “There, `# w6 Z0 p1 {2 w' u' f% a
was a copy there of Autobiography of a Yogi in English that a previous traveler had left,/ `4 U o# u' r/ S4 o
and I read it several times because there was not a lot to do, and I walked around from7 R n9 E4 Z5 s
village to village and recovered from my dysentery.” Among those who were part of the0 f" K( Z3 s6 Z
community there was Larry Brilliant, an epidemiologist who was working to eradicate+ o8 Y9 ?6 p/ r. d
smallpox and who later ran Google’s philanthropic arm and the Skoll Foundation. He
0 Q/ z7 S8 Y y% ^: s9 H* Zbecame Jobs’s lifelong friend.+ d6 ~5 X1 `- x: d) Q+ e4 I7 E0 K
; r1 N/ @- ~7 _! TAt one point Jobs was told of a young Hindu holy man who was holding a gathering of
0 I+ R6 ?$ [" _% [+ @- d; Jhis followers at the Himalayan estate of a wealthy businessman. “It was a chance to meet a
# |2 s) h) K# nspiritual being and hang out with his followers, but it was also a chance to have a good
& e& y; E) S( o( jmeal. I could smell the food as we got near, and I was very hungry.” As Jobs was eating," @- P J3 B1 p
the holy man—who was not much older than Jobs—picked him out of the crowd, pointed
+ i' c% f, W; k9 [: i& k' U' Aat him, and began laughing maniacally. “He came running over and grabbed me and made a
+ M |) Q) \. k. rtooting sound and said, ‘You are just like a baby,’” recalled Jobs. “I was not relishing this+ f6 J1 A8 c: p
attention.” Taking Jobs by the hand, he led him out of the worshipful crowd and walked. ]5 e1 |8 |5 \1 }& |
him up to a hill, where there was a well and a small pond. “We sit down and he pulls out" J' e3 y0 N3 v: v+ }# ?+ W1 z
this straight razor. I’m thinking he’s a nutcase and begin to worry. Then he pulls out a bar
- A. ^; M* o7 kof soap—I had long hair at the time—and he lathered up my hair and shaved my head. He i% y3 y: M* L0 D/ F5 E
told me that he was saving my health.”/ J6 v4 ^/ B3 u
5 b. z* J. d/ [2 m Z! B
Daniel Kottke arrived in India at the beginning of the summer, and Jobs went back to
' [3 U$ \! j z! O6 ~: U TNew Delhi to meet him. They wandered, mainly by bus, rather aimlessly. By this point Jobs
+ A6 U' u% k# y- \/ cwas no longer trying to find a guru who could impart wisdom, but instead was seeking
/ h5 a3 i. H# N* e3 A1 P
2 b, w8 U( O ~/ h( [1 j4 b* R5 w1 A+ Y
$ O: C& A: _. e$ [+ u8 P6 p9 }0 ^
' Y. L( {1 k. J. K( D, q4 L
' c( F( W$ x% m5 U G* c- h' g |7 l
3 ], g; B7 C0 a# [4 d5 A7 `
6 L$ C4 U5 h' Y# o
4 G% u" Y0 b9 p6 U4 Z4 g
& B7 E5 a$ K) Z. _. l
enlightenment through ascetic experience, deprivation, and simplicity. He was not able to
* l- Z j# J" U8 @( ?- ] h+ _achieve inner calm. Kottke remembers him getting into a furious shouting match with a
4 I/ X2 |# t+ z" vHindu woman in a village marketplace who, Jobs alleged, had been watering down the
2 R7 P+ l9 G2 ?) l: f" gmilk she was selling them.
1 g# P4 h) w- d3 w/ N% K
3 W3 Z" Q# ^; F/ b$ \Yet Jobs could also be generous. When they got to the town of Manali, Kottke’s
4 ^4 s' D, n* R) R2 Ssleeping bag was stolen with his traveler’s checks in it. “Steve covered my food expenses
( o' B4 Q" ~, p. cand bus ticket back to Delhi,” Kottke recalled. He also gave Kottke the rest of his own+ f8 D9 c% s' j3 K/ t4 T
money, $100, to tide him over.
* [: Z9 Q6 |, H% T7 O0 K Y: r
. G8 ~( I) i* J5 v8 F" z4 Z8 LDuring his seven months in India, he had written to his parents only sporadically,
! K4 H8 q; j0 h( s6 kgetting mail at the American Express office in New Delhi when he passed through, and so
3 [' h, U0 u# W V6 v7 Fthey were somewhat surprised when they got a call from the Oakland airport asking them9 z9 M0 `2 f- D4 n7 S
to pick him up. They immediately drove up from Los Altos. “My head had been shaved, I
! a/ B5 A' D+ nwas wearing Indian cotton robes, and my skin had turned a deep, chocolate brown-red from
/ g9 y. M5 O+ g3 A. S% t4 Ethe sun,” he recalled. “So I’m sitting there and my parents walked past me about five times$ M8 Y- X2 S) @4 C9 X
and finally my mother came up and said ‘Steve?’ and I said ‘Hi!’”
+ @, L7 {, w5 i* j1 Z( m! r4 A6 Z$ i& e( N; \# _6 E& ~' s3 f$ e
They took him back home, where he continued trying to find himself. It was a pursuit" @) B& O. ^, k3 B9 N& v# D' E
with many paths toward enlightenment. In the mornings and evenings he would meditate
2 t' W9 U' R% z# ^; uand study Zen, and in between he would drop in to audit physics or engineering courses at$ u% A1 \7 P: P$ \3 e
Stanford.; h4 \# J1 n1 \- g) t; E
6 I$ o8 e' ?, [$ v% B2 ^; E; S E
The Search
% E; i2 k3 f# }1 S
9 R; z$ y& P4 M1 _' e4 pJobs’s interest in Eastern spirituality, Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, and the search for+ Q2 [- N0 F' d% s( N& Q _5 a4 {
enlightenment was not merely the passing phase of a nineteen-year-old. Throughout his life! N- ?1 m9 E4 N# O: e* r6 q
he would seek to follow many of the basic precepts of Eastern religions, such as the6 ?5 J7 {3 |, Q- e+ ~+ N) i
emphasis on experiential prajñā, wisdom or cognitive understanding that is intuitively; K! p4 ^- d" q" {- h4 f- g
experienced through concentration of the mind. Years later, sitting in his Palo Alto garden,
9 t. T' ]% j* i+ m) O$ r1 hhe reflected on the lasting influence of his trip to India:- _& T' L9 v( c& {% K" P( [
' ]' [4 i+ f+ i4 N+ l+ ]5 yComing back to America was, for me, much more of a cultural shock than going to
& H3 p& D6 o0 h* J' nIndia. The people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do, they use5 d" u' i4 t% ]3 y
their intuition instead, and their intuition is far more developed than in the rest of the world.
d- o: g" m8 l# A0 `) q' w. uIntuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a- D2 A" u( J1 y. g e# @
big impact on my work.' U0 Y% ?5 w0 N; e( Y
4 b, _+ @) d( Y7 b! oWestern rational thought is not an innate human characteristic; it is learned and is the
$ ]% P+ z6 r. [. o n2 Q$ o' Sgreat achievement of Western civilization. In the villages of India, they never learned it.+ D3 f m* ?# B# X( V1 X* |6 f& U/ P
They learned something else, which is in some ways just as valuable but in other ways is F) b+ U3 z% C" x& O
not. That’s the power of intuition and experiential wisdom. # [; g- M+ \; [. b! k, _6 C8 Z6 n
( H2 s1 K% [6 K( F# H0 A, }# Y. M# l
0 Y( a( G/ z- J! ?( z- I4 L9 S/ K3 \7 I& C- }4 C: S
[( e. r! F# N6 X" y6 J! p' ^
5 r7 x7 O9 t3 `& n4 G' l- `
% V6 O: R/ n( ^' k
7 Y8 I4 E% f: g' s4 q
5 ~- m( N) M1 u% B4 n7 s" i, g$ ^: U0 h, W0 V9 l0 C0 M
Coming back after seven months in Indian villages, I saw the craziness of the Western) g6 {# g* `4 n$ p, U: T
world as well as its capacity for rational thought. If you just sit and observe, you will see" @+ Z. ?: \! a( k& l1 o8 d ]2 G7 N
how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does
% C+ w: Z9 H# s; B5 r& h6 @calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things—that’s when your intuition+ B3 z1 L6 Q7 S! D
starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your
8 n' P0 d6 ~, r: e7 ]% y6 Mmind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much* V/ T2 Z7 M+ B" {3 r, @% d
more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.
3 h' W$ A2 A6 J, y9 C6 _4 Q' o1 M+ Y" K/ T$ i ]' q6 ]
Zen has been a deep influence in my life ever since. At one point I was thinking about
2 I$ N% e6 \4 o# h, {3 q$ e' z* V8 Wgoing to Japan and trying to get into the Eihei-ji monastery, but my spiritual advisor urged
' e* o7 u4 m; {! B' e2 Ume to stay here. He said there is nothing over there that isn’t here, and he was correct. I# f' h4 Z3 S' n3 ~8 z5 h( w
learned the truth of the Zen saying that if you are willing to travel around the world to meet! i% [; L/ w# ?. m
a teacher, one will appear next door.6 B( ?0 n" T0 Q* M
4 t6 [# i6 L* x. }( |9 s Z- d9 b! P1 f z" N. k
- g |' t; N4 ^) r9 L' H6 h' l8 P) q3 f+ \7 e0 L
Jobs did in fact find a teacher right in his own neighborhood. Shunryu Suzuki, who
3 J1 b4 W% Q& F, X/ c3 qwrote Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind and ran the San Francisco Zen Center, used to come to$ s' @- {0 C9 Y6 p2 {/ k# x
Los Altos every Wednesday evening to lecture and meditate with a small group of3 Z8 V6 W, Y2 s/ o- t/ J
followers. After a while he asked his assistant, Kobun Chino Otogawa, to open a full-time# v' T! @7 Q) p, }; N q* D
center there. Jobs became a faithful follower, along with his occasional girlfriend, Chrisann
, \8 M2 Z& H4 S) r: dBrennan, and Daniel Kottke and Elizabeth Holmes. He also began to go by himself on+ W. x/ _: H( q/ I
retreats to the Tassajara Zen Center, a monastery near Carmel where Kobun also taught.2 ]8 r X9 w% Z& S+ \, Z
$ l" ]2 @7 w& l' X
Kottke found Kobun amusing. “His English was atrocious,” he recalled. “He would" d) B3 d+ @+ J8 Q
speak in a kind of haiku, with poetic, suggestive phrases. We would sit and listen to him,
& M4 F% b. m& e# Tand half the time we had no idea what he was going on about. I took the whole thing as a& j2 k* j; I& \. R; \6 Y b
kind of lighthearted interlude.” Holmes was more into the scene. “We would go to Kobun’s
$ T- Y" p# I$ _1 V, I2 {; V0 bmeditations, sit on zafu cushions, and he would sit on a dais,” she said. “We learned how to0 Y, ]) [0 n% {4 n# ?3 q" }' ]
tune out distractions. It was a magical thing. One evening we were meditating with Kobun7 J, Y& [. F; k- u1 A# {
when it was raining, and he taught us how to use ambient sounds to bring us back to focus. C# |- U1 t# Z9 @; h+ J# Y1 ^
on our meditation.”
2 v/ L) Y$ `% w# U! Z
% H6 j/ H( q2 b \% @1 D9 ^4 qAs for Jobs, his devotion was intense. “He became really serious and self-important and/ }8 q4 T& P- B9 j0 {2 ?* |7 R
just generally unbearable,” according to Kottke. He began meeting with Kobun almost# Z7 {, r, {& J" J- D% X: g
daily, and every few months they went on retreats together to meditate. “I ended up
: {9 D" e4 ~ O. s D' x {spending as much time as I could with him,” Jobs recalled. “He had a wife who was a nurse
: w+ R# |9 O& w; Q; }6 Pat Stanford and two kids. She worked the night shift, so I would go over and hang out with( Z6 D% v' Z" z Q
him in the evenings. She would get home about midnight and shoo me away.” They+ K; l) k9 x) h0 G$ O1 w6 J. O+ d
sometimes discussed whether Jobs should devote himself fully to spiritual pursuits, but+ f8 r! K M4 L
Kobun counseled otherwise. He assured Jobs that he could keep in touch with his spiritual2 r, {6 r/ ^& R2 r0 G+ x5 D
side while working in a business. The relationship turned out to be lasting and deep;
/ Z% P! n; M5 F4 ~4 hseventeen years later Kobun would perform Jobs’s wedding ceremony.
+ v7 O' M: B3 t6 d- Q$ i3 ]1 V+ T6 F1 h
' Q7 I7 E! S9 ~2 x4 c" F( j g& A9 p% X4 M3 I# C' ^$ r# X& I R8 b
2 W8 _0 C) h1 L! ~/ D4 v
& e" f% M) A4 v9 D$ _6 |/ P% B8 j; G! ?' S8 m) P K3 F
' x A$ ]* D8 h7 k5 D+ u0 i& b: Q
& }% n$ S- E* T! N: e. `6 d( i
7 h0 X0 ~' ] K1 y% C7 m+ EJobs’s compulsive search for self-awareness also led him to undergo primal scream7 f: ]) P& X4 |, p& \
therapy, which had recently been developed and popularized by a Los Angeles
M. G! g; M! d/ t# K; ^& ]0 Apsychotherapist named Arthur Janov. It was based on the Freudian theory that) \; Z4 r" C$ k' Y9 C
psychological problems are caused by the repressed pains of childhood; Janov argued that
0 Q- O* t8 X# y8 a, Q- ]! Kthey could be resolved by re-suffering these primal moments while fully expressing the- X% s- m& N7 G5 K" a: {# p X% W
pain—sometimes in screams. To Jobs, this seemed preferable to talk therapy because it
0 e; c* X7 {) v" ^involved intuitive feeling and emotional action rather than just rational analyzing. “This& w# t1 U! N: o6 p9 [
was not something to think about,” he later said. “This was something to do: to close your2 X/ E1 \7 N7 P, b, D# t' z
eyes, hold your breath, jump in, and come out the other end more insightful.”* M: ]# S' T$ h, |! X
: T# ]; o) A/ H! CA group of Janov’s adherents ran a program called the Oregon Feeling Center in an old
; J. X& W; I- ~ [# Zhotel in Eugene that was managed by Jobs’s Reed College guru Robert Friedland, whose
- ]0 p, H4 E5 ], u+ A, ~+ nAll One Farm commune was nearby. In late 1974, Jobs signed up for a twelve-week course( R7 v$ S" n h6 f2 l4 a
of therapy there costing $1,000. “Steve and I were both into personal growth, so I wanted
$ O2 V0 W. @; [' r! Yto go with him,” Kottke recounted, “but I couldn’t afford it.”# Z; f! R: y- {
! ?2 t Q8 N9 d3 A4 G
Jobs confided to close friends that he was driven by the pain he was feeling about being
; M: k/ O& o- ~! [. }put up for adoption and not knowing about his birth parents. “Steve had a very profound' h9 [( R5 M1 Q* W" V0 T9 {
desire to know his physical parents so he could better know himself,” Friedland later said.! Z* ~' l8 l8 J- m! Q, Q% H
He had learned from Paul and Clara Jobs that his birth parents had both been graduate1 I3 {2 V- E/ ]& \" @4 _8 d( C
students at a university and that his father might be Syrian. He had even thought about
! u5 B3 y3 `2 q6 Shiring a private investigator, but he decided not to do so for the time being. “I didn’t want. K2 X& N/ u2 C: F5 B0 a
to hurt my parents,” he recalled, referring to Paul and Clara.
9 C8 ~- o9 v' W4 X: L' K
% P: Z2 i, H: j“He was struggling with the fact that he had been adopted,” according to Elizabeth
: `9 V6 P' ?/ O2 ~Holmes. “He felt that it was an issue that he needed to get hold of emotionally.” Jobs
; F6 U: r, l$ b1 y, N) N. kadmitted as much to her. “This is something that is bothering me, and I need to focus on it,”
' a6 @4 K0 f4 L, Whe said. He was even more open with Greg Calhoun. “He was doing a lot of soul-searching9 i6 l, `+ @& c, ]9 M3 w
about being adopted, and he talked about it with me a lot,” Calhoun recalled. “The primal
! r5 ]- `- E; b- i( B! {' o3 tscream and the mucusless diets, he was trying to cleanse himself and get deeper into his
" d& o2 n u! nfrustration about his birth. He told me he was deeply angry about the fact that he had been' k0 x# [) Y k
given up.”
( N$ j4 i Z8 i( A1 _' s
# w/ F& Z% p# j* T) JJohn Lennon had undergone the same primal scream therapy in 1970, and in December
/ U' W* _0 e/ {; P: Rof that year he released the song “Mother” with the Plastic Ono Band. It dealt with* k. Y- i3 B4 x4 Y( w2 [
Lennon’s own feelings about a father who had abandoned him and a mother who had been4 ?$ }6 J# i) x3 A' v' o: \
killed when he was a teenager. The refrain includes the haunting chant “Mama don’t go,
+ N- V: Z8 l; ?* H3 p2 J! F+ L& WDaddy come home.” Jobs used to play the song often.7 V; I# [# C7 O5 P/ k* b9 I/ r
2 d& W! K! i9 p2 m' Q9 \7 n
Jobs later said that Janov’s teachings did not prove very useful. “He offered a ready-
# w& d* U( m5 j$ {made, buttoned-down answer which turned out to be far too oversimplistic. It became
- |2 b; h; s; E. Y9 v& V) k) C% d( robvious that it was not going to yield any great insight.” But Holmes contended that it/ I# C4 Y4 r: ]1 T1 L
made him more confident: “After he did it, he was in a different place. He had a very
- U" o) D o. C$ t0 M& O4 x5 a a0 x$ E! w
4 L+ ?$ [( o- i* _. q5 O- Q c+ j- d3 n0 I" |
1 f) E2 P: i$ |# q0 z9 M- U, c# k+ y+ x% P0 t) b8 T
9 {; }* ]3 s% p# J# A8 k/ M7 ?! v! A/ Q
' W; R8 a' m9 ^) Y) u. @ Z% [% F5 y8 M. h6 R4 |. J
& U9 N2 m* w+ Iabrasive personality, but there was a peace about him for a while. His confidence improved0 h3 M5 ?3 Q8 H9 d2 Z" D; y* b
and his feelings of inadequacy were reduced.”
$ F k. F% t8 H2 W4 X
1 w7 D+ U5 p) |/ ~" J) a9 F- J, vJobs came to believe that he could impart that feeling of confidence to others and thus
5 }- D4 U9 o8 k3 I& P+ |( v5 Qpush them to do things they hadn’t thought possible. Holmes had broken up with Kottke2 F% G5 {0 @' a& X
and joined a religious cult in San Francisco that expected her to sever ties with all past) e2 B$ r0 |% }& {
friends. But Jobs rejected that injunction. He arrived at the cult house in his Ford Ranchero
+ }3 p5 k( ?2 B8 qone day and announced that he was driving up to Friedland’s apple farm and she was to
# h. `* `( R( B& icome. Even more brazenly, he said she would have to drive part of the way, even though, L0 i2 [6 X) `, s5 K& Q
she didn’t know how to use the stick shift. “Once we got on the open road, he made me get; i! i7 r. A& y/ ]- V
behind the wheel, and he shifted the car until we got up to 55 miles per hour,” she recalled.
5 o# [* `& r* O3 A) a% o6 K4 g+ l“Then he puts on a tape of Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, lays his head in my lap, and goes
8 V( j$ i. ~+ U0 S+ {8 a5 Qto sleep. He had the attitude that he could do anything, and therefore so can you. He put his
# [$ m/ W. X3 Y! slife in my hands. So that made me do something I didn’t think I could do.”0 @6 o) y+ h0 {+ k; V
- \( s% J% @' v: p3 xIt was the brighter side of what would become known as his reality distortion field. “If
2 |6 q' u2 B3 \6 O7 s; hyou trust him, you can do things,” Holmes said. “If he’s decided that something should
3 D( k8 U$ g( y! `happen, then he’s just going to make it happen.”
3 a' {5 K4 e* w/ g
/ _0 m, T$ @: s" w$ o' yBreakout0 c* d: B4 k+ n# P6 K
& S$ H, X' j) j$ j L! LOne day in early 1975 Al Alcorn was sitting in his office at Atari when Ron Wayne
" d D$ r7 X G* w/ ~! Mburst in. “Hey, Stevie is back!” he shouted.6 m, y+ P$ g2 a8 v& d
% D6 Y4 T) i n% |$ [9 M
“Wow, bring him on in,” Alcorn replied.
9 X1 ?5 i0 k! A
) O7 G! _3 g% o) H( \5 {Jobs shuffled in barefoot, wearing a saffron robe and carrying a copy of Be Here Now,
3 M- J, E) [# F! [2 v iwhich he handed to Alcorn and insisted he read. “Can I have my job back?” he asked. [3 C1 C$ W) T: x( ]
5 h8 s- o& X4 L C8 `& @( l) `
“He looked like a Hare Krishna guy, but it was great to see him,” Alcorn recalled. “So I
( H! S0 v x, l! W; M. Bsaid, sure!”
) d1 i( x2 x% J& G& w3 A3 X1 H& V/ v. P# ], q8 i
Once again, for the sake of harmony, Jobs worked mostly at night. Wozniak, who was& w% J9 S) L2 `) _& V! h
living in an apartment nearby and working at HP, would come by after dinner to hang out
' k2 I, Q) l, s% C( i: Aand play the video games. He had become addicted to Pong at a Sunnyvale bowling alley,! Q" \2 Y7 U" O. w2 G9 } j x/ A
and he was able to build a version that he hooked up to his home TV set.
6 H* H# ~* E4 ?! q4 g( |" a
3 _$ {' N1 o3 V5 j3 M SOne day in the late summer of 1975, Nolan Bushnell, defying the prevailing wisdom) j1 x9 ?5 c+ B# Y8 B0 _9 ~7 B% c
that paddle games were over, decided to develop a single-player version of Pong; instead of% n0 X0 k" G1 X7 k
competing against an opponent, the player would volley the ball into a wall that lost a brick
l; `# L1 ]+ x' ~whenever it was hit. He called Jobs into his office, sketched it out on his little blackboard,
) m/ M: T5 S0 Y3 C oand asked him to design it. There would be a bonus, Bushnell told him, for every chip0 q5 |; V; W0 q0 i9 e) a
fewer than fifty that he used. Bushnell knew that Jobs was not a great engineer, but he, h1 J1 ~1 c4 D, } g
assumed, correctly, that he would recruit Wozniak, who was always hanging around. “I/ J9 r1 Z0 S7 u
looked at it as a two-for-one thing,” Bushnell recalled. “Woz was a better engineer.”
9 t. W7 G+ G5 _2 w
, I7 N2 ?; Q9 v3 [5 [) \6 t: _8 @
3 h" k# a Q) ^5 v" R5 U/ H8 t0 @! T% y
9 z1 R! y1 P& C6 B+ r6 e) a/ e
% T+ {- r$ j$ M( ^: J- m0 C$ }" ?3 m, C5 @2 B2 o
0 `2 {- u9 K5 y/ I1 | e6 G5 s; \
9 m% G3 Z9 O% f. I3 }2 |% [! p: ^: l, T8 @: L
Wozniak was thrilled when Jobs asked him to help and proposed splitting the fee. “This
; i$ ]8 r1 B/ E, y5 Nwas the most wonderful offer in my life, to actually design a game that people would use,”
4 E, D7 }. Y* P7 j2 phe recalled. Jobs said it had to be done in four days and with the fewest chips possible.
" _8 S4 z; a7 \What he hid from Wozniak was that the deadline was one that Jobs had imposed, because
! q$ p0 V' O& Mhe needed to get to the All One Farm to help prepare for the apple harvest. He also didn’t
0 ]" O* V' o' H8 X5 Ymention that there was a bonus tied to keeping down the number of chips.
& _1 B2 y( F8 z; M8 q$ ~5 Y
! O: M: _, j: R( i“A game like this might take most engineers a few months,” Wozniak recalled. “I
2 D( q4 E! G! W1 l. Mthought that there was no way I could do it, but Steve made me sure that I could.” So he
3 M8 W/ S( w" W Sstayed up four nights in a row and did it. During the day at HP, Wozniak would sketch out
" Y) c" c* q4 R& r0 E' b1 ]" W+ t& jhis design on paper. Then, after a fast-food meal, he would go right to Atari and stay all/ X( n- H: G1 I* S' n
night. As Wozniak churned out the design, Jobs sat on a bench to his left implementing it
/ T4 R2 E, t" B7 X! e$ Lby wire-wrapping the chips onto a breadboard. “While Steve was breadboarding, I spent
$ q. w# K6 W' x* R9 ]) g2 Ptime playing my favorite game ever, which was the auto racing game Gran Trak 10,”
- }' A# q" u6 r! W7 f$ N; _Wozniak said.
h1 _6 r) ?' u" o1 D; Y1 }6 ], ^( @* |* i* U2 R# f0 r
Astonishingly, they were able to get the job done in four days, and Wozniak used only
, b, d* Q, w9 Y& {" A) s" m' T2 cforty-five chips. Recollections differ, but by most accounts Jobs simply gave Wozniak half5 }) {' _& D8 P1 N8 m% D
of the base fee and not the bonus Bushnell paid for saving five chips. It would be another
' M; E; M$ B; B5 l( |& yten years before Wozniak discovered (by being shown the tale in a book on the history of$ {2 G- Q3 T, e0 I& G
Atari titled Zap) that Jobs had been paid this bonus. “I think that Steve needed the money,0 {; g9 u# l! ~6 f" J
and he just didn’t tell me the truth,” Wozniak later said. When he talks about it now, there
b' G( [/ ?, P; s ~7 jare long pauses, and he admits that it causes him pain. “I wish he had just been honest. If, y, o7 o5 c5 S: }8 @
he had told me he needed the money, he should have known I would have just given it to$ Z( K/ S! }# B* j- L5 C
him. He was a friend. You help your friends.” To Wozniak, it showed a fundamental
/ _" T; {- H) W9 w' t2 Adifference in their characters. “Ethics always mattered to me, and I still don’t understand
7 r- A" j. x! F: m9 B9 O; Gwhy he would’ve gotten paid one thing and told me he’d gotten paid another,” he said.
! t% X' b. Y8 @5 a: _ j/ f1 w“But, you know, people are different.”
+ [& Z1 i2 f p6 N I8 u$ |, l: \& I/ D2 ~5 Z1 a6 E
When Jobs learned this story was published, he called Wozniak to deny it. “He told me
+ d# k0 W9 W* L% W( X0 mthat he didn’t remember doing it, and that if he did something like that he would remember
- [3 Z8 a* O( q3 ?8 G* g. tit, so he probably didn’t do it,” Wozniak recalled. When I asked Jobs directly, he became
7 R: r6 L( `: l* f) h; hunusually quiet and hesitant. “I don’t know where that allegation comes from,” he said. “I
) o) d; }( P2 `gave him half the money I ever got. That’s how I’ve always been with Woz. I mean, Woz @" h3 F7 f; |2 ^! y: Q0 k
stopped working in 1978. He never did one ounce of work after 1978. And yet he got
/ M* O5 J3 o1 K5 kexactly the same shares of Apple stock that I did.”
+ m; B$ t0 _6 k7 I5 b
# ^8 ]; p9 P/ Q* ]5 Z7 L2 rIs it possible that memories are muddled and that Jobs did not, in fact, shortchange
6 @; k8 F% i: u) CWozniak? “There’s a chance that my memory is all wrong and messed up,” Wozniak told
u" l3 z# C2 ~0 vme, but after a pause he reconsidered. “But no. I remember the details of this one, the $350, }2 F! a7 n" d# x
check.” He confirmed his memory with Nolan Bushnell and Al Alcorn. “I remember
/ w. n0 v4 j$ A. Mtalking about the bonus money to Woz, and he was upset,” Bushnell said. “I said yes, there
) j5 D2 K' U# r0 U& x. V d
9 _, S4 P g g' v
/ I- S5 H8 j8 V9 d
7 A+ u' R! Y1 }: g; u0 y3 q
+ h. L/ c! c. @ t# E- N$ d( _8 L+ |& D7 O9 j( z2 T
7 G$ |7 b) q' z7 a
/ N9 p4 R. Q/ C. Q2 b; ]& I& Q
( g& `2 f3 j i+ ?/ u& I; n1 J5 Y' O- E& U1 e; l! L
was a bonus for each chip they saved, and he just shook his head and then clucked his) A6 I& v. p' u4 {* L$ A) m% _
tongue.”
/ a4 W! r# n+ M+ O+ K0 I3 |2 a F9 }- O
Whatever the truth, Wozniak later insisted that it was not worth rehashing. Jobs is a
! x1 o$ [7 w0 f* hcomplex person, he said, and being manipulative is just the darker facet of the traits that
# t2 {4 ^: Z0 [; N# \make him successful. Wozniak would never have been that way, but as he points out, he
3 o; m5 |+ ]6 E: d) xalso could never have built Apple. “I would rather let it pass,” he said when I pressed the1 H: @+ Y9 e5 Z
point. “It’s not something I want to judge Steve by.”8 V w' ?+ r+ J; j
+ ?1 ^: g- P) S& T- C0 }: eThe Atari experience helped shape Jobs’s approach to business and design. He
# g! o8 z2 Q8 Q7 N1 s; o4 Xappreciated the user-friendliness of Atari’s insert-quarter-avoid-Klingons games. “That
. w L( E7 ?# d/ rsimplicity rubbed off on him and made him a very focused product person,” said Ron
- B$ U2 g5 d. n! J7 j" \( }Wayne. Jobs also absorbed some of Bushnell’s take-no-prisoners attitude. “Nolan wouldn’t
( H$ y0 E5 y7 T$ mtake no for an answer,” according to Alcorn, “and this was Steve’s first impression of how4 M4 C: y& h' w( q2 M: ~; s' g1 n
things got done. Nolan was never abusive, like Steve sometimes is. But he had the same6 W# v$ l" X( v" S# R+ t* q w
driven attitude. It made me cringe, but dammit, it got things done. In that way Nolan was a
/ Y Z: N9 \" R- hmentor for Jobs.”
3 w: J/ M, ]- O# F1 Y" @3 N# d4 ~
Bushnell agreed. “There is something indefinable in an entrepreneur, and I saw that in
$ X( M+ z6 @2 u: C2 jSteve,” he said. “He was interested not just in engineering, but also the business aspects. I2 L- f3 M- ^( }% B
taught him that if you act like you can do something, then it will work. I told him, ‘Pretend! s: z% k. P" T v3 n: [! W
to be completely in control and people will assume that you are.’”- ~6 P6 T" B7 O; P5 K5 ]
" z) z0 {- f- n( q' z& }- q: T* Z( O( ~0 r" H# s- X1 T5 }
& r+ I- G/ u6 G$ [& P& O
' {4 L3 ~8 q) ]( ~4 P' P7 F
; K, B% p( \+ I& U/ fCHAPTER FIVE+ t- ^6 `/ o- f+ ^- j
( y0 V1 o3 p2 |
4 R. ]0 V2 E8 E6 Z0 m
( t( r; k/ X$ n' E, @
' Q+ A7 }* [- V! K8 K. `9 h. J. x. _& \: \2 }+ n
THE APPLE I7 ?! e" M# O/ k
. e( U- ~* l3 G, @" c1 D( w) L
8 Y |0 z3 T* J8 N
% s+ P0 ]9 D% M! j6 e+ d: P8 i: g S) [& D! u0 V
Turn On, Boot Up, Jack In . . . 8 \6 q# q J' W+ {6 |" ]
0 k& W+ d8 F% e9 m( v( Z
. ^5 V4 {0 k# \3 Y- \" ]/ N
# @9 Q6 }* |' W) b9 N
9 m( d0 _/ d3 d. `6 A8 w. L. G3 Q
) s% ?# U' F: k# g$ V
% [: P, f! c! ?4 l* S! ^7 b% M7 f( z' F
' C6 u8 q0 H( I7 N, T$ f
3 a4 E, @# l, S* o7 O) N; N
# A3 G5 L4 R+ ~7 p
! v; O2 n. `# R( e' T% ~: D+ t" s$ X4 m: X- @
4 {7 X$ h' |; r$ R) w9 N. n9 |, K4 f$ B% V" L/ v
( }& i0 s! ]- {' h; k7 o
8 ?* T; L; p5 k& }' h r' \" y2 |8 L8 F
% u0 E5 ~' `5 C, d% A
# W/ l; C. S; }$ U* V+ ?7 m% A5 G+ w. ~0 z. ~7 G" g
( l( R# y2 w1 s$ h: {7 Y; {1 S5 }; T4 T- ?' g) A5 x7 C
1 c C. M/ e* B0 l7 X
- P. E! D3 j7 t; M; g
" C, w4 O7 g' X. T' A6 b
- V& [" C; V: i8 `7 y& Q V _ e2 u+ v
, i) H" `, k% S) x$ W/ b& `' {* S
2 C$ ]: g% _8 @" }2 E+ t5 Q$ h
" S' \; m ?" T1 p+ g' w
9 `, A4 W' Q1 y
: `3 ^& {; ]6 Y4 |$ i: T! q
4 f+ X$ z5 P) z
* L8 t' p- L9 _) ~: b% U* Z0 P* `/ L( e- [5 S* O% X3 Q' A
, ^% ~( T$ s8 ?6 N0 k1 }( g- {* M9 Q; L1 u
* f. ~( M7 d% H% @0 T8 c, c, `Daniel Kottke and Jobs with the Apple I at the Atlantic City computer fair, 1976
4 n3 V' V1 q" r, I7 b
9 \! G* Q1 V& R# {3 o7 Y
! |$ x8 d* C1 }3 ~9 u
2 `2 f) o) k8 ~3 H' ?6 W' q) K- J/ c错误!超链接引用无效。6 y- J# B* P3 p3 C) r$ z7 [
7 j7 \& J- i$ c0 U) ~7 U% LIn San Francisco and the Santa Clara Valley during the late 1960s, various cultural currents
n! }0 R/ c4 _# _5 D% A- Mflowed together. There was the technology revolution that began with the growth of& Y) E# W" O0 l8 }6 c2 C9 n
military contractors and soon included electronics firms, microchip makers, video game: z) v1 c4 S7 A5 G
designers, and computer companies. There was a hacker subculture—filled with wireheads,6 L ]" K! g% N7 F; m+ f2 @
phreakers, cyberpunks, hobbyists, and just plain geeks—that included engineers who didn’t
* |. @! [; g9 i( R4 econform to the HP mold and their kids who weren’t attuned to the wavelengths of the6 Z. z9 P2 P7 U% Y& [9 p1 [( K
subdivisions. There were quasi-academic groups doing studies on the effects of LSD;
3 k) t/ Y4 l7 s/ n, l5 N# Bparticipants included Doug Engelbart of the Augmentation Research Center in Palo Alto,
! k' e" O1 b d# Q& x+ nwho later helped develop the computer mouse and graphical user interfaces, and Ken5 E+ n, N. T2 x9 q. M2 f" T: {
Kesey, who celebrated the drug with music-and-light shows featuring a house band that) p5 @1 T( T- k, Z' A
became the Grateful Dead. There was the hippie movement, born out of the Bay Area’s
$ q0 h! g0 a3 ?2 a w0 S9 V7 @6 V. [beat generation, and the rebellious political activists, born out of the Free Speech3 O7 n' D0 Q7 z
Movement at Berkeley. Overlaid on it all were various self-fulfillment movements pursuing$ J! I- Z F4 ^" |
paths to personal enlightenment: Zen and Hinduism, meditation and yoga, primal scream+ L! W7 L! ?. L
and sensory deprivation, Esalen and est.
8 @8 Y0 g5 \% d* E3 h) x2 O0 FThis fusion of flower power and processor power, enlightenment and technology, was
5 ^" R! E. g/ C: L: d1 gembodied by Steve Jobs as he meditated in the mornings, audited physics classes at
4 R! N! t3 N: }- wStanford, worked nights at Atari, and dreamed of starting his own business. “There was just
6 _- P2 L! j' H% h) b5 Dsomething going on here,” he said, looking back at the time and place. “The best music
D( ^3 z. b6 A
/ {. G. v1 p$ Y0 a# ?$ m0 x# q, [0 \
/ J6 c3 p' ~( L# z/ F( F4 Y6 Q0 c: X3 [5 E! V6 P
2 L+ Q1 Q3 M; q" b; |
; f: G4 C' ~! S3 A# m
& w E& ?2 Y) ?3 J
& [/ i' V- E3 o6 [% X& B1 |
5 }: \" [/ j3 H% [: zcame from here—the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin—and so( o4 `& h$ o0 _& l3 Y" z- |% E
did the integrated circuit, and things like the Whole Earth Catalog.”
4 ^9 [1 {9 d5 XInitially the technologists and the hippies did not interface well. Many in the
) y' J/ T/ M% j7 p+ i" m9 Z) c/ }counterculture saw computers as ominous and Orwellian, the province of the Pentagon and
* H. q, l* |8 ^5 `the power structure. In The Myth of the Machine, the historian Lewis Mumford warned that& `+ Z6 M! V+ S( W: Q9 I# D
computers were sucking away our freedom and destroying “life-enhancing values.” An
) l7 \2 X6 M4 Yinjunction on punch cards of the period—“Do not fold, spindle or mutilate”—became an
- J) T( B1 m7 M. \ironic phrase of the antiwar Left., U% v1 ]' r) l' l# A# m
But by the early 1970s a shift was under way. “Computing went from being dismissed as/ F5 H+ b2 U& }, `* q; ~ ?
a tool of bureaucratic control to being embraced as a symbol of individual expression and: Y: G& v, A! ]( [+ @5 e# c
liberation,” John Markoff wrote in his study of the counterculture’s convergence with the6 E+ h' {3 H: ]& E
computer industry, What the Dormouse Said. It was an ethos lyrically expressed in Richard( \- N, A d+ t" B6 K/ Y
Brautigan’s 1967 poem, “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace,” and the
+ }. Z5 a0 A- acyberdelic fusion was certified when Timothy Leary declared that personal computers had0 S" r& x7 d. D* }6 O/ n& {
become the new LSD and years later revised his famous mantra to proclaim, “Turn on, boot; X) j0 F3 v) y) D
up, jack in.” The musician Bono, who later became a friend of Jobs, often discussed with& a7 O( f1 j) k" {$ x8 w
him why those immersed in the rock-drugs-rebel counterculture of the Bay Area ended up# A4 j" W) ?: _, q( P I& E
helping to create the personal computer industry. “The people who invented the twenty-first
9 _! u4 R; M- _century were pot-smoking, sandal-wearing hippies from the West Coast like Steve, because! u' k# T" ^6 F9 S/ R" h
they saw differently,” he said. “The hierarchical systems of the East Coast, England,
, M( v4 {! C% Q, r- b) `9 O$ nGermany, and Japan do not encourage this different thinking. The sixties produced an) H- ~) l K9 ]$ F
anarchic mind-set that is great for imagining a world not yet in existence.”
0 {5 C5 f7 H! s& l" g% X: D: uOne person who encouraged the denizens of the counterculture to make common cause
* N7 r g8 f( H$ Rwith the hackers was Stewart Brand. A puckish visionary who generated fun and ideas over3 c9 m; @' l# L1 k& Y
many decades, Brand was a participant in one of the early sixties LSD studies in Palo Alto.4 o8 N+ ~2 k4 Y9 X5 l
He joined with his fellow subject Ken Kesey to produce the acid-celebrating Trips Festival,
$ z$ S; G! M2 N0 Tappeared in the opening scene of Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and worked
) z* w: V$ e& }with Doug Engelbart to create a seminal sound-and-light presentation of new technologies$ E: f1 K( I, F2 w! e
called the Mother of All Demos. “Most of our generation scorned computers as the
: p3 N; g7 }9 P fembodiment of centralized control,” Brand later noted. “But a tiny contingent—later called
$ f5 U8 d7 v5 m4 n0 t$ h2 Chackers—embraced computers and set about transforming them into tools of liberation.
+ d: P g( ~) y6 _" S& `/ s( ^That turned out to be the true royal road to the future.”
$ c- ?, Z# Z C" n- nBrand ran the Whole Earth Truck Store, which began as a roving truck that sold useful
; t8 s0 V; ~" `7 @/ ~$ N1 ftools and educational materials, and in 1968 he decided to extend its reach with the Whole
' m% U# g {. N& ~Earth Catalog. On its first cover was the famous picture of Earth taken from space; its
7 w7 q8 |6 B( E/ c" ?% `) s* T5 bsubtitle was “Access to Tools.” The underlying philosophy was that technology could be& F. D) {& \9 W% g
our friend. Brand wrote on the first page of the first edition, “A realm of intimate, personal
* I, `8 C& c4 ^$ C2 v: epower is developing—power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own
/ y2 ~# U8 k. p$ Y6 Ginspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested.+ p" W$ e; A/ p; p& r- X7 n
Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted by the Whole Earth Catalog.”3 b9 Y( c, C) C+ W
Buckminster Fuller followed with a poem that began: “I see God in the instruments and! M, X: V( t8 n7 \6 Z
mechanisms that work reliably.”
# U* T' F" j- Q5 Y# a" p5 F4 ^3 i/ P& z& Z; b. {% Q
/ p; e3 p/ X6 C5 U( r- x% _
6 ?2 I& u) Z& P0 p+ d3 G
2 R/ l) I# z, t2 w \3 B& Q% S
: g, l/ }' d) |! N
. T% o' E+ o1 }8 D, u/ }; n2 V" }% a: |6 n" b" a' a; U
2 n/ K! D% Y4 r B: `
! x2 l' p% I' I- z4 L4 e/ W8 y; rJobs became a Whole Earth fan. He was particularly taken by the final issue, which came% F* B- V+ S0 z I
out in 1971, when he was still in high school, and he brought it with him to college and" [) G0 V9 H! _
then to the All One Farm. “On the back cover of their final issue” Jobs recalled, “was a+ P* l0 r4 F# [8 u8 b
photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking
. e0 N& o" U' Non if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: ‘Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.’”- S1 W' o B- _: F
Brand sees Jobs as one of the purest embodiments of the cultural mix that the catalog* a; Z0 ~$ {& m& p
sought to celebrate. “Steve is right at the nexus of the counterculture and technology,” he
5 e8 U, v. z" o4 U% Gsaid. “He got the notion of tools for human use.”
% O; ` J3 W5 P% EBrand’s catalog was published with the help of the Portola Institute, a foundation
. _/ r: o! t1 z! @3 i) ?; U) F" `$ adedicated to the fledgling field of computer education. The foundation also helped launch P# L: k7 s! [- L1 ^* e
the People’s Computer Company, which was not a company at all but a newsletter and! s4 N d% w- Q" \* ~0 h$ y
organization with the motto “Computer power to the people.” There were occasional
% M" f( O% w D; }; [6 N2 f) SWednesday-night potluck dinners, and two of the regulars, Gordon French and Fred Moore,5 G8 a6 O- x+ | }
decided to create a more formal club where news about personal electronics could be
0 e5 e4 [! z* I; ~% Jshared.
+ D# w" A7 s) O, W/ p7 |: ~& ZThey were energized by the arrival of the January 1975 issue of Popular Mechanics,2 f2 B1 ?: A1 H1 u5 Y) r* g8 }! ~
which had on its cover the first personal computer kit, the Altair. The Altair wasn’t much—
/ E; Y' F+ O4 i }/ l& X0 `3 Rjust a $495 pile of parts that had to be soldered to a board that would then do little—but for
$ `4 _; K5 l- ^0 Z4 M6 U' }hobbyists and hackers it heralded the dawn of a new era. Bill Gates and Paul Allen read the* O4 ?- W9 f" I2 Q' R2 U
magazine and started working on a version of BASIC, an easy-to-use programming( m7 k. D Z$ ^3 d2 S5 }
language, for the Altair. It also caught the attention of Jobs and Wozniak. And when an
2 l- q. `- n5 s1 g( `9 xAltair kit arrived at the People’s Computer Company, it became the centerpiece for the first
. O* c1 L8 C" S$ \meeting of the club that French and Moore had decided to launch.
7 N3 K! H) r6 r+ B' C
8 w6 T' F( z2 B# @& R- O- A6 f错误!超链接引用无效。! u' \8 x6 X( s3 K# N
8 ~0 [/ S3 @! j) M) b( J9 m4 w
The group became known as the Homebrew Computer Club, and it encapsulated the Whole- f: e4 E( D6 O, u
Earth fusion between the counterculture and technology. It would become to the personal( C K r3 c2 D7 M2 C: X( E
computer era something akin to what the Turk’s Head coffeehouse was to the age of Dr.* e( b; {" P3 h. _7 \1 V
Johnson, a place where ideas were exchanged and disseminated. Moore wrote the flyer for
8 R3 G$ E9 {1 m0 C' k; C6 T; F( gthe first meeting, held on March 5, 1975, in French’s Menlo Park garage: “Are you
f6 A' X7 V R/ g0 `2 ~; q* rbuilding your own computer? Terminal, TV, typewriter?” it asked. “If so, you might like to1 J% \+ l. W1 v/ V
come to a gathering of people with like-minded interests.”' ^2 e$ I# D, O) R) j
Allen Baum spotted the flyer on the HP bulletin board and called Wozniak, who agreed0 R3 ]4 L- ?: r6 a
to go with him. “That night turned out to be one of the most important nights of my life,”
8 Y, f# y% M0 I" zWozniak recalled. About thirty other people showed up, spilling out of French’s open+ |" n! r2 z" v4 ]) o
garage door, and they took turns describing their interests. Wozniak, who later admitted to* G: `6 F: w" _0 b
being extremely nervous, said he liked “video games, pay movies for hotels, scientific" U/ [' T3 H3 k+ z
calculator design, and TV terminal design,” according to the minutes prepared by Moore." t. E! t7 G; Q( k8 w
There was a demonstration of the new Altair, but more important to Wozniak was seeing+ z, I& H: M) d4 [' s8 G, ?% W
the specification sheet for a microprocessor.
/ h/ I+ e: X' e" o! mAs he thought about the microprocessor—a chip that had an entire central processing2 {1 P3 k" p, A, p i ]$ R! C
unit on it—he had an insight. He had been designing a terminal, with a keyboard and
. n, P: ?5 ?5 k; x! z! v% W! s+ p4 f
$ A' Y0 O1 @8 a7 o7 V/ H o
- i9 i% \2 K# D7 ~3 U- Y: C
/ t3 [9 r$ E* T8 r5 H
% E9 u, s: R2 A3 ]0 U# K
1 |4 x7 a! a; a6 x
/ m) l1 T3 q/ Z2 I, O* s! }' [! o
6 z2 O) o0 p; O1 a( t$ J
) P3 {( |% g) k7 qmonitor, that would connect to a distant minicomputer. Using a microprocessor, he could+ E6 H# D7 a8 X) W# V2 H
put some of the capacity of the minicomputer inside the terminal itself, so it could become, M3 M5 P* y* M2 \; h5 j0 {0 x
a small stand-alone computer on a desktop. It was an enduring idea: keyboard, screen, and$ s6 U3 ], V3 W! o
computer all in one integrated personal package. “This whole vision of a personal computer
) q2 P9 n5 ?& }9 I# L \; `, P$ ejust popped into my head,” he said. “That night, I started to sketch out on paper what would1 M. n8 l- ^7 V( g7 ]
later become known as the Apple I.”
8 t, r' ?- C, u0 E% _At first he planned to use the same microprocessor that was in the Altair, an Intel 8080.
& v) t8 m; Z/ c; q1 K% B1 H% _: TBut each of those “cost almost more than my monthly rent,” so he looked for an alternative.
e& U% W' G, P R1 cHe found one in the Motorola 6800, which a friend at HP was able to get for $40 apiece.9 ^2 E$ e* O* }$ z( ^0 k4 j2 k
Then he discovered a chip made by MOS Technologies that was electronically the same but4 [# S5 V5 ^1 W, }: c& q
cost only $20. It would make his machine affordable, but it would carry a long-term cost.
$ l! e% ~, s9 Z- ~Intel’s chips ended up becoming the industry standard, which would haunt Apple when its
7 M9 I, g4 f) |2 [6 C) lcomputers were incompatible with it.
% T5 g9 @" W( D3 h+ aAfter work each day, Wozniak would go home for a TV dinner and then return to HP to
( J' v8 B5 p0 o0 J4 s! i, Amoonlight on his computer. He spread out the parts in his cubicle, figured out their
% Y2 s0 v: h) ^( x% xplacement, and soldered them onto his motherboard. Then he began writing the software3 u4 E1 `/ d2 d. K- w) |+ y; ~% @
that would get the microprocessor to display images on the screen. Because he could not
3 u6 [0 X% b* J$ Q, xafford to pay for computer time, he wrote the code by hand. After a couple of months he
3 P: }2 ]- V" y( y1 v* |0 b! Ywas ready to test it. “I typed a few keys on the keyboard and I was shocked! The letters
* [3 X; I) r% lwere displayed on the screen.” It was Sunday, June 29, 1975, a milestone for the personal
% |4 u- d( r( O, r% I1 t) z( c% n; Ucomputer. “It was the first time in history,” Wozniak later said, “anyone had typed a
: o z$ [4 v1 J/ zcharacter on a keyboard and seen it show up on their own computer’s screen right in front. y# s& Z4 `9 o% {% I4 T
of them.”
4 h6 c+ S2 x2 V/ gJobs was impressed. He peppered Wozniak with questions: Could the computer ever be. r, L8 a3 j0 e% d
networked? Was it possible to add a disk for memory storage? He also began to help Woz/ L+ U' x1 k# }: ]
get components. Particularly important were the dynamic random-access memory chips.! g2 O* C6 I+ _* f
Jobs made a few calls and was able to score some from Intel for free. “Steve is just that sort" A5 X9 t k. Q! I# \0 A7 c
of person,” said Wozniak. “I mean, he knew how to talk to a sales representative. I could
) N/ h& ~! g9 {8 k. a; P; znever have done that. I’m too shy.”- p6 Z. w2 @' X% N( X( I6 D, ?5 `
Jobs began to accompany Wozniak to Homebrew meetings, carrying the TV monitor and
& w y2 F ]& b J# xhelping to set things up. The meetings now attracted more than one hundred enthusiasts and6 ?& E- |5 S7 E. G
had been moved to the auditorium of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Presiding
. ]- x5 T6 \2 h( Uwith a pointer and a free-form manner was Lee Felsenstein, another embodiment of the4 [! o: ? l M( ?) K- |2 G
merger between the world of computing and the counterculture. He was an engineering
6 K! X! C8 q" `$ v* qschool dropout, a participant in the Free Speech Movement, and an antiwar activist. He had5 J* q/ u* u; k0 O
written for the alternative newspaper Berkeley Barb and then gone back to being a
5 S* |+ r1 {) Icomputer engineer.
0 R+ i0 u) F8 A6 g6 b8 J/ U) eWoz was usually too shy to talk in the meetings, but people would gather around his1 w$ e) J) z' Y
machine afterward, and he would proudly show off his progress. Moore had tried to instill
* d5 A7 l8 Q2 R# B' Rin the Homebrew an ethos of swapping and sharing rather than commerce. “The theme of
; i( n8 K* q9 w y6 k$ U" t" k2 p2 f Zthe club,” Woz said, “was ‘Give to help others.’” It was an expression of the hacker ethic
5 g2 M7 q) ~$ q1 r; Pthat information should be free and all authority mistrusted. “I designed the Apple I2 `: ^. [1 m) U
because I wanted to give it away for free to other people,” said Wozniak. ) ]# j! } L& q( \2 }% C: h' k* p
, c3 f! H2 D! q! @" m; c- H
* [% T: t/ o' e% R! M& [; g! I m
; v3 J) F$ o' c
' j/ ?7 l! B0 m2 F8 D3 k* n" b& j( t H( R
9 w5 I$ x- ]; P% y/ T, h& l9 }
6 Q( l) q& K+ L3 j7 a) L# s: _4 l4 K
! M0 k4 V) V* r iThis was not an outlook that Bill Gates embraced. After he and Paul Allen had h# O; z x7 g
completed their BASIC interpreter for the Altair, Gates was appalled that members of the
" J1 S2 L: C# qHomebrew were making copies of it and sharing it without paying him. So he wrote what
! P* Z' c! }. o, r7 cwould become a famous letter to the club: “As the majority of hobbyists must be aware,8 g/ u* r* N5 Z5 r% u0 A$ N
most of you steal your software. Is this fair? . . . One thing you do is prevent good software
7 ^$ \/ \2 L% P. F$ ^2 c2 x2 ~! ~from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? . . . I would# ?1 y" K1 v5 n& S; Q# [, F
appreciate letters from anyone who wants to pay up.”
' M# m! s1 C }3 oSteve Jobs, similarly, did not embrace the notion that Wozniak’s creations, be it a Blue
0 M; }: d; l# W& d- fBox or a computer, wanted to be free. So he convinced Wozniak to stop giving away copies
T `! @% U: X# l+ Lof his schematics. Most people didn’t have time to build it themselves anyway, Jobs
3 h" k, X, }# f7 F. \+ r, Qargued. “Why don’t we build and sell printed circuit boards to them?” It was an example of/ h8 b0 V! C! a) M! M+ p( y7 P
their symbiosis. “Every time I’d design something great, Steve would find a way to make
, w8 B8 b/ g( r7 O% [money for us,” said Wozniak. Wozniak admitted that he would have never thought of doing! O& ?1 u; t8 L1 \1 Q9 ^- I
that on his own. “It never crossed my mind to sell computers. It was Steve who said, ‘Let’s
2 b( y, h8 |: S# I+ ^hold them in the air and sell a few.’”9 x1 S; y2 @# r% T3 @
Jobs worked out a plan to pay a guy he knew at Atari to draw the circuit boards and then4 O/ ?( O- T- T6 M
print up fifty or so. That would cost about $1,000, plus the fee to the designer. They could
: P, F/ e# B% tsell them for $40 apiece and perhaps clear a profit of $700. Wozniak was dubious that they
2 ]3 i* K# F. G4 c7 d, qcould sell them all. “I didn’t see how we would make our money back,” he recalled. He. C" K1 B2 s7 g% s" Z) O' t
was already in trouble with his landlord for bouncing checks and now had to pay each! B) C |3 L9 u1 Y" o
month in cash.
8 G& U% h6 J4 T4 ?. W9 xJobs knew how to appeal to Wozniak. He didn’t argue that they were sure to make
1 w! P+ S7 U0 k" m; Kmoney, but instead that they would have a fun adventure. “Even if we lose our money,
7 v% ]/ Z0 Q4 F6 C# ~! Mwe’ll have a company,” said Jobs as they were driving in his Volkswagen bus. “For once in
2 n% I* r* P4 R' e( ~# _' bour lives, we’ll have a company.” This was enticing to Wozniak, even more than any- Z* _; G+ h3 O3 w" C" l" y
prospect of getting rich. He recalled, “I was excited to think about us like that. To be two6 r5 @$ z* o' F, J. u# U" ]- f
best friends starting a company. Wow. I knew right then that I’d do it. How could I not?”# b9 t, C8 c6 ^- v/ S
In order to raise the money they needed, Wozniak sold his HP 65 calculator for $500,
4 w7 _4 k9 A4 q% X( U) i6 }though the buyer ended up stiffing him for half of that. For his part, Jobs sold his1 L/ i1 ^# A) l% l
Volkswagen bus for $1,500. But the person who bought it came to find him two weeks later
- l' V" ~8 H1 L& E0 aand said the engine had broken down, and Jobs agreed to pay for half of the repairs.1 a3 C! H5 ]* h# ?
Despite these little setbacks, they now had, with their own small savings thrown in, about+ ?" R, v- l* G9 l) ]
$1,300 in working capital, the design for a product, and a plan. They would start their own- a. t& b6 @3 g7 p' T6 E7 e. i' w
computer company.9 K/ Z, Z1 N( M
0 T2 ]% T$ W3 S8 W- i' o错误!超链接引用无效。0 {1 g: u7 r# c$ o# X% c
2 \6 Q. ?. A5 SNow that they had decided to start a business, they needed a name. Jobs had gone for c B: l5 c2 h! A
another visit to the All One Farm, where he had been pruning the Gravenstein apple trees,
# M8 p; Z& d( I' h4 qand Wozniak picked him up at the airport. On the ride down to Los Altos, they bandied
) j, }7 G' a+ Baround options. They considered some typical tech words, such as Matrix, and some
6 }( ^/ D# E/ G m Dneologisms, such as Executek, and some straightforward boring names, like Personal4 Q/ g5 L+ c/ e
Computers Inc. The deadline for deciding was the next day, when Jobs wanted to start
4 \. ?6 R5 v, \3 S. t |
|