Comment by pjmlp

19 hours ago

While maybe biased, also shows a bit about the real Steve Jobs without the distortion field, and why Apple hardware costs what it costs, even when the delivery isn't up to the premium price.

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pjmlp

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hedgehog  15 hours ago

If you want another take from that period the 1997 book "Apple" by Jim Carlton (WSJ reporter) is pretty good. The inside jacket starts "Whatever happened to Apple Computer?" and the forward by Guy Kawasaki frames the book as an after action review of a company that has failed. It has its own problems, but by avoiding the confusion of Apple's later success I think it provides more interesting coverage of some the stuff they did in that middle period while Jobs was out.

kamaal  17 hours ago

>>the real Steve Jobs without the distortion field

A lot of things come in full package, same person putting in the same effort(if not better) in a different place/situation doesn't give the same results.

I once worked with a senior engineer/leader at a electronics company who delivered great products/results and ran the shop to literal perfection for like a decade. The company got sold, and he moved on. He was just not able to replicate the same success after that ever, despite by his own admission he tried even harder else where.

Despite the fact that Jobs was like the greatest ever, Im sure without Apple, its culture and overall company inertia he wouldn't be able to do much either.

This is also why if you have some kind of a winning combination you are better off sticking with it even if its not entirely perfect. Anything else could be way worse.

  • matwood  14 hours ago

    Jobs did pretty well with Pixar and Next. So it seems he was able to do things outside of Apple.

    • pjmlp  12 hours ago

      If you read books like the one mentioned above, even if biased, you will see that he did not do pretty well with NeXT, it was actually a mess.

      Outside the impressive hardware and NeXTSTEP, NeXT was bleeding most of the time, had it not been for a few generous VCs that had Steve Jobs in high regard, NeXT would not have survived until the moment of Apple's acquisition proposal.

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