29 years old Steve Jobs talks about life, money, Apple and the computer revolution for Playboy in 1985
Playboy decided to bring back the past and the popular American men's magazine once again unveiled – this time for the younger generations – what Steve Jobs was thinking back in 1985. And, in all honesty, you probably wouldn't recognize the man. In that interview, Jobs talks in length about so many things, that it's only right to say that he is talking about life in the way that only twenty-something adults can. Here are a few interesting parts, but better yet, hit the Playboy link for the full interview:
Steve Jobs on money:
"My main reaction to this money thing is that it's humorous, all the attention to it, because it's hardly the most insightful thing... out there. When I went to school, it was right after the Sixties and before this general wave of practical purposefulness had set in. Now students... are certainly not letting any of the philosophical issues of the day take up too much of their time as they study their business majors. The idealistic wind of the Sixties was still at our backs, though, and most of the people I know who are my age have that ingrained in them forever."
"A computer is the most incredible tool we've ever seen. It can be a writing tool, a communications center, a supercalculator, a planner, a filer and an artistic instrument all in one, just by being given new instructions, or software, to work from. We have no idea how far it's going to go. It would be successful in business because... you really can prepare documents much faster and at a higher quality level, and you can do many things to increase office productivity. A computer frees people from much of the menial work."
Steve Jobs on why this thing called "computer mouse" will become popular despite the criticism that there is no need for it:
"If I want to tell you there is a spot on your shirt, I'm not going to do it linguistically: "There's a spot on your shirt 14 centimeters down from the collar and three centimeters to the left of your button." If you have a spot—"There!" [He points]—I'll point to it. Pointing is a metaphor we all know. We've done a lot of studies and tests on that, and it's much faster to do all kinds of functions, such as cutting and pasting, with a mouse, so it's not only easier to use but more efficient."
Steve Jobs on Steve Wozniak
"He was, like, the first person I met who knew more electronics than I did at that point. We pulled all kinds of pranks together. Once... Wozniak made something that looked and sounded like a bomb and took it to the school cafeteria. Another instance is... the famous story about the boxes when Woz called the Vatican and told them he was Henry Kissinger. They had someone going to wake the Pope up in the middle of the night before they figured out it wasn't really Kissinger."
Steve Jobs on what influenced him in his youth:
"I very much liked Bob Dylan's poetry, and we spent a lot of time thinking about a lot of that stuff. This was California. You could get LSD fresh made from Stanford. You could sleep on the beach at night with your girlfriend. California has a sense of experimentation and a sense of openness—openness to new possibilities."
Well, he does sound like a young visionary, but the difference between him and so many other young adults who crave to be visionaries, is that he actually managed to do the trick.
source: Playboy via Redmond Pie
"My main reaction to this money thing is that it's humorous, all the attention to it, because it's hardly the most insightful thing... out there. When I went to school, it was right after the Sixties and before this general wave of practical purposefulness had set in. Now students... are certainly not letting any of the philosophical issues of the day take up too much of their time as they study their business majors. The idealistic wind of the Sixties was still at our backs, though, and most of the people I know who are my age have that ingrained in them forever."
Steve Jobs on why the computer revolution will happen (err... it's 1985 after all):
"A computer is the most incredible tool we've ever seen. It can be a writing tool, a communications center, a supercalculator, a planner, a filer and an artistic instrument all in one, just by being given new instructions, or software, to work from. We have no idea how far it's going to go. It would be successful in business because... you really can prepare documents much faster and at a higher quality level, and you can do many things to increase office productivity. A computer frees people from much of the menial work."
Steve Jobs on why this thing called "computer mouse" will become popular despite the criticism that there is no need for it:
"If I want to tell you there is a spot on your shirt, I'm not going to do it linguistically: "There's a spot on your shirt 14 centimeters down from the collar and three centimeters to the left of your button." If you have a spot—"There!" [He points]—I'll point to it. Pointing is a metaphor we all know. We've done a lot of studies and tests on that, and it's much faster to do all kinds of functions, such as cutting and pasting, with a mouse, so it's not only easier to use but more efficient."
"He was, like, the first person I met who knew more electronics than I did at that point. We pulled all kinds of pranks together. Once... Wozniak made something that looked and sounded like a bomb and took it to the school cafeteria. Another instance is... the famous story about the boxes when Woz called the Vatican and told them he was Henry Kissinger. They had someone going to wake the Pope up in the middle of the night before they figured out it wasn't really Kissinger."
"I very much liked Bob Dylan's poetry, and we spent a lot of time thinking about a lot of that stuff. This was California. You could get LSD fresh made from Stanford. You could sleep on the beach at night with your girlfriend. California has a sense of experimentation and a sense of openness—openness to new possibilities."
Well, he does sound like a young visionary, but the difference between him and so many other young adults who crave to be visionaries, is that he actually managed to do the trick.
source: Playboy via Redmond Pie
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