Things I've learned in the first 70 pages of the Steve Jobs biography

I have always had a passion for the technology industry. As most of you know, I have worked for Microsoft for a while and I am generally very pro-Microsoft/Anti-Mac, but that decision isn’t really mutually exclusive anyway. I understand the contributions that Apple and Microsoft (and Intel/HP/IBM/etc.) contributed to the device you are reading this post on right now; be it a desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone. With the very recent death of Steve Jobs I started reflecting on how the computer industry really started even though I felt as if i already had a pretty good grasp (I didn't). There may be more posts on this subject as I get farther into this 600-page biography, but I'm too impatient to wait that long to put one up, so here's what I've learned in the first 70 pages:

Drugs Tend to Produce Innovation

I would not go as far as to condone drugs in any way. The context of this was during the 70’s when I’m sure I don’t have to explain any farther than to say Psychedelic drugs were as much a necessity as food and sex to many college students.That being said, You would be hard pressed to find one of the innovators in the computer industry during the 70’s that did not do some kind of drugs. Steve Jobs talks pretty extensively about all the LSD he did and how it changed his view on life. And if you think this phenomenon was confined to the 70’s, here’s a few interesting historical figures we are generally taught to look up to and their drug addictions

Charles Dickens - Opium
Winston Churchill - Nitrous
Sigmund Freud - Cocaine
Ernest Hemingway - Absinthe
William Shakespeare - Cannabis (I suspect more, normal people don’t play dress up and dance around on stage) Not to mention he may have been a bit of a player as well from what I understand...


Source: The Internet. The government wouldn’t let it be on here if it wasn’t true.

All these guys did some kind of drug and they all did something that has resonated through the years to reach the ears of students today. This makes me wonder what the world would be like if drugs never existed, if people never realized there was stuff out there that could basically expose you to an alternate reality. I know Dr. Seuss never woulda gotten his doctor-it in crazy so that he could write such compelling short stories and is that really the kind of world you want to live in? I bet if we reversed this whole “War on Drugs” thing and started the handing out LSD to high school students then in 10 years we would have technologies that you couldn't possibly picture today. I’ll get right on that:


(I’ll let you know what he says - oh and NVM on that not condoning drugs thing)

Steve Wozniak designed/created the first ‘desktop computer’

Thinking honestly about it, I guess I didn’t really know where the first computer came from. I figured it had something to do with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, but could never pinpoint where the device I’m writing this on now actually got it’s start. Turns out that pioint was at a club meeting of the ‘Homebrew Computer Club’ where they were showing off the first microprocessors and an member, Steve Wozniak, came to the realization that instead of having a terminal attached to some distant computer, he could package these microprocessors right into the terminal and leave the computing power right on your desktop. He eventually built a prototype and showed it off to that same club later in 1975. Steve Jobs, his longtime friend and fellow technophile, only came into the picture because he convinced Woz that this is something that could be sold and he should not be giving it away. Woz was eventually convinced and they started building and selling what would become the Apple I. Not quite what I expected to find out...

Side note: I never realized that most of the big millionaires/billionaires from the tech boom all went to very prestigous schools whether they graduated or not. Bill Gates, Steve Baller, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg... Makes me feel not quite so bad that if I had a personal banker he would be able to use his fingers to balance my checkbook.

Pretty much everyone stole from everyone

There is a lot of animosity surrounding the ‘invention of the computer’ (single quotes because that’s technically not what I’m discussing here). Pretty much everyone says that someone stole something from them and the interesting thing is pretty much everyone is right. I haven’t even gotten to the part about Bill Gates and I already see the trend developing around the earliest days of Apple. Bill Gates/Paul Allen created BASIC (programming language) which Wozniak/Jobs made a parody of to run their Apple I. In return Gates/Allen later stole the idea of a gui (which I haven’t gotten to yet so take that with a grain of salt, but I know they stole some stuff). And, some of Apple’s first competitors were people from the very club that Wozniak was sharing his early ideas/prototypes with. There’s countless allegations of intellectual property theft so I will just leave it with those few.

But the important part, what do I think? I think all’s fair in love and computers. As long as everyone stole something then we can apply football rules and say the penalties cancel each other out. There was so much innovation (pronounced: drugs) in Silicon Valley at the time that it really took everyone’s ideas together to form what would become the computer. You can’t expect someone who’s high off their ass half the time to invent an entire computer can you? I mean the average person can’t even figure out why there’s 19 search toolbars on their internet browser taking up half the screen. Everyone became at least a millionaire anyway so they need to just close the laptop and get back to sailing the mediteranian.

There. I just saved you 70 pages which is anywhere from 1-10 hours of reading depending on how fast of a reader you are (1 being speed reader and 10 being Elephant). You’re welcome.