Woz reflects on his experiences with Steve Jobs
updated 06:40 am EDT, Thu October 6, 2011
Apple co-founder Woz reflects on Steve Jobs
Steve Wozniak has reflected on his experiences with Steve Jobs in an interview conducted by CNET. Looking back on his relationship with Jobs, Woz recalled the early days when the they founded Apple and the type of entrepreneurial thinking that the two were engaged in at the time. He said, that if they were to see where that would have ultimately taken Apple, Jobs and he would have been gob smacked.
“I am going to remember him as always being a very quick mind. Almost all the time that we had discussions about how something should be done in a company, he was almost always right. And he had thought it out, and he had thought out why a product should go to the left instead of the right,” said Woz.
When asked what he thought Jobs legacy will be Woz said that it would be the great products that Apple developed under his leadership. He added that as a person, Jobs was always very respectful to Woz and never once did anything impolite to him. Woz never saw Jobs behave as he had heard described by some.
He said that the differences between them arose as Apple became bigger. Jobs was always focused on running the company as well as he could and in making Apple’s products the absolute best that they could be - and wherever possible, ahead of the competition in the implementation of new technology. Woz was tucked away engineering hardware and software behind the scenes, which is where he was comfortable.
When asked who would be an influential figure from the past that Jobs would be most like, Woz said that Jobs would be more like a Walt Disney than a Thomas Edison. Jobs never did the “guts of the technology, the actual design - hardware [or] software,” as an Edison would have, although there were some similarities in the way Edison managed his business.
“But managing [the products], understanding [the technology]…about what is possible, and which technologies…could be applied to a new product," were the strengths that Jobs brought to Apple.
"Psychology wise, he related so well to the users, the buyers of products. Marketing, I would say, was his greatest strength.”
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Can't see the good/bad in people
"Woz never saw Jobs behave as he had heard described by some." - This may be more a reflection of the type of person Woz is than what Jibs was. Woz can't see the flaws in people which is why he is as good an Engineer as Jobs was salesman/businessman/visionary.