Selfish Crab

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs’ joint interview at the All Things Digital conference.   Fascinating dynamics, and good history lessons from two landmark figures in personal computing. (2007).  An excerpt here, full video on official site:

Steve Jobs narrates Apple’s “The Crazy Ones” commercial, though a version narrated by Richard Dreyfuss was the one that aired.  (1997)

Going In-House at Apple with Steve Jobs’ Former GC (2011)-  retrospective from the point of view of Apple’s general counsel.  Of course I’m going to have a lawyer/IP angle on here.

“He had the ability to shut things out of his mind and just focus very narrowly on one specific issue. I often said that his greatest strength was his ability to say no. Because you can imagine that over the years, so many people came at him with ideas about one product or another,” Cooperman says. “He focused very, very sharply on making excellent products that people would love, and not doing lots of other things that would distract from that mission.”

An extended conversation with Woz – by Dan Lyons (2011):

What was Steve’s biggest strength?

Everyone else will say vision, and gosh darn that’s important but that doesn’t go anywhere without operational discipline. Steve once told me that Apple only lost money when they built junk. It was his focus on good products that I believe was the biggest thing. All we have to do is make great products. If you have a big market. Apple had millions of fans, such a huge user base. Another strength was that he came back and put together a new board of directors. He organized the company to have good tight controls. Watching everything he could — that is operational excellence. Lots of CEOs just look at little points of data and make a decision. Steve was so much more than that. It’s rare.

Steve Jobs Presents to Cupertino City Council (June 17, 2011).  In one of his last public appearances, Jobs presents plans to Apple’s new campus to the city council. I’m shocked at how old and tired he looks. (via Kottke)

And, finally, by far, my favorite thing I have watched all week, Steve Jobs’ closing keynote at the 1997 WWDC. Context: Steve Jobs had just returned via Apple’s acquisition of NeXT Computer and he conducts an hourlong Q&A session with Apple developers.  They pick his brain and through his answers, you can see every bit of Apple circa 2011 coming out of Jobs’ mouth in 1997.  Honest, elegant, well-considered answers from off-the-cuff questions.  Focusing is about saying no.  We have a unique opportunity because we control the whole stack.   Being overly proprietary is not necessary.

# 2011 Oct 13 • From the 'Links', 'nerd' dept • apple stevejobs• #

• Wikipedia article complexity comparison of the month: Worm vs Computer worm vs Sandworm (Dune)
• The “Six Sigma” process was invited at Motorola. [source]
• deipnosophist – a person who is an adept conversationalist at table. [via M. Park]
• cloaca - the posterior opening that serves as the only such opening for the intestinal, reproductive, and urinary tracts of certain animal species, such as birds, reptiles, amphibians.  (Contrast: mammals have separate orifices for each process…) [source]
• dyadic - two individuals (as husband and wife) maintaining a sociologically significant relationship.  [source: "If the data type of both operands of a dyadic arithmetic operator is exact numeric, then the data type of the result is exact numeric, with precision and scale determined as follows..."]
• “vigorish”  is the longform of “vig” [source]
• Adventures in Over-Writing on Wikipedia #1: “Before starting a verse, Wallace sometimes used onomatopoeic vocables to “warm up” (for example “uhhh” at the beginning of “Hypnotize” and “Big Poppa” and “whaat” after certain rhymes in songs such as “My Downfall”). - On Notorious B.I.G.
• Adventures in Over-Writing on Wikipedia #2: “Although this might have just been dirty talk, a similar continuity error exists regarding the rank of Mack Gerhardt. In the season 1 episode ‘True Believers his wife says to him ‘come here Sergeant Major, and give me a report,’ but his rank is later established as Master Sergeant.”  - On The Unit
• Orange in carrots is a completely human-bred trait from around 1700s. They used to be white, yellow, red, purple, etc. [source]
• Ira Glass, host of This American Life, and Philip Glass, the composer, are cousins.

# 2011 Oct 4 • From the 'things I learned' dept • #

… the problem being: who do you marry?

Since I live in a selfish self-centered crabby world, I generally think of the Marriage Problem as an extension of the Self Problem. That is, I think the process of finding a mate is an extension of the process of self awareness: What kind of person am I, and in turn, what kind of person do I need to make a happy long-lived union?

(for clarity of discussion, I’m ignoring the other person’s happiness because I assume, out of self interest, they seek the same. Also there’s some odd circuitous thinking in loving a person so much that your happiness derives from theirs, that I willfully ignore here…)

In approaching love and romance, I say, to paraphrase the old Crab family saying about our religion, “oh, I’m just Practical.” that is, I’m skeptical of thunderstruck love puppies floating down from heaven, blissed out on cupid’s opiates. Rather, I accept that marriage is a generally happy but pragmatic arrangement rife with compromises and challenges. And I imagine love as some indeterminable calculus that requires puzzling over. Which I do.

Also, I assume that while human people have a capacity to grow, develop, mature, and adapt, human people have their own certain responses to stress, emotion, or new experiences that are so foundational and ingrained in their adult psyche that it is nigh impossible to change. Put conveniently: ya can’t change yer man; gotta love em as they come.

I acknowledge that romantic compatibility is probably some secret concoction of complements and supplements. You both like to read. They plan itineraries while you freestyle it. You run hot while they run cold. They have a caring spirit, while you need adult supervision. You both can use chopsticks.

So the question is: what secret mix of ying and yang is sufficient to wed Ching and Chang together? What’s a deal breaker? What’s an insignificant difference that likely turns into an endearing quirk? what’s a trait that makes you cringe every time it bucks it head.

Are interests and hobbies more important than personality? Or to what extent are one’s interest a reflection of their personality? For example, I guess it’s not really important that someone has seen all six star wars movies, believes that Empires Strikes Back is the undisputed masterpiece of the lot, and knows that Gredo would never ever ever shoot first. But yet what does it say about your character if you never seen a single Star Wars flick?? Could I love a pop culture ascetic that you must be?

A common question often asked by loveless puzzlers such as myself is “How do you know?” How do you know that this is it. This is that person. You are ready. How do you know. That’s an imprecise question (which is often why it’s inanely answered with “you just know”.). The better question would be “How do you know if this is good enough for me?”. Something’s going to be wrong with you, with me, with us, and can I deal. in other words WHAT’S THE THRESHOLD LEVEL OF COMPATIBILITY FOR ME TO COMMIT TO THIS SHIT IN A SEMI PERMANENT MANNER HAVING LONG-TERM SOCIAL, FINANCIAL, and LEGAL REPERCUSSIONS, which sounds more like a due diligence procedure for a government contract than a proper How Do I Love Thee Let me Count The Ways.

# 2011 Oct 1 • From the 'Life' dept • love marriage• 5