Wejangan Ti Ua Steve Jobs

Dua pekan lalu, AstroTV beberapa kali menayangkan film Pirates of Silicon Valley, yang mengisahkan bagaimana Bill Gates dan Steve Jobs muda mulai merintis bisnisnya, dan kini menjadi raja-raja di Lembah Silicon. Bill Gates menjadi raja peranti lunak melalui Microsoft Corp dan selama 13 tahun menjadi orang terkaya sejagad. Sementara itu Steve Jobs menjadi raja peranti keras melalui Apple Macintosh, dan kini meraja-lela dengan iPod dan iPhone. Ternyata, kedua orang hebat itu menjadi raja dari “mencuri”.

Film ini amat menarik. Bukan hanya menggambarkan perbedaan karakter Bill Gates dan Steve Jobs. Tetapi juga dilengkapi dengan berbagai kutipan orang-orang top. Misalnya ada kutipan kalimat gembong mafia:

“Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer“.

Kalau mau berhasil, kita mesti lebih mendekat ke pesaing daripada ke teman-teman kita sendiri. Ada juga kalimat

“Good artists copy, great artists steal”

yang sangat terkenal dari Picasso.

Foto: Steve Jobs dan Bill Gates muda di Pirates of Silicon Valley

“Good artists copy, great artists steal.”

Begitulah kata pelukis dan pematung asal Andalusia, Spanyol, Pablo Picasso. Ungkapan itu mungkin terkesan naif, tapi begitulah yang kerap terjadi di dunia ini. Banyak bukti yang menunjukkan bahwa banyak seniman atau penemu hebat lahir karena “mencuri” ide. Persis seperti yang dikatakan Picasso.

Kehebatan temuan Steve Jobs dan Bill Gates adalah contoh kecil tentang berlakunya “hukum” Picasso itu. Lihatlah Steve Jobs, bos Apple Inc, saat dia masih muda. Dia baru saja mencukur jenggot lebatnya saat komputer Apple pertama mulai diminati orang. Tapi resep cukur jenggot itu tak langsung melambungkan namanya, juga perusahaannya. Apple tetap secuil kuku dibandingkan dengan IBM, yang dikenal sebagai Raksasa Biru.

Penjualannya baru benar-benar mengguncang daratan Amerika Serikat setelah Steve Jobs dan timnya melahirkan komputer dengan tampilan grafis yang memukau, saat itu. Ya, Macintosh-lah yang telah menuliskan sejarah kehebatan Jobs. Saat IBM atau Altair, penemu komputer meja pertama yang menggandeng Microsoft, menyodorkan tampilan melulu teks yang membosankan, Apple muncul dengan desain grafis cantik. Tinggal klik dengan mouse, semua urusan beres.

Tampilan grafis dan tetikus (mouse) itulah temuan terhebat pertama Jobs. Tapi, tunggu dulu, dua temuan terhebat ini ternyata bukan temuan orisinal Steve Jobs dan gengnya. Mereka menjiplaknya atau mencurinya dari Xerox yang tak memanfaatkan temuan itu. Begitulah menurut film Pirates of Silicon Valley. Film ini diangkat dari buku Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer yang ditulis oleh Paul Freiberger dan Michael Swaine.

Begini kisahnya: di sebuah siang, saat matahari menyapa langit San Francisco yang kerap membikin orang menggigil, Jobs dan teman karibnya, Steve Wozniak, serta beberapa programmer Apple Inc duduk bersama. Otak-otak mereka sedang beradu ide untuk melentingkan penjualan komputer dengan sebuah temuan baru. Seperti biasa, Jobs meniupkan dogmanya. “Kita harus menulis ulang sejarah manusia dengan temuan kita.”

Lalu sebuah ide brilian–dan sedikit nakal–menyambar otak mereka. “Mengapa kita tak mengambil ide tampilan grafis Xerox saja,” kata salah satu dari mereka. Lalu mereka pun meluncur ke pusat riset Xerox dan mengantongi temuan yang tak dilirik Xerox itu dengan harga sangat murah.

“Good artists copy, great artists steal,” kata Jobs menirukan ucapan Picasso. Sejak itulah kejayaan komputer Apple dengan cita rasa seni tinggi berkibar-kibar.

Bill Gates dan Microsoft saat itu masih remah-remah. Mereka tak bisa mengalahkan nilai seni–serta uang–Apple Inc. Keadaan itu baru berbalik setelah Bill Gates “mencuri” ide Apple tentang tampilan grafis dengan melahirkan Windows. Era Windows adalah titik kebangkitan Microsoft.

Kini orang terkesima kepada seniman hebat yang juga “pencuri”. Ia adalah Cina. Negeri ini kerap dicemooh sebagai tukang jiplak. Apa saja ditiru, dari yang kecil-kecil, seperti peniti dan jepit rambut, hingga kacamata Oakley, tas Gucci, dan mobil. Tapi lihat apa yang dilakukan Cina. Kini mereka menjadi eksportir terbesar di dunia. Juli lalu, menurut Guardian, nilai ekspor Cina mencatat rekor tertinggi, naik 16,8 persen dibanding tahun sebelumnya.

Apa kita harus jadi “pencuri” agar jadi seniman hebat?

Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates:

Simplicity vs Complexity

Taste

Perbedaan Steve Jobs dari inovator lainnya adalah di sisi taste of arts. Dalam sebuah wawancara di dokumenter PBS yang berjudul "Triumph of the Nerds" dia berkata bahwa dia tidak masalah dengan kesuksesan dari Microsoft. "The problem is, they don't have taste," katanya. Itu dia bedanya. Maka bisa kita lihat perbedaan produk Microsoft dengan Apple.

Dalam wawancara dengan Andy Hertzfeld (salah seorang pengembang awal dari Macintosh) di NerdTV, Andy menceritakan bahwa Steve Jobs merasa kurang enak dengan kata-katanya tersebut. Kemudian Steve menelepon Bill Gates. "Maaf, saya mengatakan itu di TV. Seharusnya saya tidak mengatakan hal itu di TV." Kemudian dia lanjutkan,

"but, it's true you have no taste!" Ha ha ha.

Kemudian Steve Jobs dan Bill Gates berdebat mengenai hal tersebut. Bill Gates berkata bahwa meskipun dia tidak punya taste, bukan berarti Microsoft tidak punya taste.

(Jadi Bill Gates mengaku tidak punya taste?)

Kegilaan Steve Jobs dengan desain yang bagus tercermin dalam produk yang dia hasilkan semenjak jaman komputer Apple II, kemudian ke Macintosh (meskipun ada cerita rame di belakangnya), ke NeXT computer dengan NeXTstep OSnya, ke iPod, dan ... oh terus tidak ada hentinya. Apple II merupakan komputer pertama yang memiliki form factor yang didesain untuk produk konsumer. Sebelum-sebelumnya, komputer hanya dibuat dalam kotak saja. Kemudian kita lihat komputer NeXT yang berbentuk kubus (cube) dengan monitor yang memiliki alas kaki yang tipis. Demikian pula dengan iPod yang mulus. Semua desainnya menunjukkan kesederhanaan (simplicity). (Lihat bagian referensi mengenai perbedaan style presentasi antara Bill Gates dan Steve Jobs.)

Oh ya, saya memiliki komputer Apple II asli, pernah menggunakan NeXT computer dalam bekerja (itulah sebabnya saya mengetahui adanya WWW karena Tim Berners-Lee - sang penemu WWW dan HTML - juga menggunakan NeXT computer), saya juga memiliki iBook G4 dengan Mac OS X. Yang belum saya miliki adalah iPod (dan mungkin G5?)

Saya percaya bahwa kesukaan Steve Jobs akan seni ini sudah ada sejak dia lahir, tapi ada jalur kehidupannya yang membuat dia menjadi demikian. Dalam "commencement speech" di Stanford University tahun 2005 ( transkripada di sini, audio file ada di sini ), Steve Jobs menceritakan pengalaman hidupnya. Salah satunya adalah pengalaman dia drop out dari sekolah. Reed College, tempat dia sekolah dulu, merupakan salah satu sekolah yang terbaik dalam bidang kaligrafi di Amerika. Karena tidak ada kerjaan, maka Steve Jobs mengikuti kuliah kaligrafi ini. (Tidak tahu apakah dia mendaftarkan atau hanya sekedar ikutan saja.) Dia belajar mengenai serif dan sans-serif typeface, jarak antara karakter, dan hal-hal yang membuat tipografi indah. Hal ini yang mempengaruhi dia ketika dia membuat komputer Macintosh, komputer pertama yang memiliki tipografi yang indah. Kalau saja dia tidak mengikuti kelas kaligrafi tersebut (dan mungkin kalau saja dia tidak drop out) maka mungkin kita tidak akan punya komputer yang memiliki tampilan yang indah. Poin saya, Steve Jobs memang menyukai keindahan.

Perfeksionis

Ah. Ini aspek Steve Jobs yang membuat dia dicintai dan sekaligus dibenci oleh orang. Steve Jobs tidak memperkenankan Anda untuk berhenti bekerja apabila hasilnya belum sesuai dengan keinginannya. Biar besok mau lebaran atau natalan, kalau belum selesai, maka Anda belum boleh pulang! Jika karya (program) Anda belum sesuai dengan standar yang dia inginkan, maka Anda harus menulis ulang. Tidak peduli bahwa menurut Anda karya Anda tersebut sudah hebat dan Anda sudah menghabiskan tiga bulan untuk membuat program tersebut.

Orang heran mengapa pengguna Apple memiliki kecintaan yang erat kepada produknya. Pernah menghina produk Apple di depan penggemar Apple? Bisa-bisa Anda dilempar dengan bakiak. Bagaimana timbulnya rasa kecintaan ini? Kecuali untuk mobil kelas atas, kita jarang melihat hal ini. Saya belum pernah melihat orang begitu cintanya kepada mesin ketik brother sehingga kemana-mana dia banggakan.

Steve Jobs mengatakan bahwa kalau kita membuat produk dengan passion, maka pengguna produk tersebut dapat merasakan adanya spirit tersebut. Maka dia menuntut hal tersebut dari developernya.

Steve Jobs
Jobs holding a MacBook Air at Macworld Conference & Expo 2008
Born	Steven P. Jobs February 24, 1955 (1955-02-24) (age 53)[1] San Francisco, California, U.S.A.[1]
Occupation	Chairman and CEO of Apple Inc.[2] Board of Directors of Walt Disney Company
Salary	US$1[3][4] [5]
Net worth	▼US $5.4 billion (2008 Forbes) [6]
Spouse(s)	Laurene Powell
Children	4

Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is the co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc and former CEO of Pixar Animation Studios.

In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, created one of the first commercially successful personal computers. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of the mouse-driven GUI (Graphical User Interface).^[7] After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets. NeXT's subsequent 1997 buyout by Apple Inc. brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he has served as its CEO since then. Steve Jobs was listed as Fortune Magazine's Most Powerful Businessman of 2007.^[8]

In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios.^[9] He remained CEO and majority shareholder until its acquisition by the Walt Disney Company in 2006.^[2] Jobs is currently the Walt Disney Company's largest individual shareholder and a member of its Board of Directors.^[10][11] He is considered a leading figure in both the computer and entertainment industries.

Jobs's history in business has contributed greatly to the myths of the quirky, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of design while understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His work driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant has earned him a devoted following.^[12]

Biography

Early years

Jobs was born in San Francisco^[1] and was adopted by Justin and Clara (née Hagopian) Jobs of Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California who named him Steven Paul. His biological parents, Joanne Carole Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali^[13] — a graduate student from Syria who became a political science professor^[13] — later married and gave birth to Jobs's sister, the novelist Mona Simpson.

Jobs attended Cupertino Junior High School and Homestead High School in Cupertino, California,^[12] and frequented after-school lectures at the Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, California. He was soon hired there and worked with Steve Wozniak as a summer employee.^[14] In 1972, Jobs graduated from high school and enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Although he dropped out after only one semester,^[15] he continued auditing classes at Reed, such as one in calligraphy. "If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts," he said.^[16]

In the autumn of 1974, Jobs returned to California and began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with Steve Wozniak. He took a job as a technician at Atari, a manufacturer of popular video games, with the primary intent of saving money for a spiritual retreat to India.

Jobs then backpacked around India with a Reed College friend (and, later, the first Apple employee), Daniel Kottke, in search of philosophical enlightenment. He came back with his head shaved and wearing traditional Indian clothing. During this time, Jobs experimented with LSD, calling these experiences "one of the two or three most important things [he had] done in [his] life."^[17] He has stated that people around him who did not share his countercultural roots could not understand certain aspects of his thinking.^[17]

He returned to his previous job at Atari and was given the task of creating a circuit board for the game Breakout. According to Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell, Atari had offered US$100 for each chip that was reduced in the machine. Jobs had little interest or knowledge in circuit board design and made a deal with Wozniak to split the bonus evenly between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips. Much to the amazement of Atari, Wozniak reduced the number of chips by 50, a design so tight that it was impossible to reproduce on an assembly line. At the time, Jobs told Wozniak that Atari had only given them US$600 (instead of the actual US$5000) and that Wozniak's share was thus US$300.^{[18][19][20][21][22][23]}

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at D5

Beginnings of Apple Computer

See also: History of Apple

In 1976, Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak, with funding from multimillionaire A.C. "Mike" Markkula, founded Apple. Before Wozniak co-founded Apple with Jobs, he was an electronics hacker. Jobs and Wozniak had been friends for some time, having met in 1971, when their mutual friend, Bill Fernandez, introduced 21-year-old Wozniak to 16-year-old Jobs. Steve Jobs managed to interest Wozniak in assembling a computer and selling it. As Apple continued to expand, the company began looking for an experienced executive to help manage its expansion. In 1983, Steve Jobs lured John Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola, to serve as Apple's CEO, saying, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water to children, or do you want a chance to change the world?"^[24][25] The following year, Apple set out to do just that, starting with a Super Bowl television commercial titled, "1984." Two years later, at Apple's annual shareholders meeting on January 24, 1984, an emotional Jobs introduced the Macintosh to a wildly enthusiastic audience; Andy Hertzfeld described the scene as "pandemonium."^[26] The Macintosh became the first commercially successful small computer with a graphical user interface. The development of the Mac was started by Jef Raskin, and eventually taken over by Jobs.

While Jobs was a persuasive and charismatic director for Apple, some of his employees from that time had described him as an erratic and temperamental manager. An industry-wide sales slump towards the end of 1984 caused a deterioration in Jobs's working relationship with Sculley, and at the end of May 1985 – following an internal power struggle and an announcement of significant layoffs – Sculley relieved Jobs of his duties as head of the Macintosh division.^[27]

NeXT Computer

See also: NeXT

Around the same time, Jobs founded another computer company, NeXT Computer. Like the Apple Lisa, the NeXT workstation was technologically advanced; however, it was largely dismissed by industry as cost-prohibitive. Among those who could afford it, however, the NeXT workstation garnered a strong following because of its technical strengths, chief among them its object-oriented software development system. Jobs marketed NeXT products to the scientific and academic fields because of the innovative, experimental new technologies it incorporated (such as the Mach kernel, the digital signal processor chip, and the built-in Ethernet port).

The NeXT Cube was described by Jobs as an "interpersonal" computer, which he believed was the next step after "personal" computing. That is, if computers could allow people to communicate and collaborate together in an easy way, it would solve a lot of the problems that "personal" computing had come up against. During a time when e-mail for most people was plain text, Jobs loved to demo the NeXT's e-mail system, NeXTMail, as an example of his "interpersonal" philosophy. NeXTMail was one of the first to support universally visible, clickable embedded graphics and audio within e-mail.

Jobs ran NeXT with an obsession for aesthetic perfection, as evidenced by such things as the NeXTcube's magnesium case. This put considerable strain on NeXT's hardware division, and in 1993, after having sold only 50,000 machines, NeXT transitioned fully to software development with the release of NeXTSTEP/Intel.

Return to Apple

Steve Jobs on stage at Macworld Conference & Expo, San Francisco, January 11, 2005.

See also: "1998 to 2005: New beginnings" in Apple Inc.

In 1996, Apple announced that it would buy NeXT for US$429 million. The deal was finalized in late 1996,^[28] bringing Jobs back to the company he founded. He soon became Apple's interim CEO after the directors lost confidence in and ousted then-CEO Gil Amelio in a boardroom coup. In March 1998, in order to concentrate Apple's efforts on returning to profitability, Jobs immediately terminated a number of projects such as Newton, Cyberdog, and OpenDoc. In the coming months, many employees developed a fear of encountering Jobs while riding in the elevator, "afraid that they might not have a job when the doors opened. The reality was that Jobs's summary executions were rare, but a handful of victims was enough to terrorize a whole company."^[29]

With the purchase of NeXT, much of the company's technology found its way into Apple products, notably NeXTSTEP, which evolved into Mac OS X. Under Jobs's guidance the company increased sales significantly with the introduction of the iMac and other new products; since then, appealing designs and powerful branding have worked well for Apple. At the 2000 Macworld Expo, Jobs officially dropped the "interim" modifier from his title at Apple and became permanent CEO. Jobs quipped at the time that he would be using the title 'iCEO'. ^[30]

In recent years, the company has branched out, introducing and improving upon other digital appliances. With the introduction of the iPod portable music player, iTunes digital music software, and the iTunes Store, the company made forays into consumer electronics and music distribution. In 2007, Apple entered the cellular phone business with the introduction of the iPhone, a multi-touch display cell phone, iPod, and internet device. While stimulating innovation, Jobs also reminds his employees that "real artists ship",^[31] by which he means that delivering working products on time is as important as innovation and attractive design.

Jobs is both admired and criticized for his consummate skill at persuasion and salesmanship, which has been dubbed the "reality distortion field" and is particularly evident during his keynote speeches (colloquially known as "Stevenotes") at Macworld Expos and at Apple's own World Wide Developers Conferences.

In 2005, Jobs responded to criticism of Apple's poor recycling programs for e-waste in the U.S. by lashing out at environmental and other advocates at Apple's Annual Meeting in Cupertino in April. However, a few weeks later, Apple announced it would take back iPods for free at its retail stores. The Computer TakeBack Campaign responded by flying a banner from a plane over the Stanford University graduation at which Jobs was the commencement speaker. The banner read "Steve — Don't be a mini-player recycle all e-waste". In 2006 he further expanded Apple's recycling programs to any U.S. customer who buys a new Mac. This program includes shipping and "environmentally friendly disposal" of their old systems.^[32]

Stock options issue

In 2001, Steve Jobs was granted stock options in the amount of 7,500,000 shares of Apple with an exercise price of US$18.30, which allegedly should have been US$21.10, thereby incurring taxable income of $20,000,000 that he did not report as income. Apple overstated its earnings by that same amount. If found liable, Jobs may face a number of criminal charges and civil penalties. Apple claimed that the options were originally granted at a special board meeting that may never have taken place. Furthermore, the investigation is focusing on false dating of the options resulting in a retroactive US$20 million increase in the exercise price. The case is the subject of active criminal and civil government investigations,^[33] though an independent internal Apple investigation completed on December 29, 2006 found that Jobs was unaware of these issues and that the options granted to him were returned without being exercised in 2003.^[34] On July 1, 2008 a $7B class action suit was filed against several members of the Apple Board of Directors for revenue lost due to the alleged securities fraud.^[35][36]

Pixar and Disney

In 1986, Jobs bought The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar) from Lucasfilm's computer graphics division for the price of US$10 million, US$5 million of which was given to the company as capital.^[37] The major cause of the low purchase price was George Lucas' need to finance his 1983 divorce without significantly reducing his stock and control of the Star Wars enterprises.

The new company, which was originally based in San Rafael, California but has since relocated to Emeryville, California, was initially intended to be a high-end graphics hardware developer. After years of unprofitability selling the Pixar Image Computer, it contracted with Disney to produce a number of computer-animated feature films, which Disney would co-finance and distribute.

The first film produced by the partnership, Toy Story, brought fame and critical acclaim to the studio when it was released in 1995. Over the next ten years, under Pixar's creative chief John Lasseter, the company would produce the box-office hits A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Cars (2006), Ratatouille (2007), and WALL-E (2008) . Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille each received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, an award introduced in 2001. In the years 2003 and 2004, as Pixar's contract with Disney was running out, Jobs and Disney chief executive Michael Eisner tried but failed to negotiate a new partnership, and in early 2004 Jobs announced that Pixar would seek a new partner to distribute its films once its contract with Disney expired. Personal animosity between the two executives was largely blamed for the companies' failure to renew their partnership.^{[citation needed]}

In October 2005, Bob Iger replaced Eisner at Disney, and Iger quickly worked to patch up relations with Jobs and Pixar. On January 24, 2006, Jobs and Iger announced that Disney had agreed to purchase Pixar in an all-stock transaction worth US$7.4 billion. Once the deal closed, Jobs became The Walt Disney Company's largest single shareholder with approximately 7% of the company's stock.^[10] Jobs's holdings in Disney far exceed those of Eisner, who holds 1.7%, and Disney family member Roy E. Disney, who holds about 1% of the company's stock and whose criticisms of Eisner included the soured Pixar relationship and accelerated his ousting. Jobs joined the company's board of directors upon completion of the merger.

Wikinews has related news:

Disney buys Pixar

Jobs also helps oversee Disney and Pixar's combined animation businesses with a seat on a special six-man steering committee. One of the committee's first decisions was to discontinue the production of so-called "cheapquels" (cheap direct-to-video sequels). Many also see Jobs as a valuable and influential advisor to Iger and Disney on technology matters.

Management style

Much has been made of Jobs's aggressive and demanding personality. Fortune noted that he "is considered one of Silicon Valley's leading egomaniacs."^[38] Commentaries on his temperamental style can be found in Mike Moritz’s The Little Kingdom, one of the few authorized biographies of Jobs; Jeffrey S. Young’s unauthorized Steve Jobs: The Journey Is the Reward; The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, by Alan Deutschman; and iCon: Steve Jobs, by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon.

In iCon: Steve Jobs the authors point out that Paul Jobs, who adopted Steve, was also known to be aggressive: "Paul was soon hired as a kind of strongarm man by a finance company that sought help collecting on auto loans — an early repo man. Both his bulk and his aggressive personality were well suited to this somewhat dangerous pursuit, and his mechanical bent enabled him to pick the locks of the cars he had to repossess and hot-wire them if necessary."

In the 1996 documentary Triumph of the Nerds, the reaction to Jobs's famous firing from Apple by CEO John Sculley and the Apple Board of Directors was discussed by various people:

Jobs has always aspired to position Apple and its products at the forefront of the information technology industry by foreseeing and setting trends, at least in terms of innovation and style. He summed up that self-concept at the end of his keynote speech at the Macworld Conference and Expo in January 2007 by quoting ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky:^[39]

Personal life

Jobs married Laurene Powell, on March 18, 1991. Presiding over the wedding was the Zen Buddhist monk Kobun Chino.^[40] The couple have three children. Jobs also has a daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs (born May 17, 1978), born to Chrisann Brennan, an early girlfriend.[1] She briefly raised their daughter on welfare when Jobs denied paternity, claiming that he was sterile.[2] Lisa Brennan-Jobs is a journalist who wrote for The Harvard Crimson, and Apple's Lisa Computer was named for her.

In the unauthorized biography The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, author Alan Deutschman reports that Jobs once dated Joan Baez. Deutschman quotes Elizabeth Holmes, a friend of Jobs from his time at Reed College, as saying she "believed that Steve became the lover of Joan Baez in large measure because Baez had been the lover of Bob Dylan." In another unauthorized biography, iCon: Steve Jobs by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon, the authors suggest that Jobs might have married Baez, but her age at the time (41) meant it was unlikely the couple could have children. Baez included a mention of Jobs in the acknowledgments of her 1987 memoir And A Voice To Sing With.

Steve Jobs is also a devoted Beatles fan. He has referenced them on more than one occasion at Keynotes and also was interviewed on a showing of a Paul McCartney concert. When asked about his Business Model on 60 Minutes, he replied:

In 1982, Jobs bought an apartment in The San Remo, an apartment building in New York City with a politically progressive reputation, where Demi Moore, Steven Spielberg, Steve Martin, and Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, daughter of Rita Hayworth, also had apartments. With the help of I.M. Pei, Jobs spent years renovating his apartment in the top two floors of the building's north tower, only to sell it almost two decades later to U2 frontman Bono. Jobs had never moved in.^[41][42]

In 1984, Jobs purchased a 17,000-square-foot (1,600 m²), 14 bedroom Spanish Colonial mansion, designed by George Washington Smith in Woodside, California, also known as Jackling House. Although it reportedly remained in an almost unfurnished state, Jobs lived in the mansion for ten years. According to reports, he kept an old BMW motorcycle in the living room, and let Bill Clinton use it in 1998. He allowed the mansion to fall into a state of disrepair, planning to demolish the house and build a smaller home on the property; but he met with complaints from local preservationists over his plans. In June 2004, the Woodside Town Council gave Jobs approval to demolish the mansion, on the condition that he advertise the property for a year to see if someone would move it to another location and restore it. A number of people expressed interest, including several with experience in restoring old property, but no agreements to that effect were reached. Later that same year, a local preservationist group began seeking legal action to prevent demolition. In January 2007 Jobs was denied the right to demolish the property, by a court decision.^[43]

He usually wears a black long-sleeved mock turtleneck made by St. Croix, Levis 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 992 sneakers.^[44]

Jobs had a public war of words with Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell, starting when Jobs first criticized Dell for making "un-innovative beige boxes." On October 6, 1997, in a Gartner Symposium, when Michael Dell was asked what he would do if he owned then-troubled Apple Computer, he said "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."^[45] In 2006, Steve Jobs sent an email to all employees when Apple's market capitalisation rose above Dell's. The email read:

In 2005, Steve Jobs banned all books published by John Wiley & Sons from the Apple retail stores in response to their publishing an unauthorized biography, iCon: Steve Jobs.^[47]

When Jobs spoke at the Stanford Commencement, he spoke frankly about his opinions on entrepreneurship, work, and life. He reflected on what kept him going through challenging times: "I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going is that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love." He continued to stress the importance of "finding something you love" and "following your own inner voice." (The full podcast of his speech can be downloaded free from the iTunes music store, the video at YouTube.com and the text can be found here)

In May 2007, Jobs recommended Al Gore to run in the U.S. Presidential Race.^[48]

Health concerns

In mid-2004, Jobs announced to his employees that he had been diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his pancreas.^[49] The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is usually very grim; Jobs, however, stated that he had a rare, far less aggressive type known as islet cell neuroendocrine tumor.^[49][50] After initially resisting the idea of conventional medical intervention and embarking on a special diet to thwart the disease, Jobs underwent in July 2004 a pancreaticoduodenectomy (or "Whipple procedure") that successfully removed the tumor.^[51][52][53] Jobs apparently did not require nor receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy.^[49][54] (During his absence, Timothy D. Cook, head of worldwide sales and operations at Apple, ran the company.)^[49] As of 2008, there was reportedly no evidence of identifiable cancer four years after surgery.

In early August 2006, Jobs delivered the keynote for Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. His “thin, almost gaunt” appearance and unusually “listless” delivery,^[55][56] together with his choice to delegate significant portions of his keynote to other presenters, inspired a flurry of media and internet speculation about his health.^[57] In contrast, according to an Ars Technica journal report, WWDC attendees who saw Jobs in person said he “looked fine”;^[58] following the keynote, an Apple spokesperson said that "Steve's health is robust."^[59]

Two years later, similar concerns followed Jobs' 2008 WWDC keynote address:

• June 10, 2008: The Wall Street Journal notes reactions over Steve Jobs appearance.^[60] Apple blames his cachexia on a "common bug" and that Jobs was taking antibiotics.^[61]

• June 11, 2008: An interviewer at CNBC.com writes:^[62]

• June 13, 2008: Fortune magazine publishes an article concerning the Whipple procedure, which they believe Steve Jobs underwent.^[63]

• July 21, 2008: Apple earnings conference call participants respond to questions about Steve Jobs's health by insisting that it is a "private matter."

• July 26, 2008: The New York Times publishes an article based on an off-the-record phone conversation between Steve Jobs and Times columnist Joseph Nocera in which he writes that:^[64]

• August 28, 2008: Bloomberg mistakenly published a 2500-word obituary to Jobs in its corporate news service, containing blank spaces for his age and cause of death. (It is standard practice for news carriers to stockpile up-to-date obituaries in order to facilitate the fast spread of news in the event of an untimely death of a well-known figure.) Although the mistake was very quickly rectified, this was not enough to stop the error from being picked up by many news carriers and blogs,^[65][66][67] intensifying rumours concerning Jobs' health.^[68] Jobs responded to this at Apple's September 2008 keynote Let's Rock by quoting Mark Twain:^[69]

• October 3, 2008: A "citizen blogger" posted a story on CNN's iReport Web site, claiming that Steve Jobs was rushed to hospital after apparently suffering a heart attack. ^[70][71]

In popular culture

Jobs was prominently featured in three films about the history of the personal computing industry.

• Triumph of the Nerds— a 1996 three-part documentary for PBS, about the rise of the home computer/personal computer.
• Nerds 2.0.1— a 1998 three-part documentary for PBS, (and sequel to Triumph of the Nerds) which chronicles the development of the Internet.
• Pirates of Silicon Valley — a 1999 docudrama which chronicles the rise of Apple and Microsoft. He was portrayed by Noah Wyle.

Honors

He was awarded the National Medal of Technology from President Ronald Reagan in 1985 with Steve Wozniak (the first people to ever receive the honor), and the Jefferson Award for Public Service in 1987.

On November 27, 2007, Jobs was named the most powerful person in business by Fortune Magazine.

On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Jobs into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.^[72]

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Steve Jobs

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Steve Jobs

• Thirty Years of Innovation at Apple: Jobs on the Job
• Steve Jobs's Executive Profile at Apple
• Pictures of Steve Jobs delivering the Keynote address at Apple Expo Paris on September 16, 2003
• All about Steve extensive & short biographies, pictures, movies & interviews of or related to Steve Jobs.
• YouTube video of first Jobs's Macworld keynote in 1997, when he returned to Apple, where he announced partnership with Microsoft.
• Jobs’s commencement address at Stanford University, June 12, 2005 (YouTube video).
  • Transcript of above address. (Note: This written transcript differs slightly in wording from Job’s actual oral address above.)
• Entire As-delivered Transcript, Audio, Video of Jobs' Stanford Commencement Address AmericanRhetoric.com
• Steve Jobs at the Internet Movie Database
• Steve Jobs Compensation
• "Thoughts on Music" by Steve Jobs, 2007-02-06

Articles

• Anecdotes from Steve Jobs's early days in Apple as reported by Andy Hertzfeld.
• Lohr, Steve (1997-01-12). "Creating Jobs". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-10-27.
• Booth, Cathy (1997-08-18). "Steve's job: restart Apple". Time. Retrieved on 2007-10-27.
• Elkind, Peter (2008-03-05). "The trouble with Steve Jobs". Fortune. Retrieved on 2008-03-05.

Interviews

• Smithsonian Institution Oral History InterviewPDF (143 KiB) — 1995-04-20
• Rolling Stone, Steve Jobs: The Rolling Stone Interview – 2003-12-03
• BusinessWeek, The Seed of Apple's Innovation — 2004-10-12
• Fortune, How Big Can Apple Get? — 2005-02-21
• ‘Good for the Soul’ at the Internet Archive — Newsweek, 2006-10-15
• All Things D, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (video and transcript of on stage interview – 2007-05-30

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Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic

As a follow up to yesterday's post on Bill Gates' presentation style, I thought it would be useful to examine briefly the two contrasting visual approaches employed by Gates and Jobs in their presentations while keeping key aesthetic concepts found in Zen in mind. I believe we can use many of the concepts in Zen and Zen aesthetics to help us compare their presentation visuals as well as help us improve our own visuals. My point in comparing Jobs and Gates is not to poke fun but to learn.

Simplicity
A key tenet of the Zen aesthetic is kanso or simplicity. In the kanso concept beauty, grace, and visual elegance are achieved by elimination and omission. Says artist, designer and architect, Dr. Koichi Kawana, "Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means." When you examine your visuals, then, can you say that you are getting the maximum impact with a minimum of graphic elements, for example? When you take a look at Jobs' slides and Gates' slides, how do they compare for kanso?

"Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means."
— Dr. Koichi Kawana

Naturalness
The aesthetic concept of naturalness or shizen "prohibits the use of elaborate designs and over refinement" according to Kawana. Restraint, then, is a beautiful thing. Talented jazz musicians, for example, know never to overplay but instead to be forever mindful of the other musicians and find their own space within the music and within the moment they are sharing. Graphic designers show restraint by including only what is necessary to communicate the particular message for the particular audience. Restraint is hard. Complication and elaboration are easy...and are common.

The suggestive mode of expression is a key Zen aesthetic. Dr. Kawana, commenting on the design of traditional Japanese gardens says:

"The designer must adhere to the concept of miegakure since Japanese believe that in expressing the whole the interest of the viewer is lost."
— Dr. Koichi Kawana

In the world of PowerPoint presentations, then, you do not always need to visually spell everything out. You do not need to (nor can you) pound every detail into the head of each member of your audience either visually or verbally. Instead, the combination of your words, along with the visual images you project, should motivate the viewer and arouse his imagination helping him to empathize with your idea and visualize your idea far beyond what is visible in the ephemeral PowerPoint slide before him. The Zen aesthetic values include (but are not limited to):

• Simplicity
• Subtlety
• Elegance
• Suggestive rather than the descriptive or obvious
• Naturalness (i.e., nothing artificial or forced),
• Empty space (or negative space)
• Stillness, Tranquility
• Eliminating the non-essential

Gates and Jobs: lessons in contrasts
Take a look at some of the typical visuals used by Steve Jobs and those used by Bill Gates. As you look at them and compare them, try doing so while being mindful of the key concepts behind the traditional Zen aesthetic.

Above. Does it get more "Zen" than this? "Visual-Zen Master," Steve Jobs, allows the screen to fade completely empty at appropriate, short moments while he tells his story. In a great jazz performance much of the real power of the music comes from the spaces in between the notes. The silence gives more substance and meaning to the notes. A blank screen from time to time also makes images stronger when they do appear.

Also, it takes a confident person to design for the placement of empty slides. This is truly "going naked" visually. For most presenters a crowded slide is a crutch, or at least a security blanket. The thought of allowing the screen to become completely empty is scary. Now all eyes are on you.

Above. Gates here explaining the Live strategy. A lot of images and a lot of text. Usually Mr. Gates' slides have titles rather than more effective short declarative statements (this slide has neither). Good graphic design guides the viewer and has a clear hierarchy or order so that she knows where to look first, second, and so on. What is the communication priority of this visual? It must be the circle of clip art, but that does not help me much.

Dr. Kawana says that "to reach the essence of things, all non-essential elements must be eliminated." So what is the essence of the point being made with the help of this visual? Are any elements in this slide non-essential? At its core, what is the real point? These are always good questions to ask ourselves, too, when critiquing our own slides.

Above. Here Jobs is talking to developers at the WWDC'05 about the transition from the Power PC RISC chips to Intel. Sounds daunting, but as he said (and shows above) Apple has made daunting major shifts successfully before. (He also said sheepishly earlier in the the presentation, that every version of OSX secretly had an Intel version too...so this is not a new thing. The crowd laughed.).

A note on having an "open style"
One thing that would help Mr. Gates is an executive presentations coach and a video camera. One unfortunate habit he has is constantly bringing his finger tips together high across his chest while speaking. Often this leads to his hands being locked together somewhere across his chest. This gesture makes him seem uncomfortable and is a gesture reminiscent of The Simpsons' Mr. Burns. By contrast, Steve Jobs has a more open style and at least seems comfortable and natural with his gestures.

Above. Mr. Gates needs to read Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullet Points, ironically published by Microsoft Press. Atkinson says that "...bullet points create obstacles between presenters and audiences." He correctly claims that bullets tend to make our presentations formal and stiff, serve to "dumb down" our points, and lead to audiences being confused...and bored. Rather than running through points on a slide, Atkinson recommends presenters embrace the art of storytelling, and that visuals (slides) be used smoothly and simply to enhance the speaker's points as he tells his story. This can be done even in technical presentations, and it can certainly be done in high-tech business presentations.

The "Microsoft Method" of presentation?
The approach we've seen in Microsoft's last public presentation we can label the "Microsoft Method." This method is not different than the norm, in fact it is a perfect example of what Seth Godin and others call "Really Bad PowerPoint." Here's the rub: A great many professionals see the absurdity of this approach, even a great many professionals on the campus of Microsoft in Redmond. But change will continue to be slow, especially when the executives of the company which produces the most popular slideware program in the world use the program in the most uninspiring, albeit typical way.

Above. Chief technology Officer, Ray Ozzie follows the "Microsoft Method" too. (Left) Bullet No.3: "...interfaces through...interfaces"? (Right) Fundamental presentation rule: Do not stick your hands in your pockets. Informality is fine, but this is inappropriate even in the USA (and especially in cultures outside the U.S.).

Refrain: It all matters!
We've talked about many presentation methods here at Presentation Zen, methods that are different than the "normal" or the "expected" but also simple, clear, and effective. Who wants to be "average," "typical," or "normal"? Ridderstrale & Nordstorm say it best in Funky Business: "Normality is the route to nowhere." I'm not suggesting you "present different" for the sake of being different. I am saying that if you move far beyond what is typical and normal in the context of presentation design, you will be more effective and different and memorable. Maybe Microsoft can afford lousy PowerPoint presentations, but you and I can't. For "the rest of us," it all matters.

Can we learn from a Japanese garden?
Looking for inspiration in different places? Find a book on Japanese gardens (like this one from my friend, designer Markuz Wernli Saito) or visit one in your area (if you are lucky enough to have one). You can learn a bit here about the Zen aesthetic and Japanese gardens in this article by Dr. Kawana. Living here in Japan I have many chances to experience the Zen aesthetic, either while visiting a garden, practicing zazen in a Kyoto temple, or even while having a traditional Japanese meal out with friends. I am convinced that a visual approach which embraces the aesthetic concepts of simplicity and the removal of the nonessential can have practical applications in our professional lives and can lead ultimately to more enlightened design.

Steve Jobs: Sederhana.

Kebetulan saya pernah menyaksikan dua presentasi Steve Jobs pada acara peluncuran Apple Mac berbasis prosesor Intel dan peluncuran iPhone. Ia berdiri di panggung yang amat luas dengan layar raksasa. Di layar lebar itulah materi presentasinya terpampang. Sebuah materi presentasi yang sederhana. Kadang kosong. Lalu muncul gambar, tabel, dan sedikit teks untuk mendukung presentasinya.

Yang mengherankan, inovasi luar biasa penggunaan prosesor Intel ke dalam Apple Mac ataupun revolusi iPhone, bisa disampaikan dengan begitu detil, hanya dengan slide-slide presentasi yang sunyi. Ia “menggores kanvas presentasi” dengan penuturan cerita yang luar biasa. Ucapannya yang meluncur mulus dari bibirnya terangkai dengan indah menjadi kalimat yang enak didengar dan jelas. Gabungan antara kemampuan tutur plus kesederhanaan slide presentasi itu memberikan efek yang hebat ke pendengarnya. Saya tidak heran jika sahabat saya Boy Avianto, pakar usability dan dosen Binus Internasional, amat menggemari presentasi Steve Jobs.

Penasaran sama gaya presentasi Steve Jobs? Simak di sini.

Bill Gates: Rumit, Kaya.

Saya belum pernah menyaksikan presentasi Bill Gates. Namun dari blog Garr Reynolds saya tahu bahwa tipe slide presentasi Bill Gates kaya dengan text, bullet point dan gambar. Biasanya setiap slide dimulai dengan judul, kemudian isi — yang kemudian terbagi-bagi lagi dalam beberapa bullet. Hirarki presentasinya amat jelas, runtut, dari bullet pertama, kedua, ketiga dan seterusnya.

Jika Anda biasa menggunakan Microsoft PowerPoint, ya seperti itulah gaya presentasi Bill Gates. Seperti itu pulalah saya selama ini membuat materi presentasi. Sangat runtut dari satu halaman ke halaman berikutnya. Hirarki penuturan juga dibuat detil, ditulis satu persatu. Lengkap. Kompleks. Kaya.

Penasaran sama gaya presentasi Bill Gates? Simak di sini.

Sejauh ini saya tidak bermasalah dengan jenis presentasi yang rumit ini. Saya malah diuntungkan karena dengan cara seperti ini saya bisa menyampaikan sebuah materi dengan runtut pula. Tidak ada pesan yang terlupakan. Satu-satunya kelemahan adalah, peserta akan bosan kalau kita terjebak ke “membacakan materi presentasi” ketimbang “menuturkan dan berdialog dengan peserta”.

Setelah membaca dua kutub presentasi antara Steve Jobs dan Bill Gates ini, saya sedang berusaha menuju ke tipe Steve Jobs. Saya lebih menyukai tipe materi presentasi yang sederhana, tepat guna, namun dilengkapi dengan cara tutur yang berbobot, sehingga secara keseluruhan peserta mendapat banyak informasi di balik kesederhanaan materi presentasi.

Kalau Anda?

Jika tidak pernah presentasi namun sering mendengarkannya, jenis mana yang lebih Anda sukai?

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