So here are my take-aways from the Woz’s talk tonight:
- He wanted to be a teacher if he wasn’t an engineer, and even taught for 8 years…somewhere…he didn’t say where.
- He didn’t want to quit HP to start Apple because he was too loyal to quit, but finally quit when a family member told him he would end up a manager and not an engineer.
- He created the first universal remote for his personal convenience…he had too many remotes before most people even had one.
- He’s a big fan of open-source because he likes to tinker with his gadgets. (Yet Apple is one of the most closed-source companies there is.)
- Apple owes much of their simplistic design to his dislike of complicated interfaces.
- He thinks books should be digital, although he still thinks they will sell books in airports.
- He thinks schools should just let kids come and hang out and learn and the teachers should come by and talk with them every couple of days (what?).
- His current favorite gadget is his iPhone, but his laptop is most useful. (What? No iPad?)
- And last but not least, if he doesn’t understand the question he’s being asked, he’ll tell you that, then talk about some random piece of Apple history or why he wants an android (a robot, not a phone), or a computer that can recognize his face and read his thoughts, or something like that.
God love you, Steve. I respect your genius and your quirks.
