CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 6:09
Make Something Wonderful: Care and Love as the Core Idea
David Senra introduces the free book Make Something Wonderful and reads Laurene Powell Jobs's introduction. He ties Steve's 2007 quote about making things with care and love to his disdain for spiritless products like Microsoft's.
- •The book is free from the Steve Jobs Archive and collects Steve's speeches, interviews and emails
- •Steve's 2007 quote: making something wonderful is a way of expressing appreciation to the rest of humanity
- •Steve hated products with no spirit, taste or humanity, and called Microsoft's products McDonald's
- •Caring about what you put out shows, and Steve was never motivated by money
- 6:09 – 15:04
Walking Through the Introduction: Rigor, Possibility and Edwin Land
Senra goes through lines of the introduction and connects each to other thinkers. He links arts-and-technology to Edwin Land, Steve's rigor to Kobe Bryant, and 'how things ought to be' to Dee Hock.
- •Steve learned the arts-and-technology intersection idea from Edwin Land
- •Kobe Bryant: others' expectations will never be higher than his own, as with Steve's standards
- •The rainbow quote and Steve's intolerance of slowness
- •Dee Hock's advice to design for how things ought to be
- •Biographies show people stumbling and growing, and the world is malleable
- 15:04 – 21:12
Growing Up in Silicon Valley: Workbench, Kits and School
After the sponsor reads, Senra moves into part one of the book. Steve describes his father's workbench, the electronics kits, and his dislike of school authority.
- •His father gave him a workbench and taught him to build and take things apart
- •Kits showed him that the things around us are human creations, not magic
- •His mother taught him to read before school, and school nearly beat the curiosity out of him
- •Senra cites Yvon Chouinard on studying the juvenile delinquent to understand entrepreneurs
- 21:12 – 26:55
Founding Apple: Selling a Van, the Byte Shop and No Takers
Leslie Berlin's overview and Steve's own account of building the Apple 1. They funded it by selling a VW Bus and a calculator, made a first big sale to the Byte Shop, and were turned down by HP and Atari.
- •Steve and Woz were part of a new generation building small, cheap machines while IBM dominated
- •The Macintosh team saw their work as a form of love, as a poet or painter would
- •The Byte Shop's order for 50 assembled computers led to a cash crunch
- •HP and Atari passed on the idea, so they started their own company
- 26:55 – 34:28
Early Speeches: Computers Beautiful, Books and Putting Something Back
Steve at 22 explains the personal computer to a reporter, and at 28 gives the Aspen design talk. Senra highlights spotting markets full of second-rate products and the idea of putting something back into human experience.
- •Steve compared personal computers to cameras and Edwin Land's photography courses
- •In 1983 he said great designers were not designing computers
- •People would spend more time with computers than in cars, so design mattered
- •Books kept him out of jail by giving access to Aristotle and Plato directly
- •The closing email explains the book's title: we constantly take, so we should put something back
- 34:28 – 40:17
Learning From History: The Telephone Analogy and Staying Stubborn
Steve explains the Macintosh through the telegraph and telephone, showing how he studied history. Senra quotes Michael Moritz and Steve's 1984 views on time and perseverance.
- •Steve said to expose yourself to the best things humans have done and steal great ideas
- •The telegraph needed 40 hours of Morse code, while the telephone used existing speech
- •The Mac was called the first telephone of the industry
- •Great products take only a bit more time and willingness to persevere
- 40:17 – 46:00
Fired from Apple: Building Things Again with NeXT and Pixar
After being pushed out, Steve says he wants to make things rather than retire with his money. Part two covers NeXT and Pixar struggling for years and the $60 million he put into Pixar, ending in Toy Story and the NeXT sale to Apple.
- •At 30 with about $70 million, Steve said he wanted to build things with talented people
- •His yardstick was that every future computer be at least as good as a Macintosh
- •He funded Pixar for about a decade, with roughly $60 million
- •Most overnight successes took a long time
- •His NeXT memo preferred fewer people, doers over managers
- 46:00 – 53:08
Character in Bad Times and the Andy Grove Email Exchange
Steve's 1991 Reed College speech says character is built in adversity. Senra then covers an email exchange where Steve demanded payment from Intel and Andy Grove corrected him, and Steve reversed course.
- •Character is built in bad times, and Steve credited a dean for generosity
- •Steve demanded Intel pay for Pixar's secrets
- •Andy Grove said friends help each other and things balance out
- •Steve changed his position 180 degrees and thanked Andy for the clearer perspective
- •Senra links this to Michael Jordan on listening
- 53:08 – 1:00:08
1996 Lost Interview: Web, Failure, Post-PC and Hierarchy of Ideas
Senra draws on Steve's 1996 interview, where he predicted the web as direct distribution and talked about not fearing failure. Steve diagnoses Apple's evaporated differentiation and describes a culture with no hierarchy of ideas.
- •He foresaw the web as direct-to-consumer distribution bypassing middlemen
- •Don't be afraid to fail, because you never achieve what you want without falling on your face
- •Apple's problem was that its differentiation evaporated
- •Post-PC devices were an idea he held for years before the iPhone
- •No hierarchy of ideas mapped onto the organizational hierarchy
- •Work and life were never separate things for him
- 1:00:08 – 1:06:17
Palo Alto High School Speech: Don't Be a Career, Think of Life as a Rainbow
Steve's high school graduation speech urges creativity, intuition and exploring unplanned paths. Senra adds his own view on founders regretting big companies, and the speech ends with mortality and regret.
- •Creativity is connecting previously unrelated experiences
- •Steve called the career one of the most stifling concepts, and urged making your vocation what you love
- •Senra notes founders often regret companies that grew into something they no longer enjoy
- •The journey is the reward, and the rainbow arcs and disappears
- •Regrets are things you didn't do, unlike mistakes
- 1:06:17 – 1:12:08
Pixar Editing, Hiring A Players and Telling People to Do Better
Steve explains what he learned from Disney about editing before you make and about storytelling. In the 1997 interview he describes how to find A players, his confrontational interview style, and his view of the CEO's job.
- •Disney taught that you must edit before you make
- •Technology can't turn a bad story into a good one, and Snow White still earns decades later
- •He spends 20% of his time recruiting and finds people through results
- •He criticizes prior work in interviews to see who pushes back
- •A CEO must tell people when work isn't good enough and that they can do better
- 1:12:08 – 1:23:54
Return to Apple: Focus, Caring About Apple and Think Different
Part three covers Steve's return, including the Stanford account of how he was called back and the friend who said he didn't care about Apple. Back at Apple, he cut 70% of the roadmap and set marketing around values with Think Different.
- •His years away were longer than his first stint, and he came back focused on recruiting, direction and persuasion
- •Choose carefully what you put your love into, so the product line shrank from 17 to four
- •A friend told him he didn't give a shit about Apple, which made him realize he did
- •He wrote that Apple still had something worth saving and asked to be challenged
- •Marketing is about values, modeled on Nike, with Think Different
- •He welcomed Newton protesters with coffee
- 1:23:54 – 1:30:59
Apple's Hierarchy of Skepticism and Emails to Himself
Steve describes how Apple's critics move up a hierarchy of questions. Senra covers Steve's emails to himself on Apple's purpose and the Aristotle quote on excellence as a habit.
- •The hierarchy ran from survival to stable business, product strategy and growth
- •Apple's market cap rose from $1.8 billion to about $4 billion in a year
- •A four-product matrix let the A team work on every product
- •His 2000 note described Apple as the bridge between mere mortals and high technology
- •Aristotle: excellence is not an act but a habit
- 1:30:59 – 1:45:46
Mentors, Asking for Help and Lessons from the 2003 Interviews
In a 2003 interview with Leslie Berlin, Steve talks about Bob Noyce and calling older founders for lunch. Senra adds his own notes, then covers Steve's Stanford GSB talk on focused messaging, retail, great people and management by values.
- •Steve called Noyce, Grove, Jerry Sanders and others, and they all said yes
- •Senra ties Noyce's wish to restock the stream to Sam Zell's sense of obligation
- •Optimism and passion matter because it's really hard
- •Apple's stores were meant to ambush the 95% who don't own its products
- •Management by values means agreeing where to go and then arguing how to get there
- 1:45:46 – 1:57:19
Drafting the Stanford Address: Meeting Laurene, Mortality and Dots
Senra reads Steve's emails to himself that became the Stanford commencement address. They cover meeting his wife, starting Apple with nothing to lose, remembering death, and connecting the dots backwards.
- •Steve asked whether he'd rather have dinner with customers or her on his last day, and he raced back to ask her
- •He told Woz they had nothing to lose and would invest in themselves
- •Senra notes reading biographies removes the illusion of having something to lose
- •Remembering death clears away others' expectations
- •The calligraphy class shows you can only connect the dots looking backward
- 1:57:19 – 2:01:22
iPhone, Gates and Final Words: Fleeting Glory and Resignation
Senra covers Steve's iPhone speech, Bill Gates's praise, and the 'All glory is fleeting' reply. He then reads Steve's late note on dependence on others and his resignation letter, closing on limited time.
- •The iPhone came from hating existing phones, not market research
- •Bill Gates praised Steve for building products he wants to use
- •Steve replied to Fortune's 'Beethoven of business' note with 'All glory is fleeting'
- •His late email reflects total dependence on others
- •His resignation letter recommended Tim Cook
