would
s tarve.
And I have
learned at Atari that
I could be an okay engineer, so
I always knew I could get by. I was vol-
untarily poor when I was in college, and
India, and I lived a pretty simple life even
when I was working. So I went from fairly
poor, which was wonderful, because I
didn’t have to worry about money, to be-
ing incredibly rich, when I also didn’t have
to worry about money.
I watched people at Apple who made a lot
of money and felt they had to live differ-
ently. Some of them bought a Rolls-Royce
and various houses, each with a house
manager and then someone to manage
the house managers. Their wives got
plastic surgery and turned into these bi-
zarre people. This was not how I wanted
to live. It’s crazy. I made a promise to my-
self that I’m not going to let money ruin
my life.
Philanthropy …
Despite his vast wealth, Steve Jobs
was not particularly philanthropic. It
is noted that he donated $5000 to help
launch Larry Brilliant’s Seva Foundation,
to fight diseases of poverty. He always
hated those who talked much about the
virtues of philanthropy.
He was not a fan of giving gifts either. His
biggest personal gift was to his parents,
Paul and Clara Jobs, to whom he gave
about $750,000 worth of stock. They sold
some to pay off the mortgage on their Los
Altos home.
Despite his new fame and fortune, he still
fancied himself as a child of the counter-
culture. On a visit to a Stanford class, he
took off his blazer and his shows, perched
on top of a table, and crossed his legs
into a lotus position. The students asked
questions. Jobs then asked questions
like, “How many of you are virgins?” There
were nervous giggles. “How many of you
have taken LSD?” he asked. More ner-
vous laughter, and only one or two hands
went up. Later Jobs would complain about
the new generation of kids, who seemed
to him more materialistic and careerist
than his own. “Now students aren’t even
thinking in idealistic terms, or at least no-
where near as much,” he said. His gen-
eration, he said, was different.
The MAC is born
When Jobs was looking for someone to
write a manual for the Apple II in 1976 for
$50, he called Jef Raskin. Jef Raskin was
the type of character who could enthrall
Steve Jobs, or annoy him. A philosophi-
cal guy, Raskin had studied computer sci-
ence. His 1967 doctoral thesis at U.C. San
Diego argued that computers should have
graphical rather than text-based interfac-
es. Raskin began working at Apple and
became Apple’s publishing department
director. In 1979, Raskin succeeded in
convincing Mike Markkula to entrust him
with managing a small development proj-
ect he called ANNIE. Because Raskin was
convinced that giving computers female
names was unethical, he changed the
name to Mcintosh, after his favorite kind
of apples but he changed the spelling to
be Macintosh, so that it would not conflict
with the name of the audio system manu-
facturer McIntosh Laboratory. Raskin de-
cided that the cost of the new device will
not exceed $1000 and to be easy to use
and for the price to include the monitor,
keyboard and the entire machine.
Next Episode:
• Macintosh …
Crazy Great Machine
He loved Porsche
cars and Henckels
knives. His houses
were furnished so
simply
25
August
2014
