Chapter 39 let's be pirates
As the Macintosh team continued to expand, it moved from Texaco Tower to Apple's main campus on Bandley Drive, settling in Bandley 3 in mid-1983.There's a modern atrium lobby for video games, selected by Burrell Smith and Andy Herzfeld, and a Toshiba CD sound system with Martin Logan. Logan) speakers and 100 CDs.The employees of the software group can be seen from the lobby, their office area is enclosed by glass, it looks like they are in a fish tank, and the kitchen is stocked with Odwalla juice every day.Gradually, there were more and more playthings in the atrium, the most eye-catching ones being a Bösendorfer piano and a BMW motorcycle. Jobs felt that these things could make employees fall in love with the simple and elegant craftsmanship style.
Jobs kept a tight grip on the hiring process, aiming to hire creative, brilliant, and slightly rebellious people.The software group lets candidates play Smith's favorite video game, Defender.Jobs would ask some of his usual wacky questions to test candidates' ability to think in unexpected situations, as well as their sense of humor and defiance.One day, together with Herzfeld and Smith, he interviewed a candidate for a software manager job. As soon as this person walked in, his conservative and rigid temperament was fully revealed, and it was obvious that he could not manage the group of geniuses in the fish tank.Jobs began to tease him mercilessly. "At what age did you lose your virginity?" Jobs asked.
Candidates are confused. "What did you say?"
"Are you a virgin?" Jobs asked.The applicant sat, looking very nervous, so Jobs changed the question: "How many times have you taken LSD?" Herzfeld recalled: "The poor guy was flushed, so I tried to change the subject and asked. I asked him a very straightforward technical question." But when the candidate started babbling on to answer the question, Jobs cut him off. "Heck, heck, heck, heck." He made such a voice, which made Smith and Herzfeld beside him laugh.
"I don't think I'm fit for the job," said the poor man, and got up to leave.
For all his nasty behavior, Jobs was able to instill team spirit into his teams.After demoting people to nothing, he was able to find a way to motivate them and make them feel like a wonderful task to be part of the Macintosh project.Every six months, he takes most of the team to a two-day brainstorming session at a nearby resort.
The brainstorming session in September 1982 took place at the Pajaro Dunes near Monterey.About 50 members of the Mac team sat in the cabin, facing the fireplace.Jobs sat at a table in front of them.He whispered for a while, then walked over to a blackboard shelf and began posting his thoughts.
The first rule is "never compromise".This one proved to be a double-edged sword in the years to come.Most tech teams compromise.The Mac, on the other hand, ended up being the most "incredibly perfect" product Jobs and his team could make—but it was still 16 months away, far behind schedule.After mentioning a planned completion date, he told them: "Even if you miss the launch date, you can't shoddy." A project manager willing to compromise might have settled on a completion date after which no changes could be made .But Jobs is not such a person. Another famous saying of his is: "A product is not finished until it is launched."
On another sheet was a koan-like phrase, which he later told me was his favorite aphorism.It read: "The process is the reward." He likes to emphasize that the Mac team is a special team with a noble mission.Someday in the future, they will look back on this time spent together, and see those painful moments as passing by, or laughing at them, and they will regard this time as the magical pinnacle of their lives.
At the end of his talk, he asked, "Would you guys like to see something good?" Then he produced a diary-sized contraption.When he flipped the device open, they found it was a lap-mountable computer, with the keyboard and screen joined together like a laptop."It's my dream, hopefully we'll have this kind of computer in the mid to late '80s," he said. They're creating a company that's built to last, a company that's creating the future.
The next two days featured presentations by team leaders and influential computer industry analyst Ben Rosen, and evenings were devoted to pool parties and dancing.At the end, Jobs stood in front of the crowd and delivered a monologue. "Over time, 50 people here are doing work that will have a profound impact on the world," he said. "I know I might be a little difficult, but this is the most fun I've ever done Years later, most of those in the audience could still laugh thinking of Jobs' "a little bit of a hard time" scene, and agree with him that it was a part of their lives that would have a profound impact on the world. Maximum fun.
The next brainstorming session was at the end of January 1983, the same month that the Lisa was released, and the mood changed slightly. Four months ago, Jobs wrote "Never compromise" on his wall chart, this time his motto became "True artists get products to market."Everyone's nerves began to tense up.Atkinson failed to get an interview at the Lisa launch, storming Jobs' hotel room and threatening to resign.Jobs tried to appease him, but he wasn't going to take it.Jobs was angry, "I don't have time to deal with this right now," he said, "I have 60 employees who are fully committed to the Macintosh project, and they are waiting for me to go to a meeting." Kanemori walked by to give a speech to his loyal staff.
Jobs gave a rousing speech, announcing that he had settled a dispute with Macintosh Audio Laboratories over the use of the Macintosh name. (Indeed, the matter was still under negotiation at the time, but moments like that required Jobs to unleash a bit of a reality distortion field.) He pulled out a bottle of mineral water and symbolically baptized the prototype on stage.Atkinson heard the loud cheers from afar, sighed, and joined the crowd.The ensuing party included skinny dips in the pool, a bonfire on the beach and music played all night, so loud that Carmel's La Playa hotel asked them never to come back.A few weeks later, Jobs managed to get Atkinson named "Apple Special," which meant a raise, stock options, and the right to choose projects of his own.In addition, the company agreed that whenever the Macintosh started the paint program created by Atkinson, the screen would display: "MacPaint, by Bill Atkinson."
Another famous quote from Jobs during a brainstorming session in January was "Be a pirate, not a navy."He wanted to instill a rebellious spirit in his team, making them act like rogues: proud of their work, yet willing to steal from others.As Susan Carrey put it: “He meant that there was a sense of rebellion in our team, that we could move fast and get things done.” A billboard was bought on the side of the road at Apple's headquarters, which read:
Steve Capps, one of the coolest programmers on the Mac team, believes that a pirate flag needs to be hoisted for this new spirit.He took a black cloth and had Kalec draw a skull and crossbones on it.The eye patch worn by the skeleton is an Apple logo.Late one Sunday night, Capps climbed to the roof of their new Bandley 3 building and hoisted the Jolly Roger over a scaffolding post left by construction workers.The flag flew high for a few weeks before members of the Lisa team stole it in a late-night raid and sent a ransom note to the Mac team.In order to get the flag back, Capps led a surprise attack on Lisa's team and successfully recaptured it from a secretary who was in charge of guarding the pirate flag.Some mature minds worry that Jobs's pirate spirit is getting out of hand. "It was really stupid to raise the pirate flag," said Arthur Rock. "It was telling the rest of the company that they weren't good enough." Pirate flags are flying. "We were rebellious, and we wanted people to know that," he recalls.
Senior members of the Mac team realized they could stand up to Jobs.If they knew what they were talking about, Jobs could tolerate disapproval, even smile and express appreciation.By 1983, those most familiar with his reality distortion field had a further discovery: they could quietly ignore his orders if necessary.If they turned out to be right, Jobs appreciated their rebellious attitude and willingness to defy authority.After all, that's what he did himself.
By far the most significant event influenced by Jobs' rebellious spirit was the selection of disk drives for the Macintosh.At that time, Apple had a department that produced mass storage devices. They developed a disk drive system, code-named Twiggy (Twiggy), which could read and write those thin, delicate 5.25-inch floppy disks. Older readers ( Those who remember who the model Twiggy was) must recall those floppy disks.But by the spring of 1983, when the Lisa was ready to go on the market, the high failure rate of the Twiggy system had become apparent.Since the Lisa also comes with a hard drive, things aren't too bad for it.But the Mac doesn't have a hard drive, so it's at risk. "The Mac team was starting to panic," Herzfeld said. "We had just one Twiggy system as the floppy drive, and we had no hard drive to spare."
On that vacation in Carmel in January 1983, when they discussed the issue, Debbie Coleman gave Jobs data on the failure rate of Twiggy's system.A few days later, Jobs drove to Apple's factory in San Jose to inspect Twiggy's production process.For every process in production, more than half of the products are substandard.Jobs was outraged.His face was flushed with anger, and he started to growl, angrily, and said that he would fire all the employees there. Bob Belleville, the head of the Mac engineering team, calmly led him to the parking lot, where they took a walk and discussed alternatives.
One solution, and one that Belleville has been exploring, is to use a new 3.5-inch disk that Sony has just developed.The disk is encased in stronger plastic and can be tucked into a shirt pocket.Another option is to use a clone of the Sony 3.5-inch disk from a small Japanese supplier, the Alps Electronics Co., which had been supplying disk drives for the Apple II.Alps Electronics had already licensed Sony's technology, and if they could produce their own version of the drive in time, the price would be much cheaper.
Jobs flew to Japan with Belleville, along with longtime Apple employee Rod Holt (who helped Jobs design the first power supply for the Apple II), to find a solution to the problem.They took a high-speed train from Tokyo to Alps Electronics' factory.The engineers there didn't even have a working prototype, just an unfinished model.Jobs thought it was fine, but Belleville was appalled by the state of affairs.He believes that there is no way that Alps Electronics will have it ready and apply it to the Mac within a year.
They went on to visit several other Japanese companies, and Jobs behaved very rudely.He wore jeans and sneakers to meetings with Japanese managers in dark suits.According to the custom, they would solemnly hand Jobs some small gifts, but these gifts were often thrown aside by Jobs, and he never returned gifts to the other party.Lines of engineers lined up to welcome him, bowed and respectfully presented their products for his inspection, all he could do was sneer.Jobs hated both their products and their flattery. "What are you showing me this for?" he snapped at a factory. "It's a piece of crap! Anybody can make a better drive than this." Although most people at the reception would have liked his behavior Shocked, but a few seemed amused by him.They had heard stories of his obnoxious style and reckless behavior beforehand, and now they saw it with their own eyes.
The final stop on the tour was the Sony factory in a sleepy suburb of Tokyo.Jobs saw the factory as messy and expensive, with much work done by hand.He hated it.Back at the hotel, Belleville advocated the use of Sony disk drives, since they were ready to go directly to the Mac.Jobs disagreed, and he decided to partner with Alpine Electronics to produce their own drives, and at the same time ordered Belleville to stop all cooperation with Sony.
Belleville thought it best to ignore Booth to a certain extent.He explained the situation to Mike Markkula, who quietly told him to do whatever was necessary to make sure a disk drive was ready in short order—but don't tell Jobs.Belleville, backed by his own top engineers, asked a Sony executive to get their disk drive ready for the Macintosh.In the unlikely event that Alpine Electronics could not deliver on time, Apple would switch to Sony's products.So Sony sent the engineer who developed the drive to Apple. He was Hidetoshi Komoto, a Purdue graduate who, luckily, had a good sense of humor about the secretive mission.
Whenever Jobs left the corporate offices to visit the engineers on the Mac team—basically every afternoon—they would scramble to find a place for Kabon to hide.Once, Jobs happened to meet Kamoto at a newsstand in Cupertino and recognized him. The two had met in Japan, but Jobs was not suspicious.The most dangerous time was when Jobs unexpectedly and hurriedly came to the Mac team's office area one day, and Kamoto was sitting in a cubicle at that time. One of Mac's engineers grabbed him and pointed to the cleaning room. "Come on, get in there. Please! Go now!" Gabon looked confused, but jumped up and rushed into the cleaning room, recalls Herzfeld.He stayed there for five minutes until Jobs left. Engineers on the Mac team apologized to him. "That's all right," he replied, "but the business practices in America are really, really weird."
Belleville's prophecy came true. In May 1983, the people at Alps Electronics admitted that it would be at least 18 months before a copy of the Sony drive could be produced.While on vacation at the Pajaro Dunes, Markkula pressed Jobs on what he planned to do.Eventually, Belleville interrupted their conversation to say that he might have a replacement for the Alpine drive, and that it would be available soon.Jobs was puzzled for a while, but soon he understood why he had met Sony's top disk designers in Cupertino. "You bastard!" Jobs said, but there was no anger in his tone.He grinned.After learning what Belleville and the other engineers were doing behind his back, Jobs "put away his arrogance and thanked them for disobeying his orders and doing the right thing," Hertzfeld said.After all, Jobs would have done the same if he had been in such a situation.
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Notes:
Steve Capps, one of the coolest programmers on the Mac team, believes that a pirate flag needs to be hoisted for this new spirit.He took a black cloth and had Kalec draw a skull and crossbones on it.The eye patch worn by the skeleton is an Apple logo.Late one Sunday night, Capps climbed to the roof of their new Bandley 3 building and hoisted the Jolly Roger over a scaffolding post left by construction workers.The flag flew high for a few weeks before members of the Lisa team stole it in a late-night raid and sent a ransom note to the Mac team.In order to get the flag back, Capps led a surprise attack on Lisa's team and successfully recaptured it from a secretary who was in charge of guarding the pirate flag.Some mature minds worry that Jobs's pirate spirit is getting out of hand. "It was really stupid to raise the pirate flag," said Arthur Rock. "It was telling the rest of the company that they weren't good enough." Pirate flags are flying. "We were rebellious, and we wanted people to know that," he recalls.
Senior members of the Mac team realized they could stand up to Jobs.If they knew what they were talking about, Jobs could tolerate disapproval, even smile and express appreciation.By 1983, those most familiar with his reality distortion field had a further discovery: they could quietly ignore his orders if necessary.If they turned out to be right, Jobs appreciated their rebellious attitude and willingness to defy authority.After all, that's what he did himself.
By far the most significant event influenced by Jobs' rebellious spirit was the selection of disk drives for the Macintosh.At that time, Apple had a department that produced mass storage devices. They developed a disk drive system, code-named Twiggy (Twiggy), which could read and write those thin, delicate 5.25-inch floppy disks. Older readers ( Those who remember who the model Twiggy was) must recall those floppy disks.But by the spring of 1983, when the Lisa was ready to go on the market, the high failure rate of the Twiggy system had become apparent.Since the Lisa also comes with a hard drive, things aren't too bad for it.But the Mac doesn't have a hard drive, so it's at risk. "The Mac team was starting to panic," Herzfeld said. "We had just one Twiggy system as the floppy drive, and we had no hard drive to spare."
On that vacation in Carmel in January 1983, when they discussed the issue, Debbie Coleman gave Jobs data on the failure rate of Twiggy's system.A few days later, Jobs drove to Apple's factory in San Jose to inspect Twiggy's production process.For every process in production, more than half of the products are substandard.Jobs was outraged.His face was flushed with anger, and he started to growl, angrily, and said that he would fire all the employees there. Bob Belleville, the head of the Mac engineering team, calmly led him to the parking lot, where they took a walk and discussed alternatives.
One solution, and one that Belleville has been exploring, is to use a new 3.5-inch disk that Sony has just developed.The disk is encased in stronger plastic and can be tucked into a shirt pocket.Another option is to use a clone of the Sony 3.5-inch disk from a small Japanese supplier, the Alps Electronics Co., which had been supplying disk drives for the Apple II.Alps Electronics had already licensed Sony's technology, and if they could produce their own version of the drive in time, the price would be much cheaper.
Jobs flew to Japan with Belleville, along with longtime Apple employee Rod Holt (who helped Jobs design the first power supply for the Apple II), to find a solution to the problem.They took a high-speed train from Tokyo to Alps Electronics' factory.The engineers there didn't even have a working prototype, just an unfinished model.Jobs thought it was fine, but Belleville was appalled by the state of affairs.He believes that there is no way that Alps Electronics will have it ready and apply it to the Mac within a year.
They went on to visit several other Japanese companies, and Jobs behaved very rudely.He wore jeans and sneakers to meetings with Japanese managers in dark suits.According to the custom, they would solemnly hand Jobs some small gifts, but these gifts were often thrown aside by Jobs, and he never returned gifts to the other party.Lines of engineers lined up to welcome him, bowed and respectfully presented their products for his inspection, all he could do was sneer.Jobs hated both their products and their flattery. "What are you showing me this for?" he snapped at a factory. "It's a piece of crap! Anybody can make a better drive than this." Although most people at the reception would have liked his behavior Shocked, but a few seemed amused by him.They had heard stories of his obnoxious style and reckless behavior beforehand, and now they saw it with their own eyes.
The final stop on the tour was the Sony factory in a sleepy suburb of Tokyo.Jobs saw the factory as messy and expensive, with much work done by hand.He hated it.Back at the hotel, Belleville advocated the use of Sony disk drives, since they were ready to go directly to the Mac.Jobs disagreed, and he decided to partner with Alpine Electronics to produce their own drives, and at the same time ordered Belleville to stop all cooperation with Sony.
Belleville thought it best to ignore Booth to a certain extent.He explained the situation to Mike Markkula, who quietly told him to do whatever was necessary to make sure a disk drive was ready in short order—but don't tell Jobs.Belleville, backed by his own top engineers, asked a Sony executive to get their disk drive ready for the Macintosh.In the unlikely event that Alpine Electronics could not deliver on time, Apple would switch to Sony's products.So Sony sent the engineer who developed the drive to Apple. He was Hidetoshi Komoto, a Purdue graduate who, luckily, had a good sense of humor about the secretive mission.
Whenever Jobs left the corporate offices to visit the engineers on the Mac team—basically every afternoon—they would scramble to find a place for Kabon to hide.Once, Jobs happened to meet Kamoto at a newsstand in Cupertino and recognized him. The two had met in Japan, but Jobs was not suspicious.The most dangerous time was when Jobs unexpectedly and hurriedly came to the Mac team's office area one day, and Kamoto was sitting in a cubicle at that time. One of Mac's engineers grabbed him and pointed to the cleaning room. "Come on, get in there. Please! Go now!" Gabon looked confused, but jumped up and rushed into the cleaning room, recalls Herzfeld.He stayed there for five minutes until Jobs left. Engineers on the Mac team apologized to him. "That's all right," he replied, "but the business practices in America are really, really weird."
Belleville's prophecy came true. In May 1983, the people at Alps Electronics admitted that it would be at least 18 months before a copy of the Sony drive could be produced.While on vacation at the Pajaro Dunes, Markkula pressed Jobs on what he planned to do.Eventually, Belleville interrupted their conversation to say that he might have a replacement for the Alpine drive, and that it would be available soon.Jobs was puzzled for a while, but soon he understood why he had met Sony's top disk designers in Cupertino. "You bastard!" Jobs said, but there was no anger in his tone.He grinned.After learning what Belleville and the other engineers were doing behind his back, Jobs "put away his arrogance and thanked them for disobeying his orders and doing the right thing," Hertzfeld said.After all, Jobs would have done the same if he had been in such a situation.
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Notes: