Learn to Channel

In this audio book memoir, gives us an account of the person Steve Jobs was.  Schlender was a long time journalist who focused on technology.  He interviewed Steve Jobs many times.  The first time Schlender interviewed , he felt like he was being interviewed.  Steve Jobs was a very confident individual that asked others many questions.  Additionally, he liked to tell people what they should do in their personal matters.

Steve Jobs was born in 1955.  He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs.  When interviewed he said it never bothered him that he was adopted.  Steve Jobs was a brilliant student.  The school had recommended that he skips two grades based on exam scores.  His parents agreed to let him skip one grade.  In high school he met .  Wozniak liked to build computer circuits.  Jobs would attend Reed college after high school.  He would drop out after a semester, but kept attending classes here and there.  Steve told Schlender that he wasn’t certain what he wanted to do.   was not cheap and he didn’t want his parents wasting money on college tuition.

Steve Jobs would get one of his first jobs at Atari.  He showed them a board that Wozniak created and Atari hired Steve.  Atari thought Steve created the board.  Steve succeeded at Atari.  He worked on special projects for , to earn enough money to take a spiritual enlightenment trip to India.  After the trip to India, Steve Jobs got into meditation and psychedelic drugs.  During interviews he spoke about the use of in opening up his creative side.  I am not advising the illegal use of psychedlic drugs.  I am repeating what Steve Jobs thought about them.

Bushnell offered Steve Jobs $700 to help him make circuit boards for a new Atari game.  Jobs had to reach out to Wozniak for help and offered to go 50/50 with him ($350).  Bushnell was so pleased with the work that he gave Steve Jobs an additional $5K.  Jobs still only gave Wozniak $350.  This financial inequality was the way of Steve Jobs and would follow him for the rest of his career.

The Apple I was built in Jobs garage by Wozniak.  It was Steve Jobs that was working on selling the product.  They were able to produce more systems because they were funded by an Intel employee.  They achieved greater success when they unveiled the Apple II, also created by Wozniak, except for the unique case the system was in.  To grow the company further, Jobs recruited from Pepsi to serve as CEO.  Steve Jobs was a difficult person to work with.  Two years after Scully became CEO, Scully and the board decided to remove Steve Jobs from the company that he started.  Steve Jobs was devastated and looked for a way to come back.

In 1985, Steve Jobs founded .  His expenses in the new venture were through the roof, as he was trying to depict perfection.  Perfection from the building that they worked in to the computer itself.  The original $7 million invested in the new venture was depleted quickly.   stepped in to bail Steve Jobs out.  NeXT achieved success when the company fully transitioned into Software development.  They released WebObjects.

In 1986, Steve Jobs bought a company which he later renamed .  In the mid-90s Pixar studios was utilizing a new graphics technology that would allow the use of cartoon rendering mixed with realistic depictions.  In partnership with Disney, Pixar released some great movies that made the company a significant amount of money.  The first two enormous hits were Toy Story (1995) and A Bug’s Life (1998).

would allow people to buy only the track they wanted at 99 cents.