An unedited and full length interview of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs from "Trimph of the Nerds" is now available for download via iTunes.
Back in 1996, Robert X. Cringley produced the now-legendary PBS special “Triumph of the Nerds,” wherein he documented the early days of Silicon Valley along with the people who helped shape and influence the personal computer revolution. As a reference point, Triumph of the Nerds was the video where Steve Jobs famously lambasted Microsoft for having no taste.
As part of the production, Cringley interviewed Steve Jobs for over 70 minutes, though only 10 minutes of that footage ever made it into the final cut. In the years that followed, the original footage was somehow misplaced and Cringley believed it was lost forever.
But in the wake of Jobs’ death, the full tape was found in a garage. Subsequently, Cringley, back in November of 2011, struck a deal to release the complete and unedited master of Jobs’ interview at a number of Landmark Century theatres across the country.
Now, a few months later, the full video is finally available for purchase on iTunes, though according to Cringley, Apple doesn’t seem too keen on promoting it.
My little film about Steve Jobs has finally made it to iTunes (now on Amazon and YouTube as well!) as a $3.99 rental, but you wouldn’t know it. Deeming the film “too controversial,” Apple has it on the site but they aren’t promoting it and won’t. The topic is “too sensitive,” you see. It isn’t even listed in the iTunes new releases. You have to search for it. But it’s there.
Maybe I’m not even supposed to tell you.
Of course there is nothing controversial or insensitive about this movie, which everyone including the critics seems to like. It’s a different look at an interesting guy and some people seem to take away a lot from it. You be the judge.
In any event, below is an interesting excerpt from the film wherein Jobs describes the inherent challenges and rewards involved in designing something great.
You know, one of the things that really hurt Apple was after I left John Sculley got a very serious disease. It’s the disease of thinking that a really great idea is 90% of the work. And if you just tell all these other people “here’s this great idea,” then of course they can go off and make it happen.
And the problem with that is that there’s just a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product.
And as you evolve that great idea, it changes and grows. It never comes out like it starts because you learn a lot more as you get into the subtleties of it. And you also find there are tremendous tradeoffs that you have to make. There are just certain things you can’t make electrons do. There are certain things you can’t make plastic do. Or glass do. Or factories do. Or robots do.
Designing a product is keeping five thousand things in your brain and fitting them all together in new and different ways to get what you want. And every day you discover something new that is a new problem or a new opportunity to fit these things together a little differently.
And it’s that process that is the magic.
via Cringley
