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Steve Jobs is the reason Wozniak could give away tens of millions and still have $10M and multiple houses. Otherwise he would have been a good engineer and live

Steve Jobs is the reason Wozniak could give away tens of millions and still have $10M and multiple houses. Otherwise he would have been a good engineer and lived a nice quiet life, but nothing like the world-touring adventure he got. Steve Jobs needed Wozniak at the time and it was fortunate for him, but his personality and ambition were so strong it's very likely he would have been a big deal in any scenario.

georgeecollins 1y ago
I disagree. Woz was a rare talent that would have found great success in Silicon Valley in the 1980s. Would he have been as famous as he is now? Maybe not. But here he is at the end telling us that happiness was the point, not fame or billions.
- sokoloff 1y ago
  He’d have found great success by his own measures if HP just let do more of the things he found interesting. Those measures wouldn’t have shown up in his bank account, but I think he’d have been happy.
  - fuzzfactor 1y ago
    Well, he had a good-paying job as a youngster at HP and if he stuck with that, retired, and by now would be worth about the same.
vasco 1y ago
You are so mistaken. Google universal remotes.
- philosophty 1y ago
  On the contrary, I know all about that. Wozniak's company was self-funded with his Apple money (thanks Steve Jobs). It was innovative but not terribly so and was a complete failure as a business.
somenameforme 1y ago
Tangential, but you don't need anywhere near millions to have a 'world-touring adventure'. The nice thing about the ability to earn money online now a days is that the cost of living in the overwhelming majority of the world is a small fraction of what you pay in the US/EU. And the ability to speak English natively is already in high demand throughout most the world, meaning if you ever get tired of online work and want some people time, you can have a job in like 5 minutes, particularly if you look decent and have a college degree. Making that jump is obviously scary, but I think many people could find much greater contentedness (not a fan of seeking "happiness", as it's something that I think should be seen as liminal, not a desired constant state) if they only realized that the world is their oyster.
- bboygravity 1y ago
  I've never been able to find that elusive "easy to find" online work people keep speaking of. Am I being gaslighted or am I looking in the wrong places? In the EU in my entire 15 year carreer there have been exactly 0 companies or even vacancies offering fully remote.
  - sokoloff 1y ago
    I think GP makes it sound far easier than it really is, but there’s also clearly not “exactly zero” such roles. (I have team members based in EU working remotely. Retention is high and we get a lot of applicants when we open new roles. Those are good for the employer side but negative for individual applicants.)
  - simgt 1y ago
    In my experience, it's much easier as a freelancer. Usually what is meant to be a couple weeks gig turns out to be a couple months or year-long business relationship.
  - MarceColl 1y ago
    I've worked in 3 places that were fully 100% remote. I'm from Barcelona, ES. They are not the modt common but they do exist if you look for them and there are quite a lot.
Aeolun 1y ago
That’s cool, but it wouldn’t have changed much about how woz seems to perceive life.
newswasboring 1y ago
The way you have discounted Wozniak's talent, one can also discount Steve's ambition. There are thousands of people same or more ambitious than Jobs. Being ambitious doesn't guarantee anything, neither does being as good as wozniak only work when combined with ambition.
- philosophty 1y ago
  Steve Jobs brought a hell of a lot more to the table than just raw ambition. I just meant to contrast the level of ambition between the two. Wozniak was extremely unambitious and Jobs pushed him into starting a company, with great difficulty. Nothing is guaranteed in life but I've certainly met more than a few people that I predicted would be successful and then they were. There are character traits that incline people toward success.
jarjoura 1y ago
Absolutely bonkers to think Jobs could have found the same success without Woz. Woz gave him access to a world and community ahead of its time. Jobs was a fanatical asshole, and Woz knew he was making a deal with the devil. He was on that train until he nearly lost his own life flying a plane. Woz didn’t need the fame and prestige that Jobs afforded him, but he definitely didn’t say no or walk away until his plane accident.
- philosophty 1y ago
  Jobs was a fanatical asshole, and Woz knew he was making a deal with the devil. You clearly know nothing about the history of these two. Or, maybe even more likely, you want this to be true so you can feel better about your life being relatively unimportant in comparison to Steve Jobs' life. Seems to be very common. Woz and Jobs were best friends as teenagers and loved each other. And like many good friends they had their issues but loved and respected each other until the end. Woz wasn't doing a deal with the devil. He was co-founding a startup with his extremely ambitious and abrasive best friend. Almost everyone that ever worked closely with Steve Jobs came away with enormous respect for him and deeply appreciated their time together. Yes, they also say that he was sometimes an asshole but that's how people are: complicated. There's a very good chance more than a few people think you're an asshole at times. Steve Jobs is the reason Apple, Next, and Pixar made their mark on history. No amount of envy and revisionist history can change this.

georgeecollins 1y ago

I disagree. Woz was a rare talent that would have found great success in Silicon Valley in the 1980s. Would he have been as famous as he is now? Maybe not. But here he is at the end telling us that happiness was the point, not fame or billions.

sokoloff 1y ago
He’d have found great success by his own measures if HP just let do more of the things he found interesting. Those measures wouldn’t have shown up in his bank account, but I think he’d have been happy.
- fuzzfactor 1y ago
  Well, he had a good-paying job as a youngster at HP and if he stuck with that, retired, and by now would be worth about the same.

vasco 1y ago

You are so mistaken. Google universal remotes.

philosophty 1y ago
On the contrary, I know all about that. Wozniak's company was self-funded with his Apple money (thanks Steve Jobs). It was innovative but not terribly so and was a complete failure as a business.

somenameforme 1y ago

Tangential, but you don't need anywhere near millions to have a 'world-touring adventure'. The nice thing about the ability to earn money online now a days is that the cost of living in the overwhelming majority of the world is a small fraction of what you pay in the US/EU. And the ability to speak English natively is already in high demand throughout most the world, meaning if you ever get tired of online work and want some people time, you can have a job in like 5 minutes, particularly if you look decent and have a college degree. Making that jump is obviously scary, but I think many people could find much greater contentedness (not a fan of seeking "happiness", as it's something that I think should be seen as liminal, not a desired constant state) if they only realized that the world is their oyster.

bboygravity 1y ago
I've never been able to find that elusive "easy to find" online work people keep speaking of. Am I being gaslighted or am I looking in the wrong places? In the EU in my entire 15 year carreer there have been exactly 0 companies or even vacancies offering fully remote.
- sokoloff 1y ago
  I think GP makes it sound far easier than it really is, but there’s also clearly not “exactly zero” such roles. (I have team members based in EU working remotely. Retention is high and we get a lot of applicants when we open new roles. Those are good for the employer side but negative for individual applicants.)
- simgt 1y ago
  In my experience, it's much easier as a freelancer. Usually what is meant to be a couple weeks gig turns out to be a couple months or year-long business relationship.
- MarceColl 1y ago
  I've worked in 3 places that were fully 100% remote. I'm from Barcelona, ES. They are not the modt common but they do exist if you look for them and there are quite a lot.

Aeolun 1y ago

That’s cool, but it wouldn’t have changed much about how woz seems to perceive life.

newswasboring 1y ago

The way you have discounted Wozniak's talent, one can also discount Steve's ambition. There are thousands of people same or more ambitious than Jobs. Being ambitious doesn't guarantee anything, neither does being as good as wozniak only work when combined with ambition.

philosophty 1y ago
Steve Jobs brought a hell of a lot more to the table than just raw ambition. I just meant to contrast the level of ambition between the two. Wozniak was extremely unambitious and Jobs pushed him into starting a company, with great difficulty. Nothing is guaranteed in life but I've certainly met more than a few people that I predicted would be successful and then they were. There are character traits that incline people toward success.

jarjoura 1y ago

Absolutely bonkers to think Jobs could have found the same success without Woz. Woz gave him access to a world and community ahead of its time. Jobs was a fanatical asshole, and Woz knew he was making a deal with the devil. He was on that train until he nearly lost his own life flying a plane. Woz didn’t need the fame and prestige that Jobs afforded him, but he definitely didn’t say no or walk away until his plane accident.

philosophty 1y ago
Jobs was a fanatical asshole, and Woz knew he was making a deal with the devil. You clearly know nothing about the history of these two. Or, maybe even more likely, you want this to be true so you can feel better about your life being relatively unimportant in comparison to Steve Jobs' life. Seems to be very common. Woz and Jobs were best friends as teenagers and loved each other. And like many good friends they had their issues but loved and respected each other until the end. Woz wasn't doing a deal with the devil. He was co-founding a startup with his extremely ambitious and abrasive best friend. Almost everyone that ever worked closely with Steve Jobs came away with enormous respect for him and deeply appreciated their time together. Yes, they also say that he was sometimes an asshole but that's how people are: complicated. There's a very good chance more than a few people think you're an asshole at times. Steve Jobs is the reason Apple, Next, and Pixar made their mark on history. No amount of envy and revisionist history can change this.