iWoz

So I just finished reading the book iWoz last night. In case you don't know, it is basically the autobiography of one Steve Wozniak, the inventor of the Apple 2 computer and co-founder of Apple Computer back in 1977.


Woz has always been a big hero of mine as the Apple IIc computer was my second computer and one that I was very fond of. My childhood best friend had an Apple IIe as his first computer and I had a little radio shack TRS-80 color computer. I envied him for having the superior computer with a disk drive and all. So I finally got an Apple computer around 1986 and it was a very big deal for me. I'd say that was one of my most favorite computers ever. Ever since then, I've always had more of an appreciation for Wozniak than Steve Jobs. And now that I've read more about the behind the scenes from Wozniak's perspective, I totally like Jobs even less! When Wozniak's book came out a few years ago, I remember reading that Steve Jobs had declined to do the forward of the book! What an A-hole! Seriously.

So I was left a little sad after finishing the book last night after a 4 hour reading marathon (which is lengthy for me). Basically I see it as Wozniak did all these great amazing engineering things (by himself) like inventing the Apple 1 and 2 computer and then by around 1980 he cashed out of Apple and did a bunch of life projects. He would have been 30 in 1980. He did this great music festival called the US Festival which included bands like The Police, INXS, Ozzy, The Clash, Van Halen, The Pretenders, and a slew of other bands. It was really the coachella event of his time and he put it on with his money! He ended up losing money (millions lost) but the event itself was a success in the eyes of the media. He did a bunch of philanthropic activities during that time and he even eventually went back to Berkely to finish his engineering degree. But he never went back to Apple to get back into the mix of engineering. And this is a guy who loved engineer with all his heart. He had said many times in his book that he loved being an engineer at HP and he wanted to work for them for life. So it's just a little odd that after doing that great work on the Apple 2, he just cashed out and never went back to be a part of things.

So I just find that a little sad.

The next book I'm going to read is by one of the Apple engineers who worked on the Macintosh. It's called Revolution in the valley.