Steve Wozniak Interview (2007)(foundersatwork.com)
foundersatwork.com
Steve Wozniak Interview (2007)
http://www.foundersatwork.com/steve-wozniak.html
5 comments
"No, I'm never going to leave Hewlett-Packard. It's my job for life. It's the best company because it's so good to engineers...Engineers—bottom of the org chart people—could come up with the ideas that would be the next hot products for the company."
I love Woz, but this strikes me as being a quite naive thing to say. Engineers weren't "bottom of the org chart." They are the lifesblood of a company like HP. HP is nothing without engineers. So the idea that they were nice to engineers - well, it was in the same way that other companies are "nice to engineers," totally self-serving in a mutually beneficial way.
I love Woz, but this strikes me as being a quite naive thing to say. Engineers weren't "bottom of the org chart." They are the lifesblood of a company like HP. HP is nothing without engineers. So the idea that they were nice to engineers - well, it was in the same way that other companies are "nice to engineers," totally self-serving in a mutually beneficial way.
I think he meant bottom in the sense that he wasn’t managing me. If you’re above the bottom of an org chart by definition you have people reporting to you.
He’s saying HP was different in that it listened to technical people with no direct reports. It didn’t only listen to managers.
He’s saying HP was different in that it listened to technical people with no direct reports. It didn’t only listen to managers.
Wozniak was pretty naive back then. Jobs took advantage of him a lot of times before, during, and after starting Apple.
And from what I can tell, that is the meat and potatoes of Silicon Valley and engineering organizations in general. Find newcomers who don't know their own worth and push them as far as they are willing to go. Without seniority it's hard to convert hard work into commensurate pay.
Not necessary only applicable for newcomers. I have had colleagues who are with a company for so long that they don't have a clear understand what their market value is, and suffered when they changed.
Wozniak wasn't naive, Jobs was just a shitty person.
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The design of this website tho. <3
This, to me, is what separates Woz from Jobs. One of my many qualms with Apple is their ability to create industry-defining technologies, and give little back in return. I'm all for businesses profiting, but imagine all the good Apple could do if it still maintained this mantra today.