What was it like to work with Woz in the early days of Apple?
5 Answers
Randy Wigginton,
Updated 46w ago · Upvoted by Michael Dixon, Worked as Apple tech, sales, and service manager. and Jim Dovey, Apple Software Engineer
I guess I'm qualified to answer this one :) My opinions are biased because he was my mentor and best friend during the early years of Apple.
Working with Woz was like working with the smartest person you've ever known, kicked up a couple notches, combined with a practical joker. The best times Woz and I had were not coding but rather playing jokes. For example, the Zaltair ad was one of many highlights, as was rearranging the keypad in our hotel phone in Dallas.
In terms of engineering during the early days of Apple, Woz would work in bursts of brilliance and intensity—he developed the Apple ][ disk drive in just a couple of weeks, working every day including Christmas and New Years, many times working all night. When he was not on one of his bursts, he would typically work 9–6 like a regular person; we almost always went to breakfast at Bob’s Big Boy. He loved having fun and laughing (and still does)!
Two other remarkable things about Woz are his patience and kindness. I was immature, not yet out of high school, yet he was always willing to deal with my mood swings and answered every technical question I asked (and there were a lot!). He loved explaining things—I’ll never forget one evening at Denny’s when he explained how parsers and lexical analysis worked. He was never too busy to explain concepts that were new to me.
As time went on, Woz did less engineering and had more fun. He went back to school to get his degree, he put on a few concerts, and he flew planes (which unfortunately lead to a crash in 1981). Money never changed Woz much; it just gave him more and larger opportunities to play.
Working with Woz was like working with the smartest person you've ever known, kicked up a couple notches, combined with a practical joker. The best times Woz and I had were not coding but rather playing jokes. For example, the Zaltair ad was one of many highlights, as was rearranging the keypad in our hotel phone in Dallas.
In terms of engineering during the early days of Apple, Woz would work in bursts of brilliance and intensity—he developed the Apple ][ disk drive in just a couple of weeks, working every day including Christmas and New Years, many times working all night. When he was not on one of his bursts, he would typically work 9–6 like a regular person; we almost always went to breakfast at Bob’s Big Boy. He loved having fun and laughing (and still does)!
Two other remarkable things about Woz are his patience and kindness. I was immature, not yet out of high school, yet he was always willing to deal with my mood swings and answered every technical question I asked (and there were a lot!). He loved explaining things—I’ll never forget one evening at Denny’s when he explained how parsers and lexical analysis worked. He was never too busy to explain concepts that were new to me.
As time went on, Woz did less engineering and had more fun. He went back to school to get his degree, he put on a few concerts, and he flew planes (which unfortunately lead to a crash in 1981). Money never changed Woz much; it just gave him more and larger opportunities to play.
I didn't work with Woz in the early days, but I worked with him at one of his later startups (Wheels of Zeus in 2000). I still do the occasional project for him and I see him every now and then. I also helped him teach a computer class in his garage in the mid 1990's. So I know him quite well.
I can tell you, if there were more folks like Woz, Silicon Valley would be a very different place. A better place, that's for sure. And Randy is right, Woz is still quite the prankster.
The thing I notice while working with Woz is that his ideas are almost always ahead of their time. I know that sounds cliche, but when you've actually experienced a person like this, you know it. As an early example, he started a company after he left apple called CL-9. The idea was to produce a programmable remote people could use with all their various stereos, and TV stuff, etc. That way you don't have remotes laying all over the place. Well, good idea, but back then, people only had like one or two things. Woz foresaw that soon many things would be available that could be controlled via a remote. He was about five years too soon so it never really took off. Now of course, you can buy remotes like that anywhere.
You can pick up practically any computer history book, look in the index under "W" and you'll see Wozniak there. He truly deserves if for his technical genius. But I think he also should be listed somewhere as somebody who was not corrupted by money and fame. He is genuinely nice guy who never looks down on anyone.
One other thing about Woz is that he is very honest. If he sees something he likes in an Android phone or Windows machine, he says so. He doesn't care what the press reads into it. He's Apple's biggest fan but that doesn't mean he closes his mind to the rest of the creativity he sees in the world.
Yeah, it would be nice if there were more folks like Woz in Silicon Valley.
I can tell you, if there were more folks like Woz, Silicon Valley would be a very different place. A better place, that's for sure. And Randy is right, Woz is still quite the prankster.
The thing I notice while working with Woz is that his ideas are almost always ahead of their time. I know that sounds cliche, but when you've actually experienced a person like this, you know it. As an early example, he started a company after he left apple called CL-9. The idea was to produce a programmable remote people could use with all their various stereos, and TV stuff, etc. That way you don't have remotes laying all over the place. Well, good idea, but back then, people only had like one or two things. Woz foresaw that soon many things would be available that could be controlled via a remote. He was about five years too soon so it never really took off. Now of course, you can buy remotes like that anywhere.
You can pick up practically any computer history book, look in the index under "W" and you'll see Wozniak there. He truly deserves if for his technical genius. But I think he also should be listed somewhere as somebody who was not corrupted by money and fame. He is genuinely nice guy who never looks down on anyone.
One other thing about Woz is that he is very honest. If he sees something he likes in an Android phone or Windows machine, he says so. He doesn't care what the press reads into it. He's Apple's biggest fan but that doesn't mean he closes his mind to the rest of the creativity he sees in the world.
Yeah, it would be nice if there were more folks like Woz in Silicon Valley.
I was very lucky to interview Woz for about thirty minuets and nearly raised money to bring him to my city! here is my cred : Learning from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak - Wichita Business Journal
although I never worked with Woz, I asked him pretty deep questions of what building the first apple computers was like with him and jobs and a couple other buddies. His answers were always bubbly. He applied the tone of passion and fun. He always answered with saying, we were just kids and we didn't know all these business related issues. He always and I mean always fell back upon having fun. Everything he did with his team was related to building fun and intriguing concepts. You could just hear the passion in his voice. He was simply all about doing something that involved a prank or entertainment when he was younger. An interesting thing to note was the fact that he didn't mention Jobs as much when we spoke of early days of Apple. After the interview I realize after all these media blowup of Jobs and Woz as this great partnership, it did not seem to be so true with Woz. Which we can not possibly know everything, but he never once talked about working with Jobs in the early days. Very interesting. I'm sure the relationship was fine, but the work habits of Jobs around Woz when apple was close to going public must have worried Woz very much. Jobs was off to conquer the tech world and Woz being the original engineer wanted to step back and say 'why, why do I need to press on like this (Jobs' frantic pace of innovation) Which is very interesting to think an engineer with that notion to say why do we need to conquer the tech world. He then went on to leave apple and enjoy his youth while throwing massive parties and concerts. His life will be remembered well for engineering purposes and his prankster fun ways.
although I never worked with Woz, I asked him pretty deep questions of what building the first apple computers was like with him and jobs and a couple other buddies. His answers were always bubbly. He applied the tone of passion and fun. He always answered with saying, we were just kids and we didn't know all these business related issues. He always and I mean always fell back upon having fun. Everything he did with his team was related to building fun and intriguing concepts. You could just hear the passion in his voice. He was simply all about doing something that involved a prank or entertainment when he was younger. An interesting thing to note was the fact that he didn't mention Jobs as much when we spoke of early days of Apple. After the interview I realize after all these media blowup of Jobs and Woz as this great partnership, it did not seem to be so true with Woz. Which we can not possibly know everything, but he never once talked about working with Jobs in the early days. Very interesting. I'm sure the relationship was fine, but the work habits of Jobs around Woz when apple was close to going public must have worried Woz very much. Jobs was off to conquer the tech world and Woz being the original engineer wanted to step back and say 'why, why do I need to press on like this (Jobs' frantic pace of innovation) Which is very interesting to think an engineer with that notion to say why do we need to conquer the tech world. He then went on to leave apple and enjoy his youth while throwing massive parties and concerts. His life will be remembered well for engineering purposes and his prankster fun ways.
I am not qualified to answer this but I am framing this answer with the help of the books I've read and interviews of people who worked with Woz.
Steve once told " My partner Woz, brilliant brilliant programmer. He would write the basci which was like the best basic in the world. He was the guy who knew engineering more than I did."
Woz was a programmer, electrical engineer more like a chid.
Ronald wayne one of the early shareholders of Apple qouted that he was a Whirlwind. And a great mind.
Gates also admired woz's intelligence. He was adamant a bit.
There is this scene with the Time magazine. Where they requested Woz to write an article which would explain personal computing.
But Woz was very badly famous for his writing skills and explaining it in a more complicated manner. Which normal people won't understand. So they contacted Woz that they will be editing his article. But Woz was adamant that nobody would change my article. Not even a word will be displaced.
It would have been interesting to work with him.
And remember His contribution to the personal computing is uncomparable.
Steve once told " My partner Woz, brilliant brilliant programmer. He would write the basci which was like the best basic in the world. He was the guy who knew engineering more than I did."
Woz was a programmer, electrical engineer more like a chid.
Ronald wayne one of the early shareholders of Apple qouted that he was a Whirlwind. And a great mind.
Gates also admired woz's intelligence. He was adamant a bit.
There is this scene with the Time magazine. Where they requested Woz to write an article which would explain personal computing.
But Woz was very badly famous for his writing skills and explaining it in a more complicated manner. Which normal people won't understand. So they contacted Woz that they will be editing his article. But Woz was adamant that nobody would change my article. Not even a word will be displaced.
It would have been interesting to work with him.
And remember His contribution to the personal computing is uncomparable.
Phenomenal; thats totally amazing to create new machine, design and solder different parts and go to various electronics hobbyist group events to get updated then make your machine up to date. Finding possibilities for your machine ( I think its Steve Jobs part ), feeling 'wow' when your machine works well, great feelings of being first or one of pioneers of field you are involve in. Having nice feedback for your machines from peoples. Then again think about innovation you can pour into your next machine, taking challenges, go to Stanford library to explore more about electronics.
And, of course get overwhelmed when Steve Jobes comes with some crazy idea or something he insists with.
And, of course get overwhelmed when Steve Jobes comes with some crazy idea or something he insists with.
