Everybody knows the story of how Steves Jobs and Wozniak founded the iconic computer company that we spend every waking moment thinking about. But how much do you really know about the two Steves? If you’re interested in brushing up on your Steve-ology, then you’re in luck, because they’re certainly a subject of much discussion.
Over at Esquire, Tom Junod has a lengthy, eloquent piece about Steve Jobs, focusing heavily on Steve’s identity—who he is and why he is. From the get go, the piece might seem a little dour—the first line is a forthright “One day, Steve Jobs is going to die.”—but it’s still a worthwhile read if you’re looking to glean insight into the man and myth of the Apple co-founder and CEO.
The BBC’s piece on The Other Steve is perhaps not so entrancingly written, but it’s still interesting for Woz fans, talking frankly about how he wanted to be an engineer and not a boss. As usual, Woz talks about his passions for engineering, gadgetry, and education.
It’s always interesting for me to see how dissimilar these two guys are—and yet without either of them, Apple as we know it wouldn’t exist today. Just goes to show you the kind of perfect storm conditions needed to create something insanely great.
While there's no argument that Steve Jobs is most certainly the 'character' behind Apple (even with the 'distortion field' ever present), Steve Wozniak was and is the reason Apple existed in the first place. While he's got nothing in comparison personality or people savvy wise, he's an engineering genius, and that's the thing Steve Jobs does not have. One without the other, do great things in their own rights, and the Macintosh concept (via Lisa) was very much the brainchild of Steve Jobs, and engineered by his team, not Steve Wozniak's. But, the simple fact is, without Steve Wozniak's sheer genius in designing and building the Apple I, Apple II and defining a totally new concept in home computing, there would very likely be no Steve Jobs to show Apple off, or no Apple for Steve Jobs to be shown off about. Also don't forget, the slow progress of Apple was in a large part Steve Jobs 'need' to stand alone from the crown, and even on his return, it's the engineers and predominantly Jonathan Ives designs/concepts, who set the standard for what Steve Jobs now calls Apple. For me, while I know that Steve Jobs is the first name that is shouted when someone says Apple, were there not a product, there'd be no Apple, and that product, at least in it's origianl form, is and a was all Steve Wozniak.