by ressedue
‘Until the Last Sinew, the Last Synapse Gives Up’
[Via Daring Fireball]
Jean-Louis Gassée on Steve Jobs:
For a long time, I’ve seen him as having an animal inside him, the one with the desires, the instinct, the drive. In 1985, that animal threw Steve to the ground. He picked himself up at Pixar — you’d be a captain of industry for doing no more — and NeXT. Then, in 1997, armed with Pixar’s success and Next’s technical prowess, he came back to run Apple and make it really his.
He had learned to ride the animal.
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An excellent write-up by someone with almost as storied a career with Apple and beyond as Jobs. In some alternate universe, Jobs never returned to Apple because it bought Gassée’s Be.
He has a strong connection then, as the man who might have run Apple. This is a great read regarding Jobs. This seems todesribe what Jobs is like:
When I first met Steve, in February 1981, he was sitting cross-legged on a credenza in the Apple board room, picking his toes. Since then I’ve watched with glee as he went against received wisdom, causing pundits to have fits at every turn. I picture them as a gaggle of eunuchs standing around the caliph’s bed, braying in high-pitched voice: ‘Steve, you’re doing it wrong!’
For a long time, I’ve seen him as having an animal inside him, the one with the desires, the instinct, the drive. In 1985, that animal threw Steve to the ground. He picked himself up at Pixar — you’d be a captain of industry for doing no more — and NeXT. Then, in 1997, armed with Pixar’s success and Next’s technical prowess, he came back to run Apple and make it really his.
He had learned to ride the animal.
And the Herman Hesse quote at the end is so opportune and revealing.
It would be interesting to see if Gassée might become more directly connected with Apple and help provide the same sort of vision that Steve has. He does have a similar vibe.
A Man With A Ph.D. 