WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are opening 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:06.330 up the files on a figure who is so central to 00:00:06.330 --> 00:00:08.429 the world we live in, yet often feels like he's 00:00:08.429 --> 00:00:11.070 standing just slightly at our focus in the history 00:00:11.070 --> 00:00:13.789 books. We all know the standard mythology of 00:00:13.789 --> 00:00:16.530 Apple, right? We know the black turtleneck, the 00:00:16.530 --> 00:00:20.670 round glasses, the reality distortion field and 00:00:20.670 --> 00:00:24.329 the sheer marketing genius of Steve Jobs. It's 00:00:24.329 --> 00:00:26.469 the narrative that has dominated, I mean, the 00:00:26.469 --> 00:00:29.070 last 40 years of tech history. It's the visionary 00:00:29.070 --> 00:00:32.490 CEO, the great man theory applied to silicon 00:00:32.490 --> 00:00:35.179 and plastic. Exactly. But today we are shifting 00:00:35.179 --> 00:00:37.560 the lens entirely. We're looking at the other 00:00:37.560 --> 00:00:40.439 Steve. Right. The technical soul of the personal 00:00:40.439 --> 00:00:43.200 computer revolution. The man who actually built 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:45.399 the things that the other Steve sold. We are 00:00:45.399 --> 00:00:47.659 talking about the Wizard of Wes, Steve Wozniak. 00:00:47.659 --> 00:00:49.759 And honestly, looking at the stack of source 00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:52.500 material we have today, the biographies, patent 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:54.359 filings, old interviews from the 70s, calling 00:00:54.359 --> 00:00:57.380 him the other Steve feels like a massive disservice. 00:00:57.460 --> 00:00:59.429 Oh, completely. Because when you really dig into 00:00:59.429 --> 00:01:02.409 the engineering, you realize that without Wozniak's 00:01:02.409 --> 00:01:06.930 specific type of engineering purity, Silicon 00:01:06.930 --> 00:01:09.609 Valley as we know it simply wouldn't exist. It's 00:01:09.609 --> 00:01:11.609 a bold claim, but the sources seem to back it 00:01:11.609 --> 00:01:14.030 up. We've got a massive amount of material here, 00:01:14.109 --> 00:01:16.510 ranging from his early days as a freaker hacking 00:01:16.510 --> 00:01:19.150 phone lines with a whistle, to the patent for 00:01:19.150 --> 00:01:22.030 the Apple II controller, all the way to his recent 00:01:22.030 --> 00:01:24.609 and frankly surprising views on artificial intelligence 00:01:24.609 --> 00:01:27.159 and the future of humanity. It is a fascinating 00:01:27.159 --> 00:01:29.219 trajectory. It's not just a business story. It's 00:01:29.219 --> 00:01:32.060 a story about a specific philosophy of technology. 00:01:32.439 --> 00:01:34.760 So our mission today is to unpack the life of 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:37.000 the man they call was. We're going to look at 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:39.099 the prankster who accidentally started a revolution, 00:01:39.379 --> 00:01:42.760 the traumatic plane crash that literally reset 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:45.480 his brain, and why, despite being worth millions, 00:01:45.700 --> 00:01:48.099 he ended up teaching fifth graders in a local 00:01:48.099 --> 00:01:50.400 school. And I think what stands out immediately, 00:01:50.700 --> 00:01:53.299 just looking at the overview of his life, is 00:01:53.299 --> 00:01:56.659 the contrast. You have Jobs, who is all about 00:01:56.659 --> 00:01:58.900 the package, the deal, the control, the closed 00:01:58.900 --> 00:02:00.620 system. The aesthetic. The aesthetic, exactly. 00:02:01.040 --> 00:02:04.060 And then you have Wozniak, who seems driven by 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:06.819 this almost childlike joy of discovery. He's 00:02:06.819 --> 00:02:09.419 the archetype of the happy hacker. The prankster 00:02:09.419 --> 00:02:12.180 genius. Precisely. And that's where we have to 00:02:12.180 --> 00:02:14.800 start. Because before there was Apple, before 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:16.599 there were billions of dollars, there was just 00:02:16.599 --> 00:02:18.819 a guy named Berkeley Blue. I love this alias, 00:02:18.900 --> 00:02:21.699 Berkeley Blue. It sounds like a jazz musician, 00:02:21.819 --> 00:02:24.520 maybe a character from a noir novel. Right. But 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:27.340 it was his handle in the underground world of 00:02:27.340 --> 00:02:30.620 phone freaking. Right. We have to contextualize 00:02:30.620 --> 00:02:32.599 this for you, the listener. This is the early 00:02:32.599 --> 00:02:36.219 1970s. The Internet does not exist. The most 00:02:36.219 --> 00:02:39.159 complex machine on the planet is the global telephone 00:02:39.159 --> 00:02:42.879 network owned by AT &T. A monolith. A total monolith. 00:02:42.979 --> 00:02:45.939 And freaking was essentially the precursor to 00:02:45.939 --> 00:02:48.340 computer hacking. But instead of hacking servers 00:02:48.340 --> 00:02:50.960 with code, they were exploring the telephone 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:53.639 network with sound. With sound. That's the part 00:02:53.639 --> 00:02:55.400 that's so wild to me. And the source material 00:02:55.400 --> 00:02:58.020 highlights this specific article in Esquire magazine 00:02:58.020 --> 00:03:01.259 from 1971 titled Secrets of the Little Blue Box 00:03:01.259 --> 00:03:04.560 by Ron Rosenbaum. And Wes reads this article 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:06.979 and it's like a lightning bolt hits him. It was 00:03:06.979 --> 00:03:10.379 the ultimate aha moment. The article described 00:03:10.379 --> 00:03:13.060 how the entire phone system was controlled by 00:03:13.060 --> 00:03:16.210 specific audio frequencies. Basically, the phone 00:03:16.210 --> 00:03:19.669 company used tones to control the network, to 00:03:19.669 --> 00:03:22.370 tell the switches to open a line, close a line, 00:03:22.449 --> 00:03:24.650 or route a call. Okay, so it was like a secret 00:03:24.650 --> 00:03:26.870 language. It was a secret language, and the system 00:03:26.870 --> 00:03:29.310 just assumed that only the phone company had 00:03:29.310 --> 00:03:32.310 the equipment to generate those tones. They relied 00:03:32.310 --> 00:03:35.849 on security through obscurity. Exactly. And the 00:03:35.849 --> 00:03:38.689 key to the kingdom, the master key, was a frequency 00:03:38.689 --> 00:03:42.219 of 2 ,600 hertz. 2 ,600 hertz, why that specific 00:03:42.219 --> 00:03:45.000 pitch? That was the idle signal for a trunk line. 00:03:45.340 --> 00:03:48.300 So if you could whistle or generate 2 ,600 hertz 00:03:48.300 --> 00:03:50.439 into a phone receiver, the switch at the other 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:52.419 end would think the call had ended and the line 00:03:52.419 --> 00:03:54.919 was free. So it resets? It would reset, but you're 00:03:54.919 --> 00:03:56.979 still in the line. So once the switch reset, 00:03:57.159 --> 00:03:59.159 you could dial a new number. Anywhere in the 00:03:59.159 --> 00:04:00.979 world. And the system wouldn't charge you because 00:04:00.979 --> 00:04:02.759 it thought it was just processing an internal 00:04:02.759 --> 00:04:04.979 routing command. You can make free long distance 00:04:04.979 --> 00:04:08.639 calls. Anywhere. You could navigate the entire 00:04:08.639 --> 00:04:11.860 globe from a payphone. It was like having a backstage 00:04:11.860 --> 00:04:14.840 pass to the world's nervous system. And Wozniak, 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:17.079 being Wozniak, didn't just want to read about 00:04:17.079 --> 00:04:19.779 it. He wanted to build it. Of course. He had 00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:22.220 to. He built what was called a blue box of a 00:04:22.220 --> 00:04:24.860 handheld digital device that generated these 00:04:24.860 --> 00:04:27.600 specific tones. And this is where the dynamic 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:30.079 between the two Steves is established, like right 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:32.439 out of the gate. Immediately. Wozniak builds 00:04:32.439 --> 00:04:34.720 this incredible piece of hardware because he 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:37.160 thinks it's cool. He wants to see if he can solve 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:39.879 the puzzle. Right. And most freakers at the time 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:42.379 were using analog circuits that were, you know, 00:04:42.379 --> 00:04:44.540 unstable. The piece would drift. It wouldn't 00:04:44.540 --> 00:04:48.259 work reliably. Wozniak, obsessed with perfection. 00:04:48.860 --> 00:04:51.120 Built the first digital blue box. The first one 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:54.040 ever. The first one. It was precise. It never 00:04:54.040 --> 00:04:57.639 drifted. It was an engineering marvel disguised 00:04:57.639 --> 00:04:59.660 as a prank tool. He actually tried to call the 00:04:59.660 --> 00:05:01.379 Pope with it, didn't he? He did. This is one 00:05:01.379 --> 00:05:03.600 of the best stories. He dialed the Vatican and 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:05.879 he identified himself as Henry Kissinger. As 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:09.660 Henry Kissinger. Yes. And he asked to speak to 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:12.199 the pontiff. He actually navigated through several 00:05:12.199 --> 00:05:14.759 layers of the Vatican hierarchy. They were apparently 00:05:14.759 --> 00:05:16.420 waking up bishops in the middle of the night 00:05:16.420 --> 00:05:19.019 to take the call. No way. He eventually got stopped 00:05:19.019 --> 00:05:21.899 because it was something like 4 .0 a .m. in Washington, 00:05:22.060 --> 00:05:24.300 D .C., and someone at the Vatican finally realized 00:05:24.300 --> 00:05:27.620 Kissinger probably wouldn't be calling from a 00:05:27.620 --> 00:05:29.519 phone booth in California at that hour. That 00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:33.699 is just the audacity, but also the sheer fun 00:05:33.699 --> 00:05:36.899 of it. But the key here is what Jobs did. Was 00:05:36.899 --> 00:05:39.019 built the box for the fun of it. Jobs looked 00:05:39.019 --> 00:05:40.899 at it and said, we can sell this. That is the 00:05:40.899 --> 00:05:43.240 template for their entire relationship, isn't 00:05:43.240 --> 00:05:46.040 it? It's the whole story in a nutshell. Was creates 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:49.439 the magic. Jobs packages it. They went dorm to 00:05:49.439 --> 00:05:52.060 dorm at Berkeley, selling these illegal hacking 00:05:52.060 --> 00:05:55.160 devices for $150 a pop. Which was real money 00:05:55.160 --> 00:05:58.540 in 1971. That's like $1 ,000 today. It was. And 00:05:58.540 --> 00:06:00.600 they sold a whole bunch of them. But there's 00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:02.480 a quote from Jobs later in life that I think 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:04.360 is essential to understanding this deep dive. 00:06:04.439 --> 00:06:07.160 He said, if it had not been for Wozniak's blue 00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:09.540 boxes, there wouldn't have been an apple. Wow. 00:06:09.660 --> 00:06:12.160 So it wasn't just a college prank. It was the 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:15.019 proof of concept for their entire partnership. 00:06:15.379 --> 00:06:18.259 It proved two things. One, they could create 00:06:18.259 --> 00:06:21.740 technology that was superior to what was commercially 00:06:21.740 --> 00:06:24.410 available. And two, they could monetize it. And 00:06:24.410 --> 00:06:25.970 it also bound them together. I mean, they were 00:06:25.970 --> 00:06:27.970 committing felonies together. That creates a 00:06:27.970 --> 00:06:30.430 bond of trust, for sure. Speaking of creations 00:06:30.430 --> 00:06:33.189 and bonds, we have to talk about the cream soda 00:06:33.189 --> 00:06:35.790 computer. This was even before the Appalachian, 00:06:35.790 --> 00:06:38.970 right? Yes, this was 1971, even before the blue 00:06:38.970 --> 00:06:41.529 boxes really took off. Wozniak and a friend, 00:06:41.750 --> 00:06:43.730 Bill Fernandez. Who was the guy who actually 00:06:43.730 --> 00:06:47.029 introduced Woz to jobs? The very same guy. So 00:06:47.029 --> 00:06:49.850 Woz and Bill decide to build a computer in a 00:06:49.850 --> 00:06:52.360 garage. Now, you have to remember, this is before 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:54.259 microprocessors were really a thing you could 00:06:54.259 --> 00:06:56.199 just go buy at the store. So what did they build 00:06:56.199 --> 00:06:58.040 it with? The sources say they built it with punch 00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:01.680 cards and spare chips. They used about 20 TTL 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:05.180 chips, transistor logic, that were donated by 00:07:05.180 --> 00:07:06.939 an acquaintance. They didn't have a screen. They 00:07:06.939 --> 00:07:09.500 had a panel of lights. And they called it the 00:07:09.500 --> 00:07:11.959 cream soda computer. Because they were just drinking 00:07:11.959 --> 00:07:14.319 tons of cream soda while building it. Liters 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:16.899 and liters of Kragmont cream soda. And the fate 00:07:16.899 --> 00:07:20.470 of this computer is just... It's slapstick comedy. 00:07:20.730 --> 00:07:24.209 It is. A local reporter came to see this garage 00:07:24.209 --> 00:07:26.490 computer, this marvel of homebrew engineering. 00:07:26.889 --> 00:07:29.970 He comes in, he's taking notes, and he steps 00:07:29.970 --> 00:07:33.009 on the power supply cable. No! Yes. Caused a 00:07:33.009 --> 00:07:35.490 short circuit, and the whole thing just blew 00:07:35.490 --> 00:07:39.550 up. Gone in a puff of smoke. But Wozniak wasn't 00:07:39.550 --> 00:07:42.089 devastated. He said it was a good prelude. It 00:07:42.089 --> 00:07:44.170 taught him how to think about logic design five 00:07:44.170 --> 00:07:46.189 years before the Appalachian Sea. See, that right 00:07:46.189 --> 00:07:48.069 there shows you what drove him. He was doing 00:07:48.069 --> 00:07:50.790 this for the intrinsic reward of learning, not 00:07:50.790 --> 00:07:53.350 necessarily for the end product. It really establishes 00:07:53.350 --> 00:07:55.569 that Woz was doing this stuff for the love of 00:07:55.569 --> 00:07:57.149 it. He wasn't trying to build a company yet. 00:07:57.189 --> 00:07:58.610 He was just trying to make electrons do what 00:07:58.610 --> 00:08:00.550 he wanted. But there is a story in the records 00:08:00.550 --> 00:08:03.250 that I think serves as a darker counterpoint 00:08:03.250 --> 00:08:06.750 to this fun cream soda era, the Atari breakout 00:08:06.750 --> 00:08:10.329 incident. Ah, yes. If the Blue Box established 00:08:10.329 --> 00:08:13.410 their partnership, The breakout incident established 00:08:13.410 --> 00:08:16.069 their personality differences. This is often 00:08:16.069 --> 00:08:18.410 cited as the moment the innocence of the relationship 00:08:18.410 --> 00:08:21.129 died, even if Was didn't know it at the time. 00:08:21.470 --> 00:08:24.870 So lay this out for us. Jobs is working at Atari, 00:08:25.069 --> 00:08:28.790 right? Right. It's roughly 1974. Jobs is working 00:08:28.790 --> 00:08:31.209 the night shift at Atari. He was actually moved 00:08:31.209 --> 00:08:33.409 to the night shift because, well, his hygiene 00:08:33.409 --> 00:08:35.769 was poor and he was difficult to work with. So 00:08:35.769 --> 00:08:37.190 they just wanted him there when no one else was 00:08:37.190 --> 00:08:40.370 around? Pretty much. Classic early Jobs. And 00:08:40.370 --> 00:08:42.889 Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, wants a 00:08:42.889 --> 00:08:44.870 single -player version of Pong, which became 00:08:44.870 --> 00:08:47.470 the game Breakout. Right. But arcade cabinets 00:08:47.470 --> 00:08:50.009 were expensive to manufacture. Every single chip 00:08:50.009 --> 00:08:52.850 on the circuit board cost money. So Bushnell 00:08:52.850 --> 00:08:55.029 offers a challenge. For every chip eliminated 00:08:55.029 --> 00:08:57.210 from the standard design, he would pay a cash 00:08:57.210 --> 00:08:59.490 bonus. It was an efficiency challenge. Make it 00:08:59.490 --> 00:09:02.190 cheaper to build. Exactly. The deal was a bonus 00:09:02.190 --> 00:09:05.129 for every chip removed. Now, Jobs wasn't a circuit 00:09:05.129 --> 00:09:07.409 designer. He couldn't do this. He didn't have 00:09:07.409 --> 00:09:09.889 the engineering chops. So he goes to Woz. He 00:09:09.889 --> 00:09:13.710 recruits Wozniak. He tells Woz, help me do this 00:09:13.710 --> 00:09:16.509 and we'll split the money 50 -50. Wozniak, being 00:09:16.509 --> 00:09:20.250 the genius he is, accepts. And he stays up for, 00:09:20.309 --> 00:09:22.409 what, four nights in a row? Four nights straight. 00:09:22.710 --> 00:09:25.610 No sleep. Working at Hewlett Packard during the 00:09:25.610 --> 00:09:28.720 day, then going to Atari at night. The sources 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:31.080 say he actually got mononucleosis during this 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:33.220 sprint. He was that exhausted. But he did it. 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:36.539 He reduced the chip count by 50. 50 chips, which 00:09:36.539 --> 00:09:39.480 is an insane number. It's just, it's unheard 00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:43.039 of. It was a design so compact, so minimalist, 00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:45.779 that Atari's own engineers couldn't figure out 00:09:45.779 --> 00:09:47.720 how to manufacture it later. It was too tight. 00:09:48.139 --> 00:09:50.659 is a masterpiece of minimalism. So was does the 00:09:50.659 --> 00:09:54.019 impossible. He saves Atari a fortune. And here 00:09:54.019 --> 00:09:56.519 comes the betrayal. Right. Jobs goes to was and 00:09:56.519 --> 00:09:58.940 tells him that the bonus was seven hundred dollars. 00:09:59.539 --> 00:10:02.659 Seven hundred. So he gives was his half three 00:10:02.659 --> 00:10:04.879 hundred and fifty dollars. But the actual bonus 00:10:04.879 --> 00:10:08.399 was five thousand dollars. No man. Jobs pocketed 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:09.919 the difference. Forty six hundred fifty dollars. 00:10:10.409 --> 00:10:12.250 That is, I mean, that's ruthless. That's your 00:10:12.250 --> 00:10:13.970 best friend, the guy who just gave himself mono 00:10:13.970 --> 00:10:16.809 for you. It is. It's calculating. And what's 00:10:16.809 --> 00:10:19.549 just heartbreaking is Wozniak's reaction. He 00:10:19.549 --> 00:10:22.070 didn't find out the truth for 10 years. 10 years? 00:10:22.190 --> 00:10:24.610 How did he find out? He read about it in a book 00:10:24.610 --> 00:10:28.549 on the history of Atari. And when he did, he 00:10:28.549 --> 00:10:31.610 didn't get angry. He didn't sue. He said, and 00:10:31.610 --> 00:10:34.450 I'm quoting the source here, if Jobs had told 00:10:34.450 --> 00:10:36.970 him about it and said he needed the money, Wozniak 00:10:36.970 --> 00:10:39.389 would have given it to him. That right there. 00:10:39.490 --> 00:10:42.389 That sums up Steve Wozniak in one sentence. It's 00:10:42.389 --> 00:10:44.649 not about the money for him. It's about the friendship 00:10:44.649 --> 00:10:51.820 and the work. And frankly, it shows that Wozniak 00:10:51.820 --> 00:10:54.980 was perhaps a bit naive while Jobs was already 00:10:54.980 --> 00:10:57.340 playing a zero -sum game. But strangely, they 00:10:57.340 --> 00:10:59.460 needed each other. Woz would have designed that 00:10:59.460 --> 00:11:01.639 board for free just for the puzzle. He absolutely 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:04.159 would have. And Jobs ensured they got paid, even 00:11:04.159 --> 00:11:06.419 if he took the lion's share. It's a complicated, 00:11:06.700 --> 00:11:09.139 symbiotic relationship. So let's move to the 00:11:09.139 --> 00:11:12.620 garage, the mythology. The Apple I was is working 00:11:12.620 --> 00:11:15.159 at Hewlett -Packard at this time, designing calculators. 00:11:15.340 --> 00:11:18.000 Which was a prestigious job. HP was the Google 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:20.710 of its day. If you were an engineer at HP, you 00:11:20.710 --> 00:11:23.549 had made it. It was a stable, respected, high 00:11:23.549 --> 00:11:27.190 -paying job. But Was was moonlighting. He was 00:11:27.190 --> 00:11:29.169 part of the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto. 00:11:29.450 --> 00:11:32.009 Right. This was a group of hobbyists who were 00:11:32.009 --> 00:11:35.370 obsessed with this new idea of microcomputers. 00:11:35.370 --> 00:11:37.870 They would meet, trade parts, show off their 00:11:37.870 --> 00:11:41.269 projects. It was the primordial soup of the PC 00:11:41.269 --> 00:11:43.279 revolution. And the Apple Eye was originally 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:45.460 designed just to show off to these guys. Completely. 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:47.519 He wasn't trying to disrupt an industry. He just 00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:49.279 wanted to stand up at the club and say, look, 00:11:49.379 --> 00:11:51.720 I typed a letter on a keyboard and it appeared 00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:54.120 in a TV screen. That was the breakthrough, wasn't 00:11:54.120 --> 00:11:56.700 it? The screen. It was massive. Before the Apple 00:11:56.700 --> 00:11:59.500 Eye, hobbyist computers like the Altair 8800 00:11:59.500 --> 00:12:02.600 were basically boxes with blinking lights and 00:12:02.600 --> 00:12:05.059 toggle switches. You had to program them in binary. 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:08.389 Which is just... It was unbelievably tedious. 00:12:09.029 --> 00:12:12.289 Wozniak combined a microprocessor, the MOS6502, 00:12:12.450 --> 00:12:14.970 which was a cheaper and, in his opinion, better 00:12:14.970 --> 00:12:17.690 chip than the Intel 8080 used in the Altair, 00:12:17.809 --> 00:12:20.169 with a standard typewriter keyboard and a standard 00:12:20.169 --> 00:12:22.759 television set. He turned the computer from a 00:12:22.759 --> 00:12:24.639 piece of industrial machinery into something 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:26.500 that felt like a typewriter that could think. 00:12:26.779 --> 00:12:29.559 Exactly. He humanized the interface. And he did 00:12:29.559 --> 00:12:31.340 it because he wanted to write code more easily 00:12:31.340 --> 00:12:33.879 for himself. Yeah. He was solving his own problem. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:37.379 And Jobs, again, sees the commercial potential. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:41.039 He sees Wiz's demo at the club and says, we have 00:12:41.039 --> 00:12:44.600 to sell this. But they needed capital. And the 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:47.019 sources mention the sacrifices they made to get 00:12:47.019 --> 00:12:49.860 that first batch of boards printed. This is the 00:12:49.860 --> 00:12:52.179 classic startup lore, but it really emphasizes 00:12:52.179 --> 00:12:55.820 their commitment. Wozniak sold his HP scientific 00:12:55.820 --> 00:12:58.539 calculator. Which was his most prized possession. 00:12:59.100 --> 00:13:02.279 An HP -65. It was like an extension of his brain, 00:13:02.440 --> 00:13:05.220 and it was worth about $500 back then. And Jobs 00:13:05.220 --> 00:13:07.700 sold his Volkswagen bus. Right. They literally 00:13:07.700 --> 00:13:09.480 stripped themselves of their most valuable assets 00:13:09.480 --> 00:13:12.539 to fund this idea. They went all in. And they 00:13:12.539 --> 00:13:15.659 launched it on April 1st, 1976, April Fool's 00:13:15.659 --> 00:13:17.940 Day. Which feels so appropriate given Woods' 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:20.220 personality. It really does. But we have to talk 00:13:20.220 --> 00:13:24.519 about the price. $666 .66. You can't make this 00:13:24.519 --> 00:13:27.830 up. Today, a PR team would tackle you before 00:13:27.830 --> 00:13:31.029 you could announce that price. Was Was trying 00:13:31.029 --> 00:13:34.029 to signal something sinister? No, absolutely 00:13:34.029 --> 00:13:36.970 not. The sources are very clear on this. Wasniak 00:13:36.970 --> 00:13:40.830 simply liked repeating digits. He liked the symmetry 00:13:40.830 --> 00:13:45.580 of typing 6666. So it was a mathematical thing. 00:13:45.740 --> 00:13:48.100 It was a purely aesthetic choice for a mathematician 00:13:48.100 --> 00:13:50.899 who loved patterns. He claimed he had no idea 00:13:50.899 --> 00:13:53.659 about the Mark of the Beast connotation until 00:13:53.659 --> 00:13:56.000 he started getting complaint letters. Only was. 00:13:56.679 --> 00:13:59.440 only was would price his first computer at a 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:01.440 satanic number because it looked pretty. It's 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:03.539 perfect. So the Apple key puts him on the map, 00:14:03.559 --> 00:14:05.820 but the Apple II, that's the revolution. That's 00:14:05.820 --> 00:14:07.639 the machine that changed the world. The Apple 00:14:07.639 --> 00:14:10.179 II is the big bang of the personal computer industry. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:12.980 Before the Apple II, computers were for hobbyists 00:14:12.980 --> 00:14:15.840 with soldering irons. The Apple II was a consumer 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:17.799 appliance. You could take it out of the box, 00:14:17.940 --> 00:14:20.259 plug it into your TV, and it worked. And technically, 00:14:20.279 --> 00:14:22.340 it was a marvel. A total marvel. The sources 00:14:22.340 --> 00:14:24.259 highlight two specific things about the Apple 00:14:24.259 --> 00:14:26.159 II that I want to drill down into. The first 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:28.539 is color graphics. This is a perfect example 00:14:28.539 --> 00:14:32.039 of Wozniak's genius for elegant, minimalist design. 00:14:32.740 --> 00:14:35.659 At the time, if you wanted color graphics, you 00:14:35.659 --> 00:14:38.480 needed expensive hardware. You needed three separate 00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:41.419 electron guns firing red, green, and blue. And 00:14:41.419 --> 00:14:43.639 you needed a lot of memory chips to store the 00:14:43.639 --> 00:14:46.980 color data for every single pixel. And memory 00:14:46.980 --> 00:14:49.100 was expensive. Extremely expensive. It was the 00:14:49.100 --> 00:14:51.259 most expensive part of a computer. Yeah. So Wozniak 00:14:51.259 --> 00:14:54.080 figured out a way to trick the NTSC television 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:57.139 standard. Trick it how? He realized that the 00:14:57.139 --> 00:15:00.139 NTSC standard, which is how American TVs received, 00:15:00.519 --> 00:15:03.419 signals determine color based on the phase or 00:15:03.419 --> 00:15:06.340 the timing of the wave. If the wave spun a little 00:15:06.340 --> 00:15:09.539 bit one way, the TV saw red. Spun another way, 00:15:09.620 --> 00:15:11.940 it saw blue. So it was all about timing. All 00:15:11.940 --> 00:15:14.500 about timing. It was used a $1 chip, a simple 00:15:14.500 --> 00:15:17.360 crystal oscillator, to slightly delay or advance 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:19.559 the signal coming out of the computer. So the 00:15:19.559 --> 00:15:21.720 computer wasn't generating color in the traditional 00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:24.220 sense. No. It was generating a very specific 00:15:24.220 --> 00:15:26.779 high -resolution black -and -white pattern that, 00:15:26.860 --> 00:15:29.779 when processed by the TV's sloppy analog circuitry, 00:15:29.799 --> 00:15:32.259 would be interpreted as color. He was exploiting 00:15:32.259 --> 00:15:34.720 a bug in the system. He called it simulating 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:37.620 colors. It was a hack in the truest sense of 00:15:37.620 --> 00:15:40.519 the word. He exploited a quirk in the receiver 00:15:40.519 --> 00:15:43.000 to save a ton of money on the transmitter. It 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:44.799 was brilliant. And the source says he admitted 00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:46.600 he still doesn't fully know how it works on the 00:15:46.600 --> 00:15:49.519 PL system. Right. In Europe, on the PLL system, 00:15:49.799 --> 00:15:52.039 the trick worked differently and produced even 00:15:52.039 --> 00:15:54.940 more colors. He said the colors happen by accident 00:15:54.940 --> 00:15:58.120 when a dot occurs on a specific line. It's like 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:00.480 he was whispering to the machine, coaxing it, 00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:03.039 rather than brute forcing it with expensive hardware. 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:05.620 That's poetic. But then we hit the friction point, 00:16:05.720 --> 00:16:07.929 the great slot debate. This seems to be one of 00:16:07.929 --> 00:16:10.029 the most critical arguments in Apple's history. 00:16:10.230 --> 00:16:12.889 It determined the future of computing. This was 00:16:12.889 --> 00:16:16.450 the clash of philosophies, was versus Jobs, in 00:16:16.450 --> 00:16:19.809 its purest form. So what was the argument? Jobs 00:16:19.809 --> 00:16:21.809 wanted the Apple II to be a sealed appliance. 00:16:22.490 --> 00:16:24.570 He envisioned something beautiful and simple, 00:16:24.629 --> 00:16:26.649 like a toaster. You plug it in, it works. You 00:16:26.649 --> 00:16:29.289 don't look inside. He wanted maybe two expansion 00:16:29.289 --> 00:16:32.350 slots. Just two. For what? One for a printer, 00:16:32.450 --> 00:16:35.659 maybe one for a modem. That's it. He wanted control. 00:16:35.980 --> 00:16:39.039 He wanted a curated experience where Apple decided 00:16:39.039 --> 00:16:41.759 what you could and couldn't do with your machine. 00:16:42.019 --> 00:16:43.759 He was already thinking about the walled garden. 00:16:43.940 --> 00:16:47.019 He absolutely was. And was. Was wanted eight 00:16:47.019 --> 00:16:49.620 slots. He wanted eight. He wanted the user to 00:16:49.620 --> 00:16:51.940 be able to plug in anything. He wanted it to 00:16:51.940 --> 00:16:54.779 be an open platform for other inventors to build 00:16:54.779 --> 00:16:57.980 upon. To him, a computer was a tool for exploration. 00:16:58.500 --> 00:17:01.259 If you sealed the case, you killed the spirit 00:17:01.259 --> 00:17:04.650 of the machine. And this got heated. Extremely. 00:17:04.650 --> 00:17:07.529 Jobs was adamant. He's the marketing guy. He 00:17:07.529 --> 00:17:10.569 knew what consumers wanted. Simplicity. Wozniak 00:17:10.569 --> 00:17:12.670 was the engineer, and he knew what a computer 00:17:12.670 --> 00:17:16.250 needed. Expandability. So what happened? Wozniak 00:17:16.250 --> 00:17:18.650 actually gave Jobs an ultimatum. He told Jobs 00:17:18.650 --> 00:17:21.950 to go get himself another computer. Wow. He essentially 00:17:21.950 --> 00:17:24.549 said, I designed this, it's my machine, and it's 00:17:24.549 --> 00:17:26.410 going to have eight slots where I'm walking. 00:17:26.650 --> 00:17:28.890 And thank goodness he did. Absolutely. Yeah. 00:17:28.950 --> 00:17:31.329 Because those slots are what made the Apple II 00:17:31.329 --> 00:17:33.970 a success. They allowed third -party companies 00:17:33.970 --> 00:17:37.130 to build incredible add -ons. They allowed VisiCalc, 00:17:37.190 --> 00:17:39.849 the first spreadsheet software, to run effectively, 00:17:40.069 --> 00:17:42.250 which is what got the Apple II into businesses. 00:17:42.589 --> 00:17:44.470 So VisiCalc wouldn't have worked without those 00:17:44.470 --> 00:17:46.670 slots. Not as well. You needed a memory card, 00:17:46.809 --> 00:17:49.829 a printer card. Those slots made it a flexible 00:17:49.829 --> 00:17:52.190 platform. It allowed people to hook up scientific 00:17:52.190 --> 00:17:54.549 instruments, music synthesizers, everything. 00:17:55.029 --> 00:17:58.190 That open architecture made the Apple II the 00:17:58.190 --> 00:17:59.990 standard. And it carried the company financially 00:17:59.990 --> 00:18:02.950 for years. For years. It was the cash cow that 00:18:02.950 --> 00:18:04.450 paid for the development of the Lisa and the 00:18:04.450 --> 00:18:07.250 Macintosh. The entire future of Apple was built 00:18:07.250 --> 00:18:10.109 on those eight slots that Jobs didn't want. So 00:18:10.109 --> 00:18:12.690 Woz wins the battle, the Apple II becomes a legend, 00:18:12.750 --> 00:18:16.250 and they become millionaires. But Woz never loses 00:18:16.250 --> 00:18:18.529 that prankster streak. Even at the height of 00:18:18.529 --> 00:18:21.109 their success, he pulls the Zoltair prank. This 00:18:21.109 --> 00:18:22.930 is one of my favorite stories in the file. Because 00:18:22.930 --> 00:18:25.849 it shows he just didn't take himself or the industry 00:18:25.849 --> 00:18:28.869 too seriously. It's 1977, the West Coast Computer 00:18:28.869 --> 00:18:31.250 Fair. This is the big debut of the Apple II. 00:18:31.349 --> 00:18:33.430 It's a huge, high -stress moment. This is their 00:18:33.430 --> 00:18:35.950 big coming -out party. And what does Woes do? 00:18:36.210 --> 00:18:40.769 He decides to print 20 ,000 fake brochures for 00:18:40.769 --> 00:18:42.910 a non -existent computer called the Zoltair. 00:18:43.069 --> 00:18:45.609 A parody of the Altair, which was their main 00:18:45.609 --> 00:18:48.490 competitor. It was a biting parody. The brochure 00:18:48.490 --> 00:18:52.579 advertised a basic language with... I made fun 00:18:52.579 --> 00:18:54.819 of all the marketing hype of the industry. He 00:18:54.819 --> 00:18:57.279 paid a guy to sneak these brochures into the 00:18:57.279 --> 00:18:59.680 conference and just leave them on tables everywhere. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:02.920 And he fooled Jobs. He did. Jobs picked one up 00:19:02.920 --> 00:19:04.759 and started reading it, getting really serious 00:19:04.759 --> 00:19:07.579 comparing the specs. He was saying, hey, the 00:19:07.579 --> 00:19:09.819 Apple II stacks up pretty well against this salt 00:19:09.819 --> 00:19:11.779 hair thing, but this looks like tough competition. 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:14.319 He had no idea. No clue. He didn't realize it 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:17.900 was a joke until years later. In 1985, when Woes 00:19:17.900 --> 00:19:19.920 gave him a framed copy for his birthday. It just 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:22.940 shows that Woes was never a corporate guy. He 00:19:22.940 --> 00:19:24.759 was always the hacker in the garage at heart. 00:19:24.980 --> 00:19:28.019 Always. But then, everything changes. We hit 00:19:28.019 --> 00:19:30.519 a hard stop in the timeline. February 7, 1981. 00:19:31.099 --> 00:19:33.740 The crash. This is the moment that demarcates 00:19:33.740 --> 00:19:36.880 the early Woes from the later Woes. It's a fundamental 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:40.400 shift in his entire life. Woes is piloting a 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:42.819 Beechcraft Bonanza. A plane he wasn't actually 00:19:42.819 --> 00:19:45.420 qualified to fly. according to the NTSB report. 00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:48.740 Oh, really? Yeah. He had a pilot's license, but 00:19:48.740 --> 00:19:50.900 not the specific high -performance endorsement 00:19:50.900 --> 00:19:53.640 needed for that particular aircraft, with its 00:19:53.640 --> 00:19:56.500 complex retractable gear and variable pitch proc. 00:19:56.700 --> 00:19:59.220 He takes off from Scotts Valley, stalls, and 00:19:59.220 --> 00:20:01.700 crashes into an embankment. It was a horrific 00:20:01.700 --> 00:20:05.140 accident. Yeah. Wozniak, his fiancée at the time, 00:20:05.240 --> 00:20:07.900 Candy Clark, her brother, and his girlfriend 00:20:07.900 --> 00:20:11.049 were all on board. The plane climbed too steeply, 00:20:11.049 --> 00:20:13.869 stalled, the wing dipped, and they smashed into 00:20:13.869 --> 00:20:15.990 the ground. Everyone survived, which is a miracle. 00:20:16.309 --> 00:20:20.150 It is. But Wuz sustained severe face and head 00:20:20.150 --> 00:20:23.509 injuries. He lost a tooth. The physical recovery 00:20:23.509 --> 00:20:25.650 was brutal. But the most terrifying part is the 00:20:25.650 --> 00:20:28.650 amnesia. Anterograde amnesia. He couldn't form 00:20:28.650 --> 00:20:31.130 new memories. For five weeks, he was stuck in 00:20:31.130 --> 00:20:32.730 a loop. A loop? What do you mean? He would wake 00:20:32.730 --> 00:20:34.670 up in the hospital, not know where he was, not 00:20:34.670 --> 00:20:36.930 remember the crash at all. His fiancée would 00:20:36.930 --> 00:20:39.210 have to explain it to him. Over and over. He 00:20:39.210 --> 00:20:41.490 would be shocked, maybe cry. Then he'd fall asleep, 00:20:41.609 --> 00:20:43.869 wake up, and ask, where am I? All over again. 00:20:44.190 --> 00:20:46.589 That's the stuff of nightmares. It's terrifying. 00:20:46.970 --> 00:20:49.890 He couldn't hold on to the present. The source 00:20:49.890 --> 00:20:53.609 describes his recovery as flipping a reset switch. 00:20:53.950 --> 00:20:56.450 That's the crucial metaphor one uses, right? 00:20:56.569 --> 00:20:58.529 It is. He says that when he finally came out 00:20:58.529 --> 00:21:01.089 of that fog, when his memory started to stick 00:21:01.089 --> 00:21:04.410 again, it was like his brain had rebooted to 00:21:04.410 --> 00:21:07.410 an earlier state. He regained the mind of his 00:21:07.410 --> 00:21:09.509 18 -year -old self. And suddenly the corporate 00:21:09.509 --> 00:21:11.750 pressure, the management meetings, the Apple 00:21:11.750 --> 00:21:14.029 politics. None of it mattered anymore. It was 00:21:14.029 --> 00:21:16.829 like that part of his memory, that part of his 00:21:16.829 --> 00:21:19.609 identity as a big shot executive was just gone. 00:21:19.769 --> 00:21:22.210 He lost interest in engineering for a while. 00:21:22.349 --> 00:21:25.609 And he recovered by playing Apple II games, ironically. 00:21:25.650 --> 00:21:27.990 Yes, his wife would bring the computer to the 00:21:27.990 --> 00:21:31.049 hospital and playing those games, he said, helped 00:21:31.049 --> 00:21:33.940 him rebuild the pathways in his brain. But once 00:21:33.940 --> 00:21:35.920 he healed, he didn't run back to the boardroom. 00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:38.700 He decided to finish what he started before Apple. 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:41.400 He went back to college. Under the name Rocky 00:21:41.400 --> 00:21:45.079 Raccoon Clark. Yes. He enrolled at UC Berkeley 00:21:45.079 --> 00:21:47.160 to finish his electrical engineering and computer 00:21:47.160 --> 00:21:49.400 science degree. But he couldn't use his real 00:21:49.400 --> 00:21:52.039 name because he was world famous by then. So 00:21:52.039 --> 00:21:55.640 Rocky Clark it was. Named after his dog and his 00:21:55.640 --> 00:21:58.259 wife's last name. I just love that he cared enough 00:21:58.259 --> 00:22:00.880 about the degree to go back. Even though he had 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:02.759 already invented the industry, the degree was 00:22:02.759 --> 00:22:05.400 teaching. It speaks to his humility. He wanted 00:22:05.400 --> 00:22:07.740 the knowledge, not just the accolade. He wanted 00:22:07.740 --> 00:22:10.000 to complete the circuit, you know. And during 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:13.180 this reset period, he also pivots to music. We 00:22:13.180 --> 00:22:14.940 have to talk about the U .S. festivals. This 00:22:14.940 --> 00:22:17.680 is a wild chapter. This was Wozniak trying to 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:20.119 use his massive wealth to create social harmony. 00:22:20.440 --> 00:22:24.200 It was his post -crash big idea project. He founded 00:22:24.200 --> 00:22:27.079 a company called Anusin Unitas in Song. a very 00:22:27.079 --> 00:22:30.619 70s name very much so he wanted to blend technology 00:22:30.619 --> 00:22:32.819 music and people it was going to be the woodstock 00:22:32.819 --> 00:22:35.420 of the 80s and he threw two massive festivals 00:22:35.420 --> 00:22:39.140 in 82 and 83. the lineup was insane the police 00:22:39.140 --> 00:22:42.160 talking heads van halen david bowie the clash 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:45.140 culturally they were landmarks he built a stage 00:22:45.140 --> 00:22:47.339 the size of an aircraft carrier in the middle 00:22:47.339 --> 00:22:50.180 of the desert He set up a satellite bridge with 00:22:50.180 --> 00:22:52.160 the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:55.019 War to show that people on both sides just wanted 00:22:55.019 --> 00:22:58.480 to rock out. It was incredibly ambitious. And 00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:01.579 financially. A complete and utter disaster. He 00:23:01.579 --> 00:23:04.700 lost millions. He lost about $20 million of his 00:23:04.700 --> 00:23:06.680 own money. But lies being woes, he basically 00:23:06.680 --> 00:23:09.000 said, if I lose money, I lose money. His attitude 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:12.170 was so unique. He threatened to stop doing them 00:23:12.170 --> 00:23:15.309 if the 83 event didn't profit, which it didn't, 00:23:15.309 --> 00:23:17.950 so he stopped. But he viewed the money as fuel 00:23:17.950 --> 00:23:20.730 to create a memory. He said he got to see his 00:23:20.730 --> 00:23:23.210 favorite bands. If the money was burned up, but 00:23:23.210 --> 00:23:25.849 the memory was created, the transaction was valid. 00:23:26.029 --> 00:23:28.089 It's a very unbusinesslike way to view capital. 00:23:28.269 --> 00:23:30.230 Completely. It's the polar opposite of the venture 00:23:30.230 --> 00:23:32.430 capital mindset. So he eventually goes back to 00:23:32.430 --> 00:23:34.569 Apple briefly, but the vibe has changed. The 00:23:34.569 --> 00:23:37.289 Macintosh is the new golden child. Right. And 00:23:37.289 --> 00:23:40.190 the Apple II, the machine that is actually paying 00:23:40.190 --> 00:23:42.690 everyone's salary, is being disrespected. This 00:23:42.690 --> 00:23:45.210 was painful for him. The Macintosh leadership. 00:23:45.799 --> 00:23:48.440 which included jobs, looked down on the Apple 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:50.880 II. They thought it was a dinosaur. They were 00:23:50.880 --> 00:23:52.920 actively trying to kill it off, even though it 00:23:52.920 --> 00:23:55.079 was the only profitable part of the entire company. 00:23:55.299 --> 00:23:57.980 And Wozniak felt that Apple was becoming too 00:23:57.980 --> 00:24:00.759 corporate, too political. Yeah, he hated it. 00:24:00.859 --> 00:24:03.039 He famously said he wanted to be an engineer, 00:24:03.220 --> 00:24:05.400 not a manager. He wanted to be in the trenches, 00:24:05.500 --> 00:24:07.880 soldering things, not sitting in meetings arguing 00:24:07.880 --> 00:24:12.339 about budgets. So in 1985, he leaves. Or, well, 00:24:12.460 --> 00:24:15.430 he leaves. He steps down from active duty. He 00:24:15.430 --> 00:24:18.329 says Apple was hindering him from being who he 00:24:18.329 --> 00:24:20.890 wanted to be. But here's a fascinating detail. 00:24:21.170 --> 00:24:23.670 He never technically left the employee list. 00:24:23.970 --> 00:24:26.190 Wait, really? He's still an employee. To this 00:24:26.190 --> 00:24:28.650 day, he receives a stipend. The source estimates 00:24:28.650 --> 00:24:32.569 it was about $120 ,000 a year back in 2006. More 00:24:32.569 --> 00:24:34.930 recently, he joked it's about $50 a week after 00:24:34.930 --> 00:24:38.029 taxes. $50 a week. But ceremonial or not, he 00:24:38.029 --> 00:24:40.849 is still Apple employee number one. He kept the 00:24:40.849 --> 00:24:43.329 badge. He represents the company. That is wild. 00:24:43.450 --> 00:24:45.450 It's like he's the tenured professor emeritus 00:24:45.450 --> 00:24:47.390 of Apple. That's a great way to put it. So he 00:24:47.390 --> 00:24:49.690 steps away from the mothership. And this begins 00:24:49.690 --> 00:24:52.490 what I call the serial inventor phase. Section 00:24:52.490 --> 00:24:55.430 four of our outline. Because he didn't stop building. 00:24:55.650 --> 00:24:58.369 Not at all. He founded a company called CL9 immediately 00:24:58.369 --> 00:25:01.130 after leaving. And he invented something we all 00:25:01.130 --> 00:25:04.640 take for granted today. The programmable universal 00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:08.839 remote. The car -R. Yes. Before this, if you 00:25:08.839 --> 00:25:12.299 had a VCR, a TV, and a stereo, you had three 00:25:12.299 --> 00:25:14.920 remotes on your coffee table. Wozniak looked 00:25:14.920 --> 00:25:17.740 at that clutter and saw inefficiency. He saw 00:25:17.740 --> 00:25:20.259 a problem to be solved. So he built a device 00:25:20.259 --> 00:25:22.900 that could learn the codes from other remotes. 00:25:23.099 --> 00:25:25.519 It had an infrared receiver. You would point 00:25:25.519 --> 00:25:27.900 your old remote at the CL9 core, press a button, 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:30.220 and the core would capture and store the waveform. 00:25:30.380 --> 00:25:32.200 And it's the blue box all over again. It's the 00:25:32.200 --> 00:25:34.380 exact same principle. Analyze signals and mimic 00:25:34.380 --> 00:25:36.640 them. It was decades ahead of its time. The company 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:38.559 ultimately didn't succeed for various reasons, 00:25:38.680 --> 00:25:41.400 but the product was brilliant. And true to form, 00:25:41.480 --> 00:25:43.599 he didn't just stay in the lab. He went into 00:25:43.599 --> 00:25:46.059 the classroom. This part of the story really 00:25:46.059 --> 00:25:48.420 gets me. A guy who founded a billion -dollar 00:25:48.420 --> 00:25:51.140 company deciding to teach fifth graders? It was 00:25:51.140 --> 00:25:53.539 a lifelong goal of his. He always said he wanted 00:25:53.539 --> 00:25:56.839 to be a teacher before he met Jobs. So for about 00:25:56.839 --> 00:25:59.740 a decade, he taught computer classes to fifth 00:25:59.740 --> 00:26:02.039 through ninth graders in the Los Gatos School 00:26:02.039 --> 00:26:04.240 District. And this wasn't just a guest lecture 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:06.660 once a year. This was a real job. No, it was 00:26:06.660 --> 00:26:09.359 a full -time commitment. He prepared lesson plans. 00:26:09.640 --> 00:26:12.400 He taught them binary logic. He taught them how 00:26:12.400 --> 00:26:14.160 to unhook phone lines. He taught them how to 00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:17.220 freak. He did. He treated these kids like little 00:26:17.220 --> 00:26:19.779 engineers. He didn't dumb it down. He gave them 00:26:19.779 --> 00:26:22.400 the real stuff. I love that. Can you imagine 00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:25.000 having Steve Wozniak as your fifth grade computer 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:27.140 teacher? It must have been incredible. Yeah. 00:26:27.259 --> 00:26:30.380 The stories say he also fed them. He'd take the 00:26:30.380 --> 00:26:33.710 whole class to McDonald's or a pizza place. It 00:26:33.710 --> 00:26:35.809 shows his desire to nurture the next generation 00:26:35.809 --> 00:26:37.910 of hackers, in the good sense of the word. And 00:26:37.910 --> 00:26:40.829 then we have the Wheel of Zeus. Was. Very clever. 00:26:41.049 --> 00:26:43.430 This was in the early 2000s. He was working on 00:26:43.430 --> 00:26:46.609 wireless GPS technology. The idea was to create 00:26:46.609 --> 00:26:49.190 tags for everyday objects, your dog, your luggage, 00:26:49.269 --> 00:26:51.470 your keys, so you wouldn't lose them. He invented 00:26:51.470 --> 00:26:54.990 air tags. Essentially air tags, but 20 years 00:26:54.990 --> 00:26:57.609 too early. The technology wasn't quite there 00:26:57.609 --> 00:27:01.049 yet. GPS was power hungry. Batteries were heavy. 00:27:01.150 --> 00:27:03.349 The cell network wasn't robust enough. But the 00:27:03.349 --> 00:27:06.289 vision was spot on. He sees the solution before 00:27:06.289 --> 00:27:08.250 the infrastructure is ready to support it. He 00:27:08.250 --> 00:27:11.769 also got involved with Fusion IO, F -Force, and 00:27:11.769 --> 00:27:14.390 recently Privateer Space. What is Privateer Space? 00:27:14.609 --> 00:27:16.769 It's a company focused on tracking space debris. 00:27:17.299 --> 00:27:20.460 It's Wozniak looking up at the sky, realizing 00:27:20.460 --> 00:27:22.759 that low Earth orbit is becoming a junkyard of 00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:24.539 dead satellites and rocket parts and saying, 00:27:24.579 --> 00:27:26.599 we need to build a map of this junk so we don't 00:27:26.599 --> 00:27:29.279 crash into it. It's interesting how his ventures 00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:32.880 shift from fun like remotes to infrastructure 00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:35.660 like space junk. It's a maturing of his engineering 00:27:35.660 --> 00:27:37.779 vision, I think. It leads us into his philosophy 00:27:37.779 --> 00:27:40.519 because Woz isn't just a builder. He has a very 00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:43.779 specific ethical code. It does. And it centers 00:27:43.779 --> 00:27:46.329 on his relationship with wealth. Wozniak has 00:27:46.329 --> 00:27:49.049 expressed a profound disdain for super wealth. 00:27:49.230 --> 00:27:51.849 He believes extreme money corrupts values. He 00:27:51.849 --> 00:27:53.730 thinks it separates you from normal people and 00:27:53.730 --> 00:27:55.890 their problems. And there's a story about the 00:27:55.890 --> 00:27:58.369 Apple IPO that proves he puts his money when 00:27:58.369 --> 00:28:02.130 his mouth is. The Woz plan. This is a definitive 00:28:02.130 --> 00:28:05.970 moment. When Apple went public in 1980, it was 00:28:05.970 --> 00:28:09.049 the biggest IPO since Ford Motor Company. Instant 00:28:09.049 --> 00:28:11.769 millionaires were made overnight. But Steve Jobs 00:28:11.769 --> 00:28:14.190 refused to give stock options to some of the 00:28:14.190 --> 00:28:16.369 early employees. Which ones? People who had been 00:28:16.369 --> 00:28:18.309 there in the garage, soldering boards, packing 00:28:18.309 --> 00:28:21.390 boxes, guys like Daniel Kotke. Jobs felt they 00:28:21.390 --> 00:28:23.410 weren't essential engineers and didn't deserve 00:28:23.410 --> 00:28:27.529 it. That is just so hard. It was brutal. Wozniak 00:28:27.529 --> 00:28:29.630 couldn't stand it. He thought it was fundamentally 00:28:29.630 --> 00:28:33.009 wrong. So he took his own stock, his own personal 00:28:33.009 --> 00:28:35.769 wealth, and he sold it to those employees at 00:28:35.769 --> 00:28:38.029 rock bottom prices. He just gave it to them. 00:28:38.130 --> 00:28:40.250 He essentially gave away $10 million worth of 00:28:40.250 --> 00:28:42.450 stock to ensure his friends were included in 00:28:42.450 --> 00:28:45.089 the success. That is the anti -Jobs move. It 00:28:45.089 --> 00:28:48.609 is. Jobs wanted to be the king, Woz wanted everyone 00:28:48.609 --> 00:28:51.170 to come to the party. He deliberately lowered 00:28:51.170 --> 00:28:53.710 his own net worth because he valued fairness 00:28:53.710 --> 00:28:56.470 over accumulation. Now let's pivot to something 00:28:56.470 --> 00:28:59.569 that Feels very current. Artificial intelligence. 00:29:00.849 --> 00:29:03.130 Woz has had a bit of a rollercoaster relationship 00:29:03.130 --> 00:29:05.809 with AI, hasn't he? It's been a fascinating evolution 00:29:05.809 --> 00:29:09.109 to track in the sources. Originally, he was completely 00:29:09.109 --> 00:29:12.430 dismissive. He didn't buy Ray Kurzweil's idea 00:29:12.430 --> 00:29:14.589 of the singularity, the point where machines 00:29:14.589 --> 00:29:16.789 would overtake us. He thought computers were 00:29:16.789 --> 00:29:19.089 just tools, just fast calculators. But then he 00:29:19.089 --> 00:29:22.940 got scared. Around 2015, he shifted hard. He 00:29:22.940 --> 00:29:25.299 started agreeing with Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking. 00:29:25.380 --> 00:29:27.319 He gave interviews where he said the future is 00:29:27.319 --> 00:29:30.319 scary and that robots would get rid of slow humans 00:29:30.319 --> 00:29:33.259 just to be more efficient. Getting rid of slow 00:29:33.259 --> 00:29:35.859 humans is a terrifying phrase coming from the 00:29:35.859 --> 00:29:38.640 guy who helped build this world. It is. But then, 00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:40.819 a few months later, he flips again. He decides, 00:29:40.900 --> 00:29:42.680 you know what? Robots are going to be smarter 00:29:42.680 --> 00:29:45.400 than us, so they'll realize they need us. We 00:29:45.400 --> 00:29:47.559 are part of the ecosystem. So we'll be like their 00:29:47.559 --> 00:29:50.450 family pets. Exactly. We go from exterminated 00:29:50.450 --> 00:29:53.190 to golden retrievers. And he famously said he 00:29:53.190 --> 00:29:55.069 started treating his own dog better, feeding 00:29:55.069 --> 00:29:57.430 it filet steak on the principle of do unto others, 00:29:57.569 --> 00:30:00.609 hoping that if he was nice to his dog, the future 00:30:00.609 --> 00:30:03.029 robot overlords would be nice to him. That is 00:30:03.029 --> 00:30:05.609 hilarious logic. It's like Pascal's wager, but 00:30:05.609 --> 00:30:09.529 for AI overlords. It's so ways. It's a logical. 00:30:10.170 --> 00:30:12.509 if absurd, conclusion. But he's shifted again 00:30:12.509 --> 00:30:15.690 recently. He has. In 2023, he signed that open 00:30:15.690 --> 00:30:18.569 letter calling for a pause on training AI systems 00:30:18.569 --> 00:30:22.470 more powerful than GPT -4. But his concern now 00:30:22.470 --> 00:30:24.630 seems to be less about Terminators and more about 00:30:24.630 --> 00:30:28.230 scammers. Scams? Yeah. He worries that AI will 00:30:28.230 --> 00:30:30.990 make it impossible to tell what is real. deepfakes, 00:30:31.069 --> 00:30:33.809 voice cloning, hyper -realistic phishing emails. 00:30:34.029 --> 00:30:36.509 He thinks bad actors will use AI to trick people 00:30:36.509 --> 00:30:39.069 on a massive scale. Which, for a guy who started 00:30:39.069 --> 00:30:41.890 his career freaking the phone system, basically 00:30:41.890 --> 00:30:44.190 tricking a network, is a very grounded and personal 00:30:44.190 --> 00:30:46.809 concern. Exactly. He knows the hacker mindset. 00:30:47.069 --> 00:30:49.130 He knows how easy it is to manipulate a system 00:30:49.130 --> 00:30:51.589 if you have the right tools. And he sees AI as 00:30:51.589 --> 00:30:54.109 the ultimate tool for social engineering. That's 00:30:54.109 --> 00:30:56.670 a great point. Another area where his philosophy 00:30:56.670 --> 00:30:59.190 shines is the right to repair movement. This 00:30:59.190 --> 00:31:01.150 brings us full circle to the Apple II slots. 00:31:02.289 --> 00:31:04.410 Wozniak believes you should own what you buy. 00:31:04.670 --> 00:31:06.849 You should be able to open it up Look at the 00:31:06.849 --> 00:31:09.230 schematics and fix it yourself. Which is the 00:31:09.230 --> 00:31:12.150 opposite of how Apple operates today. The polar 00:31:12.150 --> 00:31:15.029 opposite. He even did a cameo video supporting 00:31:15.029 --> 00:31:17.890 Luis Rossman, who is a huge right -to -repair 00:31:17.890 --> 00:31:21.190 activist on YouTube, specifically fighting Apple's 00:31:21.190 --> 00:31:24.069 policies. So he's actively campaigning against 00:31:24.069 --> 00:31:26.869 his own company's practices? He credits Apple's 00:31:26.869 --> 00:31:30.170 early success to that openness. He says if he 00:31:30.170 --> 00:31:32.009 hadn't shared the schematics of the Apple II, 00:31:32.230 --> 00:31:34.309 people wouldn't have built the software and hardware 00:31:34.309 --> 00:31:37.059 that made it a hit. It's a direct critique of 00:31:37.059 --> 00:31:39.740 modern Apple's walled garden approach, where 00:31:39.740 --> 00:31:41.460 you can't even change your own battery without 00:31:41.460 --> 00:31:43.579 their permission. It's ironic that the company 00:31:43.579 --> 00:31:46.400 he founded is now the primary antagonist of the 00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:49.160 philosophy he holds dear. It is the central tragedy 00:31:49.160 --> 00:31:51.559 or perhaps just the complexity of his legacy. 00:31:51.559 --> 00:31:53.480 He built the foundation, but the house built 00:31:53.480 --> 00:31:56.000 on top of it has locked all the doors and glued 00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:58.339 the windows shut. Before we wrap up, we have 00:31:58.339 --> 00:32:01.619 to touch on the personal quirks section. Because 00:32:01.619 --> 00:32:04.079 Woz is a character. We talked about Rocky Clark, 00:32:04.180 --> 00:32:06.599 but did you know he's a Serbian citizen? Yes. 00:32:06.880 --> 00:32:11.220 This is a recent development. Late 2023. He was 00:32:11.220 --> 00:32:14.240 granted Serbian citizenship by exception. It 00:32:14.240 --> 00:32:15.539 was a little controversial because it happened 00:32:15.539 --> 00:32:17.779 right before an election there. And some people 00:32:17.779 --> 00:32:19.519 thought it was a political stunt by the ruling 00:32:19.519 --> 00:32:22.799 party. But Wozniak says he just wants to promote 00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:26.400 the country and its growing tech scene. He's 00:32:26.400 --> 00:32:28.960 also a Polish citizen. Through his parents. So 00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:31.259 he collects citizenships like he collects gadgets. 00:32:32.660 --> 00:32:35.440 It's a Segway polo. We cannot skip Segway polo. 00:32:35.500 --> 00:32:37.059 Please explain this sport to me. I'm trying to 00:32:37.059 --> 00:32:38.900 picture it. It is exactly what it sounds like. 00:32:38.960 --> 00:32:40.839 It's the game of polo, but played on Segways 00:32:40.839 --> 00:32:43.559 instead of horses. And Wozniak isn't just a player. 00:32:43.619 --> 00:32:45.960 He's a world competitor. He plays for a team 00:32:45.960 --> 00:32:48.680 called the Silicon Valley Aftershocks. The world 00:32:48.680 --> 00:32:50.640 championships are called the Woz Challenge Cup. 00:32:50.920 --> 00:32:53.200 Of course they are. I have this mental image 00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:57.250 of Woz on a Segway, mallet in hand. fiercely 00:32:57.250 --> 00:33:00.089 competing. It just fits him, doesn't it? It's 00:33:00.089 --> 00:33:02.390 tech, it's nerdy, it's slightly absurd, but it's 00:33:02.390 --> 00:33:04.930 communal. He loves it. And he was on Dancing 00:33:04.930 --> 00:33:08.230 with the Stars. He was. He wasn't great. He did 00:33:08.230 --> 00:33:10.529 the worm. He did the worm on national television. 00:33:10.789 --> 00:33:12.470 He did. He got the lowest score of the evening. 00:33:13.250 --> 00:33:16.650 But here's the wooze twist. He accused the judges 00:33:16.650 --> 00:33:19.170 of lying about the vote count. He was convinced 00:33:19.170 --> 00:33:21.170 the public loved him more than the judges said. 00:33:21.650 --> 00:33:24.609 He later apologized, but it shows that competitive 00:33:24.609 --> 00:33:27.829 streak. He hates losing, even in a dance contest. 00:33:28.089 --> 00:33:30.630 And finally, the sources mention he has face 00:33:30.630 --> 00:33:33.910 blindness. Prosopagnosia. Yeah. Yes. Which makes 00:33:33.910 --> 00:33:36.450 his ability to navigate social situations and 00:33:36.450 --> 00:33:39.250 be this public figure even more impressive. He 00:33:39.250 --> 00:33:41.869 recognizes people by context or voice or their 00:33:41.869 --> 00:33:44.829 clothing, but faces are a struggle for him to 00:33:44.829 --> 00:33:46.890 remember. It adds another layer to his character. 00:33:47.109 --> 00:33:49.410 The man who designed the interface for the world 00:33:49.410 --> 00:33:51.670 struggles with the most basic human interface 00:33:51.670 --> 00:33:55.440 of all. That's a profound way to put it. It might 00:33:55.440 --> 00:33:57.859 explain why he finds such comfort and clarity 00:33:57.859 --> 00:34:00.559 in the pure logic of circuits. Circuits never 00:34:00.559 --> 00:34:03.400 change their expression. So let's try to synthesize 00:34:03.400 --> 00:34:06.000 all of this. We have the blue box, the Apple 00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:09.059 II, the plane crash, the universal remote, the 00:34:09.059 --> 00:34:12.699 teaching, the Segway polo. What is the three 00:34:12.699 --> 00:34:15.420 line? What is the tau of was? I think the three 00:34:15.420 --> 00:34:18.119 line is engineering for joy. Say more about that. 00:34:18.300 --> 00:34:21.590 Most people in Silicon Valley. engineer for profit 00:34:21.590 --> 00:34:24.869 or for dominance or for efficiency. Wozniak engineers 00:34:24.869 --> 00:34:28.190 because he delights in making a machine do something 00:34:28.190 --> 00:34:30.750 clever, something it wasn't supposed to do, whether 00:34:30.750 --> 00:34:32.929 that's making a TV show color when it shouldn't 00:34:32.929 --> 00:34:35.750 or making a phone call for free or playing polo 00:34:35.750 --> 00:34:37.789 on a motorized scooter. It's the hacker ethic 00:34:37.789 --> 00:34:40.250 in its purest form. Exactly. The belief that 00:34:40.250 --> 00:34:42.309 information should be free, that systems should 00:34:42.309 --> 00:34:44.610 be open, and that computing could be a force 00:34:44.610 --> 00:34:47.090 for liberation and fun, not just for commerce. 00:34:47.349 --> 00:34:49.590 While Jobs built the company, Wozniak built the 00:34:49.590 --> 00:34:51.679 computer. And not just the computer, he built 00:34:51.679 --> 00:34:53.960 the standard. The expansion slots, the keyboard, 00:34:54.139 --> 00:34:56.599 the screen, the built -in basic. The paradigm 00:34:56.599 --> 00:34:59.000 of this is a machine you can interact with and 00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:02.079 change comes from Woz. It's interesting to think 00:35:02.079 --> 00:35:05.139 about his AI anxiety in that context. If the 00:35:05.139 --> 00:35:07.800 man who birthed the personal computer is worried 00:35:07.800 --> 00:35:10.780 about where the computer is going, that feels 00:35:10.780 --> 00:35:13.119 significant. It brings up a provocative thought. 00:35:13.659 --> 00:35:16.119 Wozniak's entire career was about empowering 00:35:16.119 --> 00:35:19.150 the user. The Apple Sec gave you superpowers. 00:35:19.170 --> 00:35:21.250 You could program it. You controlled it. His 00:35:21.250 --> 00:35:24.170 fear about AI seems to be that we are moving 00:35:24.170 --> 00:35:28.039 into an era where the computer controls us. Where 00:35:28.039 --> 00:35:29.880 we are no longer the masters of the machine. 00:35:30.139 --> 00:35:32.699 Where we move from partners to pets. That's the 00:35:32.699 --> 00:35:35.460 chilling thought. Are we losing the was spirit 00:35:35.460 --> 00:35:38.500 of technology, the user in control, the open 00:35:38.500 --> 00:35:41.539 system, and moving toward a job spirit on steroids, 00:35:41.860 --> 00:35:44.219 where the system is a beautiful, seamless black 00:35:44.219 --> 00:35:46.960 box that we can't open, can't fix, and can't 00:35:46.960 --> 00:35:48.739 truly understand? That is the question we all 00:35:48.739 --> 00:35:50.800 have to grapple with. Wozniak handed us the keys 00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:52.679 to the kingdom. It's up to us whether we keep 00:35:52.679 --> 00:35:54.559 using them or if we just hand them over to the 00:35:54.559 --> 00:35:56.820 algorithm and hope it feeds us filet steak. Well 00:35:56.820 --> 00:35:58.739 put. Well, on that note, I want to encourage 00:35:58.739 --> 00:36:03.179 everyone listening, find your own blue box. Find 00:36:03.179 --> 00:36:05.300 something to build, not because it's going to 00:36:05.300 --> 00:36:06.900 make you a billion dollars, but just for the 00:36:06.900 --> 00:36:08.920 thrill of it, just to see if you can make it 00:36:08.920 --> 00:36:11.380 work. Kick something apart. See what makes it 00:36:11.380 --> 00:36:14.300 tick. Be a builder, not just a consumer. Exactly. 00:36:15.260 --> 00:36:16.940 Thanks for diving deep with us. We'll see you 00:36:16.940 --> 00:36:17.320 next time.