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One of Silicon Valley’s Founding Fathers: How Wozniak Became a Household Name
Article Overview: “Now computers are a big business,” says Wozniak. “Sometimes I wonder, ‘Am I the master of the computer?’ When we talked in our club, computers were going to be so simple to use that everyone was going to be a master and be able to create whatever they wanted to. Now I feel like a slave sometimes. I have to do it their way. It wasn’t the feeling we were after in the first days.”
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One of Silicon Valley’s Founding Fathers: How Wozniak Became a Household Name
"Now computers are a big business," says Wozniak. "Sometimes I wonder, ‘Am I the master of the computer?' When we talked in our club, computers were going to be so simple to use that everyone was going to be a master and be able to create whatever they wanted to. Now I feel like a slave sometimes. I have to do it their way. It wasn't the feeling we were after in the first days."
Wozniak might not like the direction the IT industry is headed, but it is an industry he undoubtedly helped build. From a school prankster to a computer whiz kid, how did he build one of the world's most recognized and beloved companies?
Experimentation: Wozniak loved designing and building computers. That is why, when one idea did not pan out, he was perfectly happy to go back to the drawing board and start over. He did not have hundreds of thousands of dollars, but he did have the creativity and patience to try new things, and to keep on trying when they did not work out.
Creativity: Wozniak is living proof that necessity is the mother of invention. When he had no money for new parts, he scrounged around for old ones or, even better, designed his computers with even less parts. He was skilled at making do with what he could and, indeed, found that Apple users would reward him for his creative simplicity.
Collaboration: Wozniak became a member of his high school computer club in order to share information and learn from others. If he needed a new code, he could ask another member. If he had a spare part, he would give it away to yet another member. It was this spirit of collaboration that was not only behind the launch of Apple, but that helped carry it through some of the company's tougher days.
Improvement: When Wozniak was working well, he was a workaholic. His computers became his life, and he needed 100 percent concentration to make a design work. To that end, he knew that nothing he did would ever be perfect; the nature of the industry would mean he had to keep changing with the technology. To this day, he spends his time teaching youth in order to encourage their creativity that might just one day change the industry again - à la Wozniak.
Fun: Wozniak is a natural born prankster. For whatever the reason, he just could never help himself when he saw a good opportunity to play a trick on someone open up. But beyond the jokes, his fun nature spilled over into his work. He put subtlety and elegance into his products, without overcomplicating them with too many features. They were just advanced enough to make people think, but easy enough to understand, just like his pranks.
Wozniak is admittedly not as famous as the ‘other' Steve (Jobs), but his contributions to the computing world, and now to the educational system, continue to push the realm of possibilities, and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs and geeks alike.
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