I think Woz would disagree with that, and from everything I’ve read about that time from him, he was genuinely having a great time. Jobs did screw Woz out of money from Atari, which he was hurt by when finding out, but they were collaborative in founding Apple.
Notably, Woz found out decades later, after Steve was dead already, when he was interviewed by someone who told him the whole story.
I like to think that if Jobs were alive today, the general public would see him as the Elon Musk type that he was. Instead, he died before his cult of personality could properly sour on him.
Yeah even in his final hours things started souring, with how he eschewed modern cancer medicine in favor of his weird all fruit diet. I imagine if he had actually beaten his cancer, it would have resulted in a huge ego boost, and further souring still.
Woz wrote about it in his book which came out about 5 years before Jobs death. Here’s an interview from 2008 where he discusses it:
Knowledge at Wharton: In the book you also recount how, when you developed Breakout for the Atari, Steve Jobs sold it and told you that he received $700 for the two of you to split while, in fact, he had been paid a few thousand dollars. Although, in hindsight, the money is rather irrelevant, how do you feel about the ethics of this?
Wozniak: Yes, the money’s irrelevant — and it was then. I would have done it for free. I was happy to be able to design a video game that people would actually play.
I think Steve needed money and just didn’t tell me the truth. If he’d told me the truth, he’d have gotten it.
He should have known me well enough to just come out and say he needed the money. It would sound odd, me doing the entire design and him getting all the money. I would have done it. He was a friend. You help your friends.
In this case, Jobs didn’t invent the first Apple computer but largely contributed to its marketing success, and he was there from the beginning. He was still a bad person, but blame where blame is due.
Worth noting that Steve Jobs didn’t really found Apple either but rather used his friend to do all the leg work and made a brand out of that.
It’s actually a really sad origin story if you look into it.
I think Woz would disagree with that, and from everything I’ve read about that time from him, he was genuinely having a great time. Jobs did screw Woz out of money from Atari, which he was hurt by when finding out, but they were collaborative in founding Apple.
Notably, Woz found out decades later, after Steve was dead already, when he was interviewed by someone who told him the whole story.
I like to think that if Jobs were alive today, the general public would see him as the Elon Musk type that he was. Instead, he died before his cult of personality could properly sour on him.
Yeah even in his final hours things started souring, with how he eschewed modern cancer medicine in favor of his weird all fruit diet. I imagine if he had actually beaten his cancer, it would have resulted in a huge ego boost, and further souring still.
Woz wrote about it in his book which came out about 5 years before Jobs death. Here’s an interview from 2008 where he discusses it:
In this case, Jobs didn’t invent the first Apple computer but largely contributed to its marketing success, and he was there from the beginning. He was still a bad person, but blame where blame is due.