Video of 75-Minute 1995 Interview with Steve Jobs

[MacRumors]

Last month, following the death of Steve Jobs, Computerworld published a transcript of a lengthy 1995 interview with Steve Jobs conducted as part of an oral history program for the Computerworld Information Technology Awards Foundation.

The complete, unabridged video of that 75-minute interview has now been posted, offering an interesting look at Jobs before his return to Apple.

​

In the interview, Jobs touches on his childhood, education, and the future of the Internet, while also sharing thoughts on his time with Apple, NeXT, and Pixar. The interview also includes an interesting take on death being the "greatest invention of life", a theme Jobs addressed in discussing the nature of start-up companies challenging the status quo to innovate and push technology further.

I've always felt that death is the greatest invention of life. I'm sure that life evolved without death at first and found that without death, life didn't work very well because it didn't make room for the young. It didn't know how the world was fifty years ago. It didn't know how the world was twenty years ago. It saw it as it is today, without any preconceptions, and dreamed how it could be based on that. We're not satisfied based on the accomplishment of the last thirty years. We're dissatisfied because the current state didn't live up to their ideals. Without death there would be very little progress.

Jobs would of course revisit that theme ten years later in his 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, but that time from a more personal perspective following his cancer diagnosis.

Article Link: Video of 75-Minute 1995 Interview with Steve Jobs

 

[LimeiBook86]

This will be something fun to watch for sure. I'll try and download it at the office incase it gets pulled. I always love these older interviews, very insightful and full of information.

 

[rorschach]

A lot of this is in the biography, but it's neat to watch Steve himself talk about it in his own words.

 

[sclawis300]

did someone not hand the guy a mirror before he sat down for this video taped 1 hour + interview?

 

[spillproof]

The video is "Premium Content," so mere mortals like myself can't view it.

But the transcript will be fun to read

Edit: Nevermind, my flash blocker failed to leave a placeholder.

 

[alectheking]

The video is "Premium Content," so mere mortals like myself can't view it.

But the transcript will be fun to read.

umm its right here in the post? Only in flash so it didn't appear on my iPad.

 

[Doc69]

Any way of downloading this video for viewing off the computer?

 

[C42D]

anyone narrow down the good parts?

 

[ata]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Apparently Steve Jobs did not understand evolution, and his defense of death is a non-sequitur. Don't take this as disrespect, I cried at his death as much as the next person (actually significantly more, I think), but this is not a deep thought. It's just a rationalization, a post-hoc justification of something that didn't need any justification in order to come into existence.

Death sucks. This is something any child could tell you, and it's not a trick question. We don't need it and we should eliminate as many of its causes as possible.

 

[Knitecrow]

did someone not hand the guy a mirror before he sat down for this video taped 1 hour + interview?

Some individuals, like myself, don't care about superficial things like personal hair styling. In fact, the messier and crazy looking the better.

Apparently Steve Jobs did not understand evolution

Jobs was an intuitive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition_(psychology)

The comment he made was brilliant in its novelty. Sometimes you have to look beyond known data points.

 

[spillproof]

umm its right here in the post? Only in flash so it didn't appear on my iPad.

Interesting, it is. My flash blocker didn't leave a place holder. lol Thank you.

 

[Skika]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Death sucks. This is something any child could tell you, and it's not a trick question. We don't need it and we should eliminate as many of its causes as possible.

That is because you don't believe that we are eternal beings and that there is no death only "whoops fun ride. lets do it again".

 

[50548]

Must be interesting to watch, but with such a CRAPPY streaming performance I am not so sure...

 

[thormarketing]

Fantastic interview. Steve Jobs had an incredible mind, too bad humanity has lost it. Even though Jobs died too young, he kept innovating until his last day - while others like Gates have long retired from their pursuit, even more remain alive but stuck in habits/ruts. They've turned themselves into machines instead of creating new machines.

 

[macdev2010]

Must be interesting to watch, but with such a CRAPPY streaming performance I am not so sure...

Uploaded this video on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWvbt8d7sok Hope it helps with streaming issue.

 

[DrMotownMac]

I only had a chance to watch the first 20 minutes or so, but it's very interesting how, for a die-hard liberal Democrat, Steve Jobs talks a lot like a conservative. He believes in "equal opportunities but not equal outcomes." I wonder how the Occupy Wall Street protesters would feel about that. Also, he was very opposed to teachers' unions, essentially saying that they were the biggest single obstacle for improving education in this country.

I wonder how he reconciled this as he voted for the likes of Barack Obama, who seems to strongly believe in equal outcomes AND in support of teachers' unions (in addition to other public employee unions).

 

[PeckhamBog]

Watched the whole thing and found it worthwhile.

Busyness means I'm only a third through the biography, but it's nice to see this positive performance of the man when you know about the other sides of his character [like all us humans].

Though I'm a reluctant Apple fanboy, I find SJ much more a personal inspiration to try to rub off good aspirations on others. We're mostly of a much lower calibre [i.e. not from CA] but it's still healthy to strive to be the best to your own ability [and beyond it].

 

[Steve Mobs]

Good watch. I've read the whole biography, and this video has some exclusive bits here and there that weren't in the book.

 

[Mak47]

I only had a chance to watch the first 20 minutes or so, but it's very interesting how, for a die-hard liberal Democrat, Steve Jobs talks a lot like a conservative. He believes in "equal opportunities but not equal outcomes." I wonder how the Occupy Wall Street protesters would feel about that. Also, he was very opposed to teachers' unions, essentially saying that they were the biggest single obstacle for improving education in this country.

I wonder how he reconciled this as he voted for the likes of Barack Obama, who seems to strongly believe in equal outcomes AND in support of teachers' unions (in addition to other public employee unions).

I found this fascinating as well. I wonder how much of the "Die-Hard Liberal Democrat" was just for show considering Apple's long history of servicing the education market.

I've watched quite a few interviews and speaking events with Jobs and I've always thought he talks an awful lot like an Objectivist--not like a liberal Democrat.

This was a great interview to follow the Biography.

 

[Mac7]

Sounds like the first few chapters of the book

 

[appleguy123]

Jobs was an intuitive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition_(psychology)

What does being Intuitive have to do with understanding Evolution?

Also, are you an INTJ? Just curious. Your post seems like INTJ material.

 

[kjs862]

Steve Jobs never fails to live up to the hype. He is a true genius, and is so intense!

 

[dndlnx]

Interesting when he mentions, he remembers "the exact moment Kennedy was shot".

Because lots of people now have a similar memory for him. I will probably always remember...

 

[rorschach]

I only had a chance to watch the first 20 minutes or so, but it's very interesting how, for a die-hard liberal Democrat, Steve Jobs talks a lot like a conservative. He believes in "equal opportunities but not equal outcomes." I wonder how the Occupy Wall Street protesters would feel about that. Also, he was very opposed to teachers' unions, essentially saying that they were the biggest single obstacle for improving education in this country.

I wonder how he reconciled this as he voted for the likes of Barack Obama, who seems to strongly believe in equal outcomes AND in support of teachers' unions (in addition to other public employee unions).

I found this fascinating as well. I wonder how much of the "Die-Hard Liberal Democrat" was just for show considering Apple's long history of servicing the education market.

I've watched quite a few interviews and speaking events with Jobs and I've always thought he talks an awful lot like an Objectivist--not like a liberal Democrat.

This was a great interview to follow the Biography.

I think the answer is that, like those of most people, his views and ideology can't be fit neatly into a nice square box.

If he voted for Obama (did he? probably, but I never read that), it wouldn't be hard to justify it. So what if he didn't agree with Obama on everything. I don't. Do you agree with the candidates you support on everything?

 

[Knitecrow]

What does being Intuitive have to do with understanding Evolution?

Those with intuition with as a primary function often make the capital mistake of theorizing first and making the data fit the theory. Creative or outright inaccurate application of knowledge can be quite common and not necessarily an indicator of not knowing the underlying subject.

Also, are you an INTJ? Just curious. Your post seems like INTJ material.

Busted

Time to change user names and start fresh.