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Apple

Woz Downplays the Significance of Apple's Startup Garage 77

Posted by timothy from the having-a-home-seems-pretty-significant dept.
mrspoonsi (2955715) writes "When thinking about the early days of Apple, most people who know even a little bit about the company probably picture Steve Jobs and cofounder Steve Wozniak busily brainstorming in a small garage in Silicon Valley. That's how the story goes — in fact, the garage where they famously started the company was even deemed a historical site last year. Wozniak, however, doesn't really see that location as a crucial part of Apple's history. "The garage is a bit of a myth," he told Bloomberg Businessweek's Brandon Lisy when asked whether the garage was important to Apple's story. "We did no designs there, no breadboarding, no prototyping, no planning of products. We did no manufacturing there." The garage served as a familiar location for him and Jobs in the early days, Wozniak said, but that's about it. "The garage didn't service much purpose, except it was something for us to feel was our home," he said. "We had no money. You have to work out of your home when you have no money.""
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Woz Downplays the Significance of Apple's Startup Garage More

Woz Downplays the Significance of Apple's Startup Garage

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  • Apple cult (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Something not being significant is being significant news?

    • Apperently so. The new Slashdot.

      I'm also getting those blue underlain word ads, and popover ads on my phone.

      Between the people leaving, and this, I may be leaving myself.

      I just haven't found exactly the right fit.

      • What's done it for me were the damned ads that make noise. I used to leave advertising on, even though I could disable it so that they could get some revenue from my traffic. I understand that hosting isn't free. But now that a lot of the ads make noise, I've had to turn it off. That kind of behavior is annoying. How can a tech site be so out of touch with its user base that they'd ever permit something so obnoxious. Keep the ads quiet and tasteful and I don't have a problem with them and I'll gladly leave

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Trepidity ( 597 )

      Eh, if people widely thought it was significant and it's entered historical narratives that way, I think it counts as at least vaguely interesting if one of the people involved has another story.

      • But it is only interesting to apple fan boys. I do not care any more than I would care if there was a disagreement over some mlp lore.

        • No, it is of interest to people interested in the history of the personal computer. You may think that anyone using an Apple product has a trust fund and spends their days at Starbucks but to deny that Apple had an important part in shaping the personal computing world is foolish.

          Your post is really off because the vast majority of the stereotypical Apple fan haven't a clue what happened in the early years of the company. I rather doubt they have any idea that there was an Apple product before the iPod.

    • Something not being significant is being significant news?

      It's very insignificance gives it significance. It is significantly insignificant. I hope this explanation was sufficiently non-insufficient...

  • Oh noes... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    There goes my reality. I just started my business in my garage along with Steve and Woz on the walls.

    What will I pray to every night before going to bed now?

    All my dreams of being the next Steve Jobs have been smashed

  • Spirit (Score:5, Insightful)

    by A10Mechanic ( 1056868 ) on Thursday December 04, 2014 @11:50AM (#48523477)
    What people like to believe in is the spirit of entrepreneurship that Apple and others emulated. The garage isn't so important, the idea of a garage is powerful stuff.

    • What people like to believe in is the spirit of entrepreneurship that Apple and others emulated. The garage isn't so important, the idea of a garage is powerful stuff.

      Exactly. This is the axe to grind of my great great grandfather.

    • Re:Spirit (Score:5, Insightful)

      by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 ) <gameboyrmh.gmail@com> on Thursday December 04, 2014 @12:51PM (#48524071) Journal

      You say "spirit," I say "myth."

      The idea is indeed powerful stuff. It wouldn't be so inspiring to realize that Apple didn't pull itself up by the bootstraps from a garage and that the real brains of the operation got a pittance compared to the smooth-talking asshole boss. Who wants a STEM education now?

      • Re:Spirit (Score:4, Informative)

        by Princeofcups ( 150855 ) <john@princeofcups.com> on Thursday December 04, 2014 @01:44PM (#48524595) Homepage

        You say "spirit," I say "myth."

        The idea is indeed powerful stuff. It wouldn't be so inspiring to realize that Apple didn't pull itself up by the bootstraps from a garage and that the real brains of the operation got a pittance compared to the smooth-talking asshole boss. Who wants a STEM education now?

        B.S. Woz and the original team were rewarded very well. However Woz wanted more spread around, so he gave various employees who he thought deserved more some of his shares. Sure Jobs and the board could have spread the wealth around more, but Woz in particular made a fortune.

        • So Woz shared his fortune to give other Apple employees fair compensation that they weren't getting through official channels...does that make the origin story better or worse?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        You say "spirit," I say "myth."

        The idea is indeed powerful stuff. It wouldn't be so inspiring to realize that Apple didn't pull itself up by the bootstraps from a garage and that the real brains of the operation got a pittance compared to the smooth-talking asshole boss. Who wants a STEM education now?

        A good origin story is corporate branding 101. Embellishing is expected, just like any fish story. Thats how our brand of capitalism works. You don't have to like it in order to agree that it works- and use it to your advantage. If anything, this just provides more evidence that Woz isn't a very good businessman despite his genius.

    • Re:Spirit (Score:5, Interesting)

      by SteveWoz ( 152247 ) on Thursday December 04, 2014 @01:46PM (#48524607) Homepage

      The headline could be confusing. The garage was significant. My point is that people extend the concept in their heads and imagine a lot more than it really was. That is the myth part.

      • Thanks for the clarification, Woz. Someone mod the man up! (No points here today.)

        ~Kat ^_^

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The "apple garage" surely represents something to a lot of makers and creators. If I recall correctly, you or someone of your caliber stated recently that within today's world there wouldn't be a place for a maker/hacker like you. If true, that's unfortunate, and kind of sad at the same time.

    • What people like to believe in is the spirit of entrepreneurship that Apple and others emulated. The garage isn't so important, the idea of a garage is powerful stuff.

      We already have an overabundance of feel-good myths in religion, US history, and television. We don't need to create anymore. Myths distort reality. Myths create people with unrealistic expectations and short attention spans.

      The garage didn't make Apple. The surrounding social, technological, and educational environments, are really what made Apple. And also, let's take for example the iPod. The first iPod wasn't made in less than a year, the first iPod was the result of decades of research and trial and er

    • There are several companies now that are "inventing" their origina stories. Like all superheros or people who mistaenly think they are superheros, they feel they must have a cool original story. Some of these stories end up being exaggerations but some are outright lies. Few want to say that their origin was to get a small group to leave their old company and take a list of clients with them. Or say, for Google, a story of "we were rich students at a rich school using school equipment and we pulled ours

  • Confused (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    So he says they did no manufacturing there, but that they had to work out of the home. So which is it?

  • Steve Wozniak says something isn't important, here's the story of why?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      A building was landmarked for being a KEY to the success of 2 guys that started the home computer revolution turns out to not be so important from one of the guys

      Kind of a thing we are interested to hear about

    • It's interesting in how stereotypically engineery the woz is. Most people see the fact that they were in a garage as really important to the apple story. The woz doesn't care about that cruft (and likely a lot of the slashdot community agrees). It's touchy feely and to him obviously you are going to be living somewhere. to him, lots of people spent time in garages. He cares about his eureka moments in breadboarding the first prototypes.

  • More important garage (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ArhcAngel ( 247594 ) on Thursday December 04, 2014 @12:32PM (#48523837)
    If it hadn't been for the hp garage [hp.com] there might not have been the tech to make the Apple garage possible.

    • If it hadn't been for the hp garage [hp.com] there might not have been the tech to make the Apple garage possible.

      And if it weren't for IBM and others, there never would have been an HP. Your point is?

      • We're talking about the importance of garages. Does IBM have a garage? Does IBM have a Function Generator that plays the Halleluiah Chorus? [youtu.be] I didn't think so! Who said I had to have a point anyway? THIS IS /.!

        • We're talking about the importance of garages. Does IBM have a garage? Does IBM have a Function Generator that plays the Halleluiah Chorus? [youtu.be] I didn't think so! Who said I had to have a point anyway? THIS IS /.!

          Garages are important. Any sort of startup that can't afford a commercial space, a garage is a convenient space that can be used as a workshop. Garages are a sizable amount of square footage that can be used in place of a commercial shop for everything from personal hobbies to budding businesses. Similar amounts of space probably are less available inside of people's homes. When several friend of mine were looking to buy a house, a large garage has been a very attractive thing because it was a place they co

      • His point is that the startup garage might be significant after all. What's your point?

      • If it weren't for Shockley being a royal pain to work with, we'd never have a Silicon valley.

  • Another Silicon Valley Garage Myth (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sudon't ( 580652 ) on Thursday December 04, 2014 @12:42PM (#48523961)

    And so it is with a lot of these Silicon Valley garage stories.

    Garage Myth [aps.org]

  • The Myth of Rags to Riches (Score:4, Insightful)

    by androidph ( 3631653 ) on Thursday December 04, 2014 @01:10PM (#48524255)
    Been hearing a lot of this story all the time, whether if it's the apple garage, or that guy getting declined by facebook and started a new company, or if it's this teenager who got bought out by yahoo... it's inspiring but is rarely really true. I confirmed it when one of my former boss went public and earned billions in one day. I read the news about it and it's the same pattern, it mentioned that this guy started working for a fastfood company and finally ended up earning billions in his tech IPO. But the true story is, this guy was already rich. His parents are already sits on the board of larger companies.Further, he started tens of startups that failed, and he then gets some funding again from his parents and siblings.

    The bottom line, the key to success (I mean earning billions), is not working hard or have a great idea, the key is to have a rich family, because having rich friends is not enough. If you are poor but have a great idea, your rich "friends" will just steal it, they have money to spend on legal fees so they don't mind. Lastly, success is a lot like the lottery, you have to keep on trying till you hit the jackpot. And you have to have money to burn. Some of us win, most do not, but those who won, would not give credit to luck. They will tell that they had a system on betting, or they kept a number of years...

    Lastly, I had a good (not great) idea before, and was invited by a TELCO company to demo it. After the demo, they simple ignored it and asked me if I had other ideas, and after some time, I saw an app just like mine in the appstore, with the screenshots showing the profile pic of the guy I demoed it to.

    True Story
    • If you simply showed up at the Telco, demoed your invention, and expected to walk out with a big check and a contract, you did it wrong.

      You should have patented your invention, then have the big bad Telco sign an NDA, then show them your invention.

  • Didn't happen in Garage happened in Woz's room. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by opensourcespace ( 3654149 ) on Thursday December 04, 2014 @01:40PM (#48524567)
    Woz may be tactfully reclaiming his role in creating apple. It didn't happen in the garage that was communal. It happened largely in Woz's room likely. Woz is an engineer and Jobs is a businessman. Woz built the first apple computer largely alone. Moving the location to his room is a subtle way to say what needs to be said.

    • Woz may be tactfully reclaiming his role in creating apple. It didn't happen in the garage that was communal. It happened largely in Woz's room likely. Woz is an engineer and Jobs is a businessman.

      Woz built the first apple computer largely alone.

      Moving the location to his room is a subtle way to say what needs to be said.

      Apple is a company, not a device. Even if the Apple I was not created in the garage, it sounds like the beginnings of the company Apple started there. The packaging, selling, marketing, planning, may have all happened there. It's like saying that you can't preserve Lincoln's log cabin because it didn't make him president.

  • The garage didn't service much purpose

    mr spoonsi not spikki di eenglish.

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