Great Woz tells all

Following on from Apple, we are publishing Steve Wozniak's interview with BusinessWeek magazine.
On the eve of the release of his memoirs, Apple creator Steve Wozniak tells how passion and luck led to the creation of an epoch-making personal computer.
BusinessWeek’s editorial book column, Hardy Green, took this interview from Wozniak on May 20, 2006 at the annual BookExpo America book show in Washington.

The inventor of Apple I, Apple II, and Apple’s original software, Steve Wozniak, is a living legend. Legendary are also his intricate relationships with other Apple founder Steve Jobs and the jokes that Woz was making with his colleagues in the most critical moments of the formation of Apple. This autumn, Wozniak will publish a book of memoirs, “I, Woz: From Computer Enthusiast to Cult Figure: How I Invented a Personal Computer, Founded Apple, and Got a Lot of Fun” (iWoz: From Computer Geek Cult: Co-Founded Apple and Had Fun Doing It, written with technical journalist Gina Smith-Norton.
Translator's note. The book is published, you can buy it on Amazon .

Your fascinating story has already become the subject of many books and articles. What prompted you to write your memories right now?
Along with well-known in my story there are also little-known moments. A couple of times I was already offered to write a book, but I didn’t have enough time and had to return the advanced money. About a year ago, my friend asked if she could write my book. And we did it together, which ensured the release of the book.
The time we spent on this would be enough to write two books. At first I slandered the stories into the microphone, and then she processed them. Then we did all this again with the processed text so that the story ultimately sounded in my style.
Would you give an example of a little-known story included in your book?
This is a story about a television jam station that I built during my first year of college. I made students at the University of Colorado move, because they decided that it was possible to achieve a better signal reception. One day, one guy spent the last half hour of watching Mission Impossible with a hand in the center of the screen and a foot in a chair, thinking it was necessary to create a ground loop.
I also describe how we worked on projects all day with virtually no sleep. But I found that in this state brilliant ideas came to me. For example, I realized that color, if you find a way to realize it at no extra cost, can be very good for computer games.
The exact date and time when the world changed is indicated in the book. This happened when I was working on Apple I. All previous computers had a panel that looked like an airplane cabin. All subsequent computers had a keyboard. Here is what has changed.
What are the main lessons regarding creativity and innovation that you learned?
Schools cut us off from creative development. This is because education must be guaranteed to everyone. Therefore, they are engaged in the government, and that's the thing. In addition, we teach children at school to do everything according to strictly defined rules, not to cross the line, not to shy away from new topics.
Every time you do something for the first time in your life, you should do it better than others did before you. You know all the most modern components. I knew all the best chips that existed at that time and used them to perform functions for which they were not originally intended. Bad design is the result of people not wanting to work hard. If you put maximum effort, you can make devices that work easier.
Then iPod. He owes his success to the fact that he is a companion computer. Computer has taken center stage in our life. Do you feel that your past at times seemed in a false light?
For sure. The press tried to present the case as if I was at odds with Apple. They put everything in such a way as if I left Apple because I was crazy. But I left to establish a company that was engaged in remote control, while I remained an employee of Apple. Up until today, they are trying to provoke conflicts between me and Steve Jobs. But we never quarreled. There is not a single person who would ever see us quarreling. We are just people of different types, but I am not a conflict person.
Do you have the feeling that Jobs was robbing you all the time, for example, in the case of the Breakout game that you invented, and he received money from Atari?
He was always more interested in money. In the case of Breakout, he just asked me. I had a job (in Hewlett-Packard), and this money was enough for me. He was always in business, and I was always in design. We are not talking about the fact that one is good and the other is bad, it's just different things, that's all.
Steve declined to write a preface to this book. But there really is nothing bad about him. Perhaps he misinterpreted something.
This spring, you and former Apple CEO Gil Amelio founded Acquicor Technology. In essence, this is a venture capital fund. What is happening there now?
We soon went to the stock exchange and collected about $ 200 million. So now we have a significant amount of money in our management, and there is a time limit during which we have to invest 80% of the money. Shareholders must approve each transaction.
Will the book help your new company, bringing you back to the center of public attention?
I do not think. But maybe on TV I will be asked questions about Acquicor. Anyone can hear about the company and be interested in it. Our plan is to find problem companies, buy them and turn everything upside down there.
How do you assess the current state of affairs with innovations in the computer industry?
This industry is now so mature that there is very little room for innovation. There are many small companies, but they are not noticed. There is a feeling that instead of fifty computer-producing companies there can be only ten, and there is only room for two operating systems. Virtually no undeveloped sites. Still, Google and Yahoo are highly innovative companies.
I know that you are teaching.
I teach in the fifth grade, in my other class there are children from the sixth to the ninth grades, and I teach the teachers, all this is in local schools. Sometimes I taught seven days a week. I look forward to the day when the computer will act as a teacher. We have not yet achieved this, because we have not yet coped with the problem of artificial intelligence. As soon as we make a robot that can make a good cup of coffee, we will have a sufficient level of artificial intelligence. Then we will have 30 teachers per class of 30 people, and computers will guide each student at a rate appropriate for his abilities.
Have you ever thought about why it was you, and not someone else, who was able to invent so much?
My whole book is about this. I was lucky, I got random impulses in the right direction, and it all merged into Apple II. I was in a favorable environment, in Silicon Valley. I was supported by my father. I ran across the right books. Much happened quite by accident.
But in the depths of your heart you will always know when you come across what you want to do for the rest of your life. The only reasons I did what I did were love and passion, and I wanted to do it better than anyone else.