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Steve Jobs Insult Response - Highest Quality

Jonathan Field · 17.3M views · 2016-12-01 · 5:15

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Overview

A clean-audio clip from Apple's 1997 WWDC where Steve Jobs answers a hostile question from a developer about OpenDoc. He argues you must start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.

On Hacker News

Quoted constantly as the canonical statement of product-first thinking over technology-first thinking, and as a model of handling a heckler.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2020–2026

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What people said

DieBruderBauer · 2022-11 · Strong recommendation

[VIDEO] The libre/open app issue has been brought up by Apple nay-sayers for time immemorial; Steve Job's response is brilliant here, frankly quite timeless and ultimately (in my view) apropos. "You've gotta start from the customer experience and work backwards to the technology."

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jkcorrea · 2020-09 · Strong recommendation

For those interested, AllAboutSteveJobs.com keeps a pretty good repository of Jobs moments. My personal favorite is his 1997 WWDC talk [1]. In one talk he demonstrates what it is to be a great leader organizationally, publicly, and as a product visionary. He also opens himself up to harsh criticism from people who were, in a lot of ways, rightfully pissed at him. He takes both tough questions and ad hominem attacks gracefully and reframes the narrative in a positive way without disparaging the questioner [2]. To me, this is in stark contrast to the staged events with canned/screened questions that most tech leaders run today. He also lays out much of the vision for products that are still being rolled out 10-20 years later. Crazy. Really recommend watching the full thing if you have time, but also linking to a little excerpt from one of the best moments. [1] (full video): [LINK] [2] (insult excerpt): [VIDEO]

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ksec · 2024-01 · Recommendation

Most of the people who worked directly under Steve Jobs knows he is an Asshole. At the same time they all loves him. You may want to watch [1] Steve Jobs Insult Response. And you can imagine most people are the guy asking that question. [1] [VIDEO]

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Video by Jonathan Field, played through YouTube.

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