Jobs

Watch this sucker:



This is probably the most famous commercial ever. It ran once, during the 1984 Superbowl. It was directed by Ridley Scott, chosen because of Blade Runner. He hired bunches of real skinheads as extras, and a real discus thrower (who was not a skinhead). It won every award on the planet.

Now watch this. It's Steve Jobs giving the keynote address at Apple where he introduced the Mac, and the commercial.



I mean, look at Jobs's face. He is the smuggest, cockiest bastard ever. And in 1983 he already knew how to work a room, and he hadn't even come up with "one more thing" yet.

Oh yeah. A couple of things. The Apple board wanted to squelch the commercial, which they hated, and asked the ad company to sell back the Superbowl time. The Mac, when it was introduced, was sort of a flop because it was so underpowered. And not long after this Jobs was ousted from the company that he had originally helped create.

I mention all this because I'm in the middle of the Isaacson Steve Jobs biography. For someone like me, who bought an Apple II+ in 1981, this is the story of my (tech) life. I feel like I've known Jobs forever, which is maybe why I was affected by his passing last year. When you read the book, you realize that he wasn't exactly perfect (in fact, he was at times a miserable son of a bitch and a horrible human being), but he did have an incredible impact on the world. If you were wondering whether to read the book, then you should. Simple as that.
.