🖤 The NeXT Move: Betting on the Future Before It Was Cool
After Apple booted him, Jobs poured his soul into NeXT — a sleek black cube 🧊 that looked futuristic AF but was too pricey to catch fire in the mass market.
NeXT wasn’t trying to sell millions of boxes — it was about building the future of software dev 💾. The real goal? Create an operating system so good that smart people couldn’t resist using it.
He described it as “intersecting liberal arts and technology” again — classic Jobs move 🎨⚙️.
The hardware? Kinda overbuilt and too expensive. But the software (NeXTSTEP)? That was fire 🔥 — so much so that Tim Berners-Lee built the first-ever web browser on a NeXT machine. Yup, the internet as we know it started on Steve’s comeback box. 🌐✨
Jobs always saw NeXT more as a long game — a spiritual successor to the Mac vision, not just a business.
🧩 Thoughts on the Industry: Insight Over Hype
Steve was savage but right about the tech world. He believed many companies confuse "process" with "content" — like getting lost in meetings instead of building something great 💼🤯.
He had major respect for craftsmanship. Not just making stuff that works, but making it beautiful, thoughtful, and meaningful 🎯.
He compared the process of refining ideas to rock tumbling — throw a bunch of smart people in a room, let them clash and debate, and eventually you get polished brilliance 💎.
And on leadership? He didn't sugarcoat it: "Good people don’t need their egos babysat." Just be honest, help them grow, and move fast. No BS, no fluff. 🚀
🤝 Steve’s Core Values: It Was Always About the People
He believed "A players" hire A players — smart, driven folks who want to be surrounded by brilliance. In contrast, B players hire C players, and that's how you get mediocrity. ❌
Apple, at its best, was a home for misfits who were passionate about products, not profits. Jobs wanted to work with people who cared more about making something great than climbing a corporate ladder 🧗♂️💥.
Whether it was Mac, NeXT, or Pixar (👀 sneak peek into another era), Steve’s playbook was always about building insanely great teams with insane vision.
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