When I started reading this book, it sounded just like Steve, the engineer, telling it. I had recently reviewed a book on Steve Jobs Biography is a Book for Anyone who likes Good Stories. This book is about Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computers.
To those who are not familiar with Steve Wozniak, he was born in 1950 and grew up in Sunnyvale, California. He is a co-founder of Apple Computer and helped shape the computing industry with his design of Apple’s first line of products the Apple I and II and influenced the popular Macintosh.
The books starts with an interesting account of his life before forming Apple Computers, and includes the good ol' tales of the early days of personal computers. The next part of the book – where Steve describes his life in and out of college as he works for various computer companies -- is, to me, the most interesting. Steve takes several years and a couple of different colleges before he graduates. During this time in the 1970’s, he meets many early pioneers of the design and evolution of the personal computer, many through the Homebrew Computer Club. During these early years, Steve Wozniak designs computers on paper and ultimately with real parts. The most interesting aspect of the story has to do with Woz's days as an engineer at HP, prior to the launch of Apple. Here's a guy who had designed the Apple I in his free time and was pleading with HP management to let him get involved in their plans to make a personal computer. They not only turned him down, they went so far as to reject his design, giving him the freedom to develop the Apple I on his own. That hurts right! Well to the HP guys, the rest is history and some lessons learnt.
The book also covers other parts of his life in the book, his failed marriages, his children, his losses from major concerts he organized and his teaching. His book is a most enjoyable and readable reminder that the folks in the engineering labs who are truly responsible for these wonderful machines may not get all the credit they have earned, but they’re still having an awful lot of fun. The highlight of the book is the frank and no-nonsense narrative that keeps you smiling throughout! Must read. iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It
As Guy Kawasaki puts it - "Every engineer—and certainly every engineering student—should read this book….It is, in a nutshell, the engineer's manifesto"
To those who are not familiar with Steve Wozniak, he was born in 1950 and grew up in Sunnyvale, California. He is a co-founder of Apple Computer and helped shape the computing industry with his design of Apple’s first line of products the Apple I and II and influenced the popular Macintosh.
The books starts with an interesting account of his life before forming Apple Computers, and includes the good ol' tales of the early days of personal computers. The next part of the book – where Steve describes his life in and out of college as he works for various computer companies -- is, to me, the most interesting. Steve takes several years and a couple of different colleges before he graduates. During this time in the 1970’s, he meets many early pioneers of the design and evolution of the personal computer, many through the Homebrew Computer Club. During these early years, Steve Wozniak designs computers on paper and ultimately with real parts. The most interesting aspect of the story has to do with Woz's days as an engineer at HP, prior to the launch of Apple. Here's a guy who had designed the Apple I in his free time and was pleading with HP management to let him get involved in their plans to make a personal computer. They not only turned him down, they went so far as to reject his design, giving him the freedom to develop the Apple I on his own. That hurts right! Well to the HP guys, the rest is history and some lessons learnt.
The book also covers other parts of his life in the book, his failed marriages, his children, his losses from major concerts he organized and his teaching. His book is a most enjoyable and readable reminder that the folks in the engineering labs who are truly responsible for these wonderful machines may not get all the credit they have earned, but they’re still having an awful lot of fun. The highlight of the book is the frank and no-nonsense narrative that keeps you smiling throughout! Must read. iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It
As Guy Kawasaki puts it - "Every engineer—and certainly every engineering student—should read this book….It is, in a nutshell, the engineer's manifesto"
