I met Woz briefly at a Coffee Shop in NYC, many years ago. I was pitching investors for funding and had no idea what I was doing.
He gave me some quick feedback that made a world of difference in SF (years later, when I tried raising angel money): get closer to people first. You don’t have to be their friends - just show up to where they show up (bars, meetups, library - anything), then tell them what you’re doing, and they’ll write you checks without you asking.
This is still the key reason why raising money in the Bay Area is so much easier than anywhere else.
I didn’t get any check from him that night, but he came across as such a human person - like someone you know for years - even to a complete stranger trying to go straight for his wallet.
Tech would be amazing if we had 1000x more Wozes around.
The problem is that the bulk of investment money these days comes through professional finance people (not the stereotypical “engineer who made a lot of money and now wants to help others”), who prioritize others who think like them, creating this self-fulfilling spiral of value extraction above all else. It’s the kind of thing you always see in “late stage” industries (eg aviation in the 1980s vs 1970s). It’s not irreversible though (eg there’s a small resurgence in hardware innovation happening right now, with companies like Framework, being funded by “idealist” investors, Pebble coming back, etc).
I think lots of people expected AI to be that too (the new “world of opportunity” that would come with a new “platform”), although so far it seems to be shaping up as FAANG players fighting for control (which is a bit disappointing from a user’s perspective)
Whereas I am not trying to take anything away from Woz (I’ve never met that Steve, but by all accounts he’s a really nice guy), I can’t help but feel that his personality and the ethos he espouses have been made a lot more possible by the fact that he had a lot of disposable income…
Yep. It's easy to be happy, bubbly, carefree and say money is not important to to you when you're set for life and don't ever have to worry about paying the mortgage, healthcare, childcare, bills, etc in one of the most expensive regions on the planet, but people without seven figures in the bank might disagree.
Sure, he's not Musk, Bezos or Zuckerberg levels of rich, but compared to average folk who need to work for a living till retirement, he's still very, VERY rich.
It's still remarkable because so many people with that amount of money are still on the grind, still chasing the siren's call, still feeling miserable because it's not enough, still feeling tiny because they compare themselves to the billionaires
Very few people get to that point and then choose happiness instead of ambition
Of course, it goes without saying. But on the other side, not many people would have what it take to not let that kind of wealth go to their head. This désinvolture has to be praised.
I do wonder if the relative ease he might have had with his craft early on contributed, too. He doesn't strike me as someone who's ever really struggled to learn or produce, just met a steady stream of interesting, surmountable challenges (and was blessed to be able to eschew anything that would have been troublesome). Such a combination of prodigious talent and a keen awareness of where it ends probably makes for a pretty happy existence.
Wrong. Sorry, but totally, completely wrong. 99% of people with the kind of money he has are nowhere near as happy as him. Many "poor" people are just as happy as him.
The kind of money he has ruins the personal lives of so many people. I've heard him speak a few times and he's been happily married, happily taking care of his dogs, and just spreading joy and enthusiasm wherever he goes for years and years now. That doesn't require a lot of money at all.
I worked at Fusion-io and he was sort of an employee there early on. We opened a tiny office in San Jose and he sat there and basically worked as a receptionist at that office for a while, just happily greeting people as they came and went. He's just a chill dude without pretension.
I think we should compare the two sides in percentage and reason:
How many people as percentage from the wealthy people are really unhappy and not just saying so because of (insert here guilt, peer pressure, fear of losing it all …)
How many people as percentage from the poor people are happy (and not just saying so because they are trying to cope mentally with their helplessness situation)
And I know that all this points to mindset.
So lets ask the real question: On average how easy (as in having time, access, …) is to fix your mindset (whatever that fix is) when you are healthy or poor?
yes that's true, but the but the guy had every opportunity to become a soulless money grubbing prick with hundreds of millions (or maybe even billions) instead of just tens of millions if he didn't have a good sense of compassion and generosity. But at some point he decided he had enough money and success and that it was important for other people who had been with Apple to get their fair share.
In other words, he was a kind soul before the money and the success. The money and the success did not change him, but in fact, amplified his generosity and other good qualities. And to this day he remains a warm charismatic pioneer of Silicon Valley.
Jobs, on the other hand, boy that guy was selfish to the bone, and though he was not as money hungry as other CEOs, the success really amplified his ugliest traits that allowed him to treat people as disposable including his own friend Wozniak.
Worst thing he ever did, if you ask me, was deny his daughter Lisa even when he had the means to give her mother and his daughter a better life. He seemed spiteful in principle. I understand being skeptical at first about being alleged as the father of a kid, especially while you're trying to make it early on in your career, but after the paternity test proves you're the dad, and you have the means to provide, and you still don't then you are trash.
Maybe, but recently I came across an article where he had reached out to scam victims who fell prey to scammers who used AI to copy Woz's likeness to dupe people into depositing cryptocurrency so that they could get it much more of it back. It's a classic scam that would have almost anyone blaming the victims for falling for it. But what was touching is that Woz had read some emails from victims who were confused.
I think almost anyone would have ignored it, but he decided to at least try to fix it by filing a lawsuit on behalf of victims. I think the lawsuit ended up getting stuck since the scam relies on shady ads on YouTube. But I thought it was cool that at least he tried arguing that it is weird that scammers can make ads that impersonate others and it takes quite a while for them to get taken down.
I've been to a lecture he gave, and Q&A session. I was left with no doubt that his ethos of joy and honesty predate his wealth and are entirely independent of it.
> I've been to a lecture he gave, and Q&A session. I was left with no doubt that his ethos of joy and honesty predate his wealth and are entirely independent of it.
Don't most young people start life this way?
It's the influences of time spent in the rat race and a society fighting for scraps that beats it out of us.
I find those who struck it rich early and still turned out assholes more noteworthy.
Perhaps. I think it’s perfectly correct English, personally. If you’re American then your grammar rules might differ, I don’t know…
“Whereas” can be used at the start of a sentence to introduce two contrasting clauses - in this case the first being his own statement, and the second being my rather more cynical money-based reasoning for his continuing wonderful personality.
MySpace founder (pushed out after sale), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Anderson, "If you knew me before Myspace, you'd probably thought I'd have been a scholar teaching philosophy in a university my whole life. If you met me before college, you'd probably have thought I'd be a musician for my entire life ... I like change.
Trivia: Saverin still owns 2% of Facebook. He’s currently the richest Brazilian (and of Singapore, where he lives), according to multiple sources. Now _that_ is how you ride off into the sunset!
It also helps that he was financially well off before Facebook too and could afford top lawyers. I imagine things would have gone differently if he were some broke immigrant kid on a visa, getting buried by Zuck's lawyers.
Justice may be blind, but it's definitely not free.
There is also Michael Scott, Apple’s first CEO. He didn’t necessarily ride out into the sunset as much as being pushed out into it after some very controversial mass layoffs. He’s a neighbor and purchased several homes near me. One, a large estate, he demolished and turned into a pond and fruit orchard. Another he turned into an office and lab space for his interest in gemstones. It’s actually been quite a while since i last saw him. I wonder if he is still living over there.
I met Saverin at a private event not long ago. I had high expectations, I came out deeply disappointed. He didn't share any interesting insight, and essentially avoided any confrontation or controversy in the discussion - even if it was completely private and non-recorded.
The only thing I feel is 2nd hand regret for Woz. What if he didn't cash out? What would his net worth be today?
I am so caught up in the rat race, that I can't even understand what Woz want's to say, or what makes him happy. I only feel sad for him.
But if you think about it, I actually feel sad for myself. If I were in Woz's position with ~$20m or so and had missed the Apple cash cow (assuming $500m at the very least), how would I react? Would I live my entire life with regret and remorse? Would I be bitter?
Huge props to Woz for figuring out what makes him happy and doing exactly that.
> The only thing I feel is 2nd hand regret for Woz.
I'm going to speculate that in most cases, 20 million and 200 million is effectively the same. I wouldn't be upset in the slightest if I missed out.
If you can get a 2% return on 20 million that's 400k / year. That's a mind boggling amount of money. I picked 2% figuring to beat inflation by that amount in an extremely low risk investment so you don't have to think about market fluctuations hurting you.
>I earn money from my labor and pay something like 55% combined tax on it. I am the happiest person ever.
Those juxtaposed sentences do not compute for the vast majority of ultrawealthy engineers/CEOs/upperclass/1%. It certainly proves that after a fuzzy but real number of dollars, there exists a point where you simply have a superfluous amount of money.
Woz lives not too far from me and is a regular at the park I go to, walking his dogs.
The first time I saw him, I wasn't sure if it was him, so asked a person nearby - he has a very distinctive look with his facial hair and smile.
Since then, I've seen him a bunch of times, chatting with people and being friendly.
Readit News
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44903803 ("Steve Wozniak: Life to me was never about accomplishment, but about happiness (slashdot.org)"—593 comments)
He gave me some quick feedback that made a world of difference in SF (years later, when I tried raising angel money): get closer to people first. You don’t have to be their friends - just show up to where they show up (bars, meetups, library - anything), then tell them what you’re doing, and they’ll write you checks without you asking.
This is still the key reason why raising money in the Bay Area is so much easier than anywhere else.
I didn’t get any check from him that night, but he came across as such a human person - like someone you know for years - even to a complete stranger trying to go straight for his wallet.
Tech would be amazing if we had 1000x more Wozes around.
The problem is that the bulk of investment money these days comes through professional finance people (not the stereotypical “engineer who made a lot of money and now wants to help others”), who prioritize others who think like them, creating this self-fulfilling spiral of value extraction above all else. It’s the kind of thing you always see in “late stage” industries (eg aviation in the 1980s vs 1970s). It’s not irreversible though (eg there’s a small resurgence in hardware innovation happening right now, with companies like Framework, being funded by “idealist” investors, Pebble coming back, etc).
I think lots of people expected AI to be that too (the new “world of opportunity” that would come with a new “platform”), although so far it seems to be shaping up as FAANG players fighting for control (which is a bit disappointing from a user’s perspective)
Sure, he's not Musk, Bezos or Zuckerberg levels of rich, but compared to average folk who need to work for a living till retirement, he's still very, VERY rich.
Very few people get to that point and then choose happiness instead of ambition
- Daniel Tosh
We have to remember that it is a choice.
The kind of money he has ruins the personal lives of so many people. I've heard him speak a few times and he's been happily married, happily taking care of his dogs, and just spreading joy and enthusiasm wherever he goes for years and years now. That doesn't require a lot of money at all.
I worked at Fusion-io and he was sort of an employee there early on. We opened a tiny office in San Jose and he sat there and basically worked as a receptionist at that office for a while, just happily greeting people as they came and went. He's just a chill dude without pretension.
How many people as percentage from the wealthy people are really unhappy and not just saying so because of (insert here guilt, peer pressure, fear of losing it all …)
How many people as percentage from the poor people are happy (and not just saying so because they are trying to cope mentally with their helplessness situation)
And I know that all this points to mindset.
So lets ask the real question: On average how easy (as in having time, access, …) is to fix your mindset (whatever that fix is) when you are healthy or poor?
In other words, he was a kind soul before the money and the success. The money and the success did not change him, but in fact, amplified his generosity and other good qualities. And to this day he remains a warm charismatic pioneer of Silicon Valley.
Jobs, on the other hand, boy that guy was selfish to the bone, and though he was not as money hungry as other CEOs, the success really amplified his ugliest traits that allowed him to treat people as disposable including his own friend Wozniak.
Worst thing he ever did, if you ask me, was deny his daughter Lisa even when he had the means to give her mother and his daughter a better life. He seemed spiteful in principle. I understand being skeptical at first about being alleged as the father of a kid, especially while you're trying to make it early on in your career, but after the paternity test proves you're the dad, and you have the means to provide, and you still don't then you are trash.
I think almost anyone would have ignored it, but he decided to at least try to fix it by filing a lawsuit on behalf of victims. I think the lawsuit ended up getting stuck since the scam relies on shady ads on YouTube. But I thought it was cool that at least he tried arguing that it is weird that scammers can make ads that impersonate others and it takes quite a while for them to get taken down.
Don't most young people start life this way?
It's the influences of time spent in the rat race and a society fighting for scraps that beats it out of us.
I find those who struck it rich early and still turned out assholes more noteworthy.
“Whereas” can be used at the start of a sentence to introduce two contrasting clauses - in this case the first being his own statement, and the second being my rather more cynical money-based reasoning for his continuing wonderful personality.
Blackberry co-founder (sold stock when iPhone launched), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Fregin
Facebook co-founder (pushed out), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Saverin
MySpace founder (pushed out after sale), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Anderson, "If you knew me before Myspace, you'd probably thought I'd have been a scholar teaching philosophy in a university my whole life. If you met me before college, you'd probably have thought I'd be a musician for my entire life ... I like change.
It also helps that he was financially well off before Facebook too and could afford top lawyers. I imagine things would have gone differently if he were some broke immigrant kid on a visa, getting buried by Zuck's lawyers.
Justice may be blind, but it's definitely not free.
Deleted Comment
I am so caught up in the rat race, that I can't even understand what Woz want's to say, or what makes him happy. I only feel sad for him.
But if you think about it, I actually feel sad for myself. If I were in Woz's position with ~$20m or so and had missed the Apple cash cow (assuming $500m at the very least), how would I react? Would I live my entire life with regret and remorse? Would I be bitter?
Huge props to Woz for figuring out what makes him happy and doing exactly that.
But he already HAD a lot more money, and he gave it away. Do you think his behavior or outlook would change if he had $500m?
Parents should take their kids to the children's discovery museum (I think it is on Woz way).
There is nothing quite like seeing kids enraptured by playing with water or bubbles.
It is also amusing to watch closing time, as parents have to literally DRAG their crying kids away from it all out the door.
Steve J made ~10 billion at the time of his death at 56. Steve W made ~100 million and is still around at 75.
To make math real simple, I would definitely pay $500 million a year to stick around.
I'm going to speculate that in most cases, 20 million and 200 million is effectively the same. I wouldn't be upset in the slightest if I missed out.
If you can get a 2% return on 20 million that's 400k / year. That's a mind boggling amount of money. I picked 2% figuring to beat inflation by that amount in an extremely low risk investment so you don't have to think about market fluctuations hurting you.
Those juxtaposed sentences do not compute for the vast majority of ultrawealthy engineers/CEOs/upperclass/1%. It certainly proves that after a fuzzy but real number of dollars, there exists a point where you simply have a superfluous amount of money.
Since then, I've seen him a bunch of times, chatting with people and being friendly.