Apple co-founder Steve Jobs wasn’t the most sentimental person ever, and we’ve just found more evidence to back that up.
It comes in an anecdote from a former product manager who was around 10 years ago for the company’s 30th birthday. And his dream of a huge celebration of the milestone earned him a healthy does of terse, Jobsian smackdown.
Today’s the 40th anniversary of Apple’s founding, and while we’ve certainly gotten into the spirit of the day, the guy who helped make the company what it is today could not have cared less. It’s pretty well in keeping with Jobs’ — and, therefore, Apple’s — reputation of aloofness, but this story still makes us chuckle.
David Pakman worked at Apple from 1991 through 1997, and when the 30th anniversary rolled around in 2006, he dreamt up the perfect way to celebrate, he told Fast Company. It was a massive party in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. The event would include everyone who had ever worked for the company, and we wish it would have happened because that would have been one hell of a giant cake.
But when Pakman e-mailed Jobs and suggested that they actually put on the big show to celebrate the company and its people, he got an answer right away:
David,
Apple is focused on the future, not the past.
—Steve
It makes sense, we suppose. Jobs seemed obsessed about the company’s next moves, and he didn’t need a recap of what it had already done. And besides, the first iPhone was launching in a little over a year, so he was probably a bit too busy with that to party down.
Still, that e-mail was pretty cold.
Evan Killham is a freelance writer who lives in Nebraska and isn’t interested in football, so he has plenty of time to play and think about video games. He has written for Bitmob and GamesBeat and sometimes, he even goes outside. But not too often because he’s heard there are bees out there. Occasionally, companies send free units for review. Evan subscribes to Cult of Mac’s Reviews Policy and also does not keep the items he receives for possible coverage.
6 responses to “Steve Jobs wouldn’t care how old Apple is today”
That sucks I feel bad that I’m celebrating the 40th anniversary now…
This is by far the hot-takey-ist worst Apple website out there. There’s just no other way to parse this anymore. This is one of the worst pieces of writing I’ve ever read. Jesus Christ get some editorial.
What a bunch of idiots run this site. I guess they forgot about the 20th Anniversary Macintosh. Either that, or they’re too young to have heard of it.
Steve’s response to the email is pretty normal for him. Over the years I have received three responses from Steve, and they were all very short and to the point.
Seriously, an article about what you think someone would have thought? I haven’t been on this site in about 2 months because of dumb articles like this. I guess i will go another 2 months and check it out again to see if things changed.
And the point of this “article” is what exactly?