Trevor McKendrick - Be critical

Good morning!

Another great week is upon us.

Trevor

Steve Jobs didn’t want to ship iTunes for Windows (article)

I think this is one of the most important Steve Jobs stories, and I rarely hear it told.

Remember that back then you had to have a Mac to use your iPod, and back then almost nobody had Macs.

Steve refused to bring the iPod to windows. He wanted people to buy Macs to get the iPod. But Phil Schiller, Jon Rubenstein, and others wanted to bring the iPod to Windows:

"We argued with Steve a bunch [about putting iTunes on Windows], and he said no. Finally, Phil Schiller and I said ‘we’re going to do it.’ And Steve said, ‘Fuck you guys, do whatever you want. You’re responsible.’ And he stormed out of the room.”

So arguably one of the most important decisions in the history of Apple was something Steve didn’t want to do.

See also: remember when Apple built an iTunes client for Motorola’s ROKR phone?! This is insane. Counter to every narrative, story, and conception we have of Apple today. “Apple needs to own both the software & hardware” except for when they don’t? Steve demo’ing it here you can tell he hates the thing, but it was a big deal: he had both the President of Motorola and the COO of Cingular Wireless present(!)

There’s a reason Steve said you can only connect the dots looking backwards.

Knowing something is wrong is underrated (article)

An old John Siracusa article about critiques and Steve Jobs’ contribution to the world.

Having a high quality bar & deeply caring about meeting that bar will deliver alpha for as long as humanity exists.

The Roots of Progress opened rolling admissions for their Blog-Building Intensive (website)

It’s an 8 week cohort to write about progress with a community of peers. Led by my friend Jason Crawford. Advisors include Tyler Cowen, Noah Smith, Eli Dourado, and plenty of others. Apply now. It’s free.

10 things Jerry Seinfeld likes (GQ youtube interview)

“The secret of life is to waste time in ways that you like.“

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