<story><title>Stephen Wolfram on Steve Jobs: A Few Memories</title><url>http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2011/10/steve-jobs-a-few-memories/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>steveb</author><text>NeXT sold maybe 50,000 systems in 5 years, less than the number of PCs that a typical large company has stuffed in cubicles.&lt;p&gt;And from that small install base, emerged the first Web browser, Doom, and Mathematica.&lt;p&gt;They were amazing, if flawed products. Every system came with Mathematica, a full dictionary and the complete works of Shakespeare.&lt;p&gt;I remember having to go use Windows NT after NeXT failed in the market. And I remember, ten years later, holding the first iPhone in my hand and knowing where it came from.</text></comment>
<story><title>Stephen Wolfram on Steve Jobs: A Few Memories</title><url>http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2011/10/steve-jobs-a-few-memories/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>SkyMarshal</author><text>I think he really nails the reason that so many people love Jobs:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&quot;In my life, I have had the good fortune to interact with all sorts of talented people. To me, Steve Jobs stands out most for his clarity of thought. Over and over again he took complex situations, understood their essence, and used that understanding to make a bold definitive move, often in a completely unexpected direction.&lt;p&gt;I myself have spent much of my life—in science and in technology—trying to work in somewhat similar ways. And trying to build the very best possible things I can.&lt;p&gt;Yet looking at the practical world of technology and business there are certainly times when it has not been obvious that any of this is a good strategy. Indeed, sometimes it looks as if all that clarity, understanding, quality and new ideas aren’t really the point—and that the winners are those with quite different interests.&lt;p&gt;So for me—and our company—it has been immensely inspiring to watch Steve Jobs’s—and Apple’s—amazing success in recent years. It validates so many of the principles that I have long believed in. And encourages me to pursue them with even greater vigor.&quot;&lt;/i&gt;</text></comment>