iCon: Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business by Jeffrey S. Young & William S. Simon

Author:Jeffrey S. Young & William S. Simon [Young, Jeffrey S. & Simon, William S.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Industries, Science & Technology, Steve Jobs, Inc - History, Computer Industry, Computer Engineers, Jobs, Business, vl-nfcompvg, Steven, ISBN 13-978-0-471-72083-6, Business & Economics, 2005, Biography", "Table of Contents, John Wiley & Sons, Computer Engineers - United States, Inc., Computer History, General, Apple Computer, Preface, Biography & Autobiography, ISBN 100-471-72083-6, Apple Computer; Inc - History, Jobs; Steven
ISBN: 9780471787846
Google: Qv6RHwAACAAJ
Amazon: 0471787841
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2005-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

All of that changed in a blinding flash at one Pixar meeting. Steve has certain territorial imperatives, like having the right kind of bottled water laid out for a meeting. And ownership of the whiteboard is a strange quirk of his, a part of his need for total control.

At this particular Pixar meeting, Alvy disagreed with what Steve had said and was writing on the whiteboard. Alvy thought Steve was wrong.

He stood up, walked to the whiteboard, picked up a marker, and began to explain his disagreement while writing on the board.

Everyone in the room watched in fascinated horror as Steve Jobs imploded. "You can't do that!" Steve screeched. Alvy was stunned and speechless as Steve leaned into him until their noses almost touched and hurled insults meant to demean, belittle, and wound.

Then Steve stormed out of the room.

"It was ugly," Alvy said afterward. "Steve turned on me with everything he had." Even today, Alvy remains sensitive about reopening the wounds from Steve's irrational, undisciplined, little-boy-with-a-big-temper outburst and from what followed. Alvy now says, "I'm rather pleased to have gotten over my animus against Steve and am not interested in reviving it."

Alvy handed in his resignation. He was one of the two cofounders of Pixar, one of the two towering giants who had led the innovations that had seen computer graphic animation graduate from a university lab to the movie screen. He had given it fifteen years of his life, but he was willing to give it all up rather than continue to have Steve Jobs in his life.

Ed Catmull must have been torn by Alvy's departure—on one hand, regretful at the breakup of a partnership that had defined the frontiers of their field but, on the other, aware that Alvy's departure left Catmull king of the mountain, the sole commander calling the shots creatively and technologically for the leading company in its field. He eased Alvy's departure by working out arrangements that opened the door for Alvy's next venture, which was to prove highly lucrative.

Steve Jobs didn't lift a finger to stop Alvy Ray Smith from leaving or to make his departure any less painful.

Worse, Steve has mounted an active campaign to rewrite history. In speeches and interviews, as well as on the Pixar Web site, all mentions of Alvy Ray Smith have been expunged. It is as if he never existed, never contributed any of the underlying technology, never cofounded Pixar with Ed Catmull. As far as Pixar is concerned, it's "Alvy whoV'

For Alvy's usurping of the whiteboard, Steve Jobs has exacted an ultimate form of revenge.

The idea of doing animation with computers wasn't new around Disney, but the first major project had done little beyond provide ammunition for the studio old-liners who wanted to stick with what they did better than anyone else in the world: the traditional ink-and-paint 2-D

animation of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

The studio's first swing at computer-based animation had been Tron.

Originally conceived as a six-minute animated short: by an

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