Probably. Given the known history of Apple it's just as likely that they'd have been successful if Jobs got hit by a bus after the Apple II shipped. His legacy of irrational and unexplained digression is pretty suitably punctuated by his own unwillingness to part with his pancreas.
A timeline where Woz led product design at Apple under a less recalcitrant leader might be one where Apple Computers is still relevant for making computers. The pivot to a lifestyle brand hasn't proven to be the strongest option, in the long term.
He didn't get hit by a bus, though. He led the company for decades.
Surely you've heard how opinionated and domineering Jobs was? Every strategic decision and major product decision was either from him or went through him.
“Look at data about use, costs, and find allies across your campus who care about issues of equity and openness,” Bourg said. “This is both the right thing to do in terms of our values with public engagement and the right thing to do from an economic point of view.” - Chris Bourg, Director of Libraries at MIT.
-"Instead of code and interfaces, we have processes and expectations. (By hiring career engineering managers, industry norms are imported. Firing a low performer may be a quick solution to a bigger underlying problem, deferred for the next manager.")
-This year, Meta laid off all their engineering managers that don’t code. It’s the same move that Google pulled 20 years ago, spawning Maps, Chrome and Gmail.
Thank you for reading. I'm looking to articulate what those standard processes and expectations are, and possibly find improvements. I'm hoping to share with you again when that happens.
