If you said you were a user interface specialist, you wouldnit have been understood. And certainly in the computer industry, it was a totally unknown concept: you just didnit worry about that. The idea of building a whole computer system starting with the user interface and working from there was completely alien, at least in the personal computer industry.
It was supposed to be a $400 game machine. I told him I had no interest in working on a game machine, which is an indication of my general orientation to the industry: just because it will sell and make money doesnit mean Iim interested in working on it. I think there are higher goals. But I counter proposed, and said, "Well, Iive been thinking about something I call Macintosh." It would give all the power of the computer, but with greater ease of use.
I started out with people I knew from publications and QA departments Iid started. I hired Mark Lebrun from outside; that didnit work out too well, he left after a while, but weire still friends. I hired Brian Howard, my musical friend. Brian and I had shared apartments, and played gigs– weddings and birthday parties and every other kind of gig– and we had been poor living in a rented apartment in Palo Alto, and cooking up rabbits from the Biology Department…
You can read the full interview at the Stanford University Web site.