In early February, BombBomb, the video email marketing software company I’m helping build, was honored with an award at the Celebrate Technology event. The Colorado Springs Business Journal, Peak Venture Group, Colorado Springs Technology Incubator, Regional Business Alliance, and several other organizations helped produce a great evening at Pinery on the Hill on the west side of Colorado Springs.
Featured guest: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, The Woz
An opportunist, I shot much of his presentation (handheld – sorry), which was a conversational back and forth with PVG’s President, Chris Franz.
Wozniak conveys a wonderful spirit and provides an interesting view of the past, present, and future, primarily around technology and education.
I broke the 45 minute session into six separate clips and one of them has far more views than the others – the fourth of the six. I’ve embedded that below and provided key ideas found in and links to each of the others.
Steve Wozniak on Kurzweil’s Singularity, Moore’s Law, Wearable Tech, and More
- The potential exists through technology for one-teacher-one-student learning.
- Kids are attracted to what’s “new” and “special” and to digital voices and graphics as they become more “real” and “human.”
- Ray Kurzweil’s Singularity seems about 20 years away; machines will do things more like the human brain does.
- Moore’s Law eventually hits an end, which may have arrived already. It’s not infinitely expansive.
- Talking to our devices is a step toward Singularity.
- Google has the advantage in this direction because of its background in search, though it provides links rather than answers today.
- Wozniak admires Ray Kurzweil, Steve Jobs (though he could’ve been nicer to people and more charitable), Jim Parson, and many others.
- One inch by one inch smartwatch products are too small to take hold. The best smartwatch he’s seen (the Martian) smartly relies on voice.
- Though it’s lightweight and clever, Google Glass may go the way of the Bluetooth headset.
Steve Wozniak on Mentorship, Serendipity, and Passion
- Wozniak shares stories about early computing, punchcard runs, and how he got to his first CES in Las Vegas.
- A company’s people are more important than their products.
- Intrinsic motivation has been a more powerful driver for him than extrinsic rewards.
Steve Wozniak on Selling Solutions (Not Specs) and Startup Involvement
- Apple had the good fortune of ten key opportunities, all of which were good. At the time, they only had resources to capitalize on two of them.
- We don’t want hardware or software specifications – we want solutions to our problems.
- You must keep revenue coming in to stay alive. Focus all attention on what’s selling best.
Steve Wozniak on Steve Jobs, Mike Markkula, and Education Reform
- Steve Jobs had a great sense of what people would and would not buy; angel investor and second CEO Mike Markkula taught it to him and to the rest of the team.
- A young, somewhat brash Steve Jobs challenged people and ideas as a primary way of learning.
- Giving time is more valuable than giving money. A would-be teacher, Wozniak has been involved in education for years and expresses a clear vision for the role of computing in learning.
Steve Wozniak on Advice for Entrepreneurs and Google Buying Apple
- Get engineers on board early. They should be “builders, builders, builders” who love building their own things.
- Have a working model before you seek capital; your presentation will be more dynamic and you’ll retain far more of your company.
- You needn’t go to Silicon Valley to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is everywhere; strong pockets can be found throughout the US and aroudn the world. He argued against Apple centralizing in Cupertino in favor of spreading out.
Steve Wozniak on College Reform and Fusion-io
- College learning rarely applies to real life, but it teaches you how to learn and how to complete large projects and goals.
- Storage isn’t sexy. Engineering is sexy – better, cheaper, faster by design.
- Apple, Facebook, and many other companies rely on Fusion-io’s graceful solution for cloud computing and delivery to devices.
Again, Wozniak delivered an entertaining and informative evening. You can see the entire playlist here.
