Maybe, maybe not; sure it's possible that they might have found a book for free at the library, hired an audio engineer, etc. - but it would be foolish to believe that singular events are often not at the roots of many companies finding success.
>> "Without RadioShack, there’s no Blue Box. And as Woz tells it, without the Blue Box there’s no Apple.”
The point is that "small things matter." (1) For them, that was getting the speaker right.
As for the references to RadioShack, I think he makes a good point: RadioShack was important in helping people build those small things. (not necessarily indispensable, but certainly important).
(1) That point is repeated many times, including the subtitle.
For many years, Radio Shack was one of the few convenient places for consumers to quickly pickup random small parts related to electronics, audio, ham radio, etc.
On the other hand, there's a very rose-tinted nostalgic view of Radio Shack in many circles. The chain's main business as far back as I can remember was selling a lot of overpriced and low quality audio gear and other consumer electronics. It was far more a shopping mall location for unsophisticated consumers to buy their stereos than it was a makerspace of some sort.
I agree, this post really does not have any concrete lessons. It has a few nice cliches but nothing that is truly a lesson you can use on your own projects. But that's probably also because it doesn't really get into any details of how they truly made a compelling product. Those details are glossed over as "talents" and "trial and error." That's where the interesting details are.
The standout sentence for me: "Because it supported the soul of Silicon Valley, the generations of tinkerers and builders who started small." Starting small is not what I associate with SV!
Not what you'd associate with the current trend of SV startups. But Companies like HP, Apple. Started small. Actually kind of started as life style businesses, and then grew.
Lecture by the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. The first half doesn't seem to be about SV at all - except that it is.
Bottom line: Huge spending on R&D during WWII (based mostly on debt, by the way) by government is the true foundation of SV, private capital only came in when the field had been prepared and fertilized.
I keep posting this video when the context seems appropriate because it was an eye opener for me who had a CS and a business education and had always thought SV was the proof of private capital's success.
At the heart of the Jobs and Wozniak blue box was the TRS-80, “one of the first affordable personal computers and one of the first computer devices RadioShack ever produced.”
This can't be right. ATW, the first TRS-80 was released on August 3, 1977. Jobs and Wozniak were long past their blue box by then. They incorporated Apple on April 1, 1976, released the Apple I on April 11, 1976, and released the Apple II on June 10, 1977.
That book was more like the inspiration for the company, not the actual investment itself. They had to make those devices, and the cost for those isn't less than 95 cents.
A modern analogy would be someone finding some interesting tutorial or video online (for FREEEEEEEE probably) that gave them some information and sparked an idea that they decided to found a business on.
This is basically just a way to attach a cute, marketable, "humble" story to their company. It's useful that they have one, but it's not a blueprint for how to start a successful company.
It isn't a bkueprint, but I totally se it as an investment. Had they not seen the book & read it, they wouldn't be having their company. So it is an indirect investment.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 56.5 ms ] threadThey needed information on how to get the best audio quality and volume from a relatively small speaker and enclosure.
And they found a cheap booklet about building speaker enclosures. If it wasn't for radio shack, they probably would have found it somewhere else.
I'm not sure what to read into this.
>> "Without RadioShack, there’s no Blue Box. And as Woz tells it, without the Blue Box there’s no Apple.”
As for the references to RadioShack, I think he makes a good point: RadioShack was important in helping people build those small things. (not necessarily indispensable, but certainly important).
(1) That point is repeated many times, including the subtitle.
On the other hand, there's a very rose-tinted nostalgic view of Radio Shack in many circles. The chain's main business as far back as I can remember was selling a lot of overpriced and low quality audio gear and other consumer electronics. It was far more a shopping mall location for unsophisticated consumers to buy their stereos than it was a makerspace of some sort.
http://www.sbnation.com/2014/11/26/7281129/radioshack-eulogy...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo
Lecture by the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. The first half doesn't seem to be about SV at all - except that it is.
Bottom line: Huge spending on R&D during WWII (based mostly on debt, by the way) by government is the true foundation of SV, private capital only came in when the field had been prepared and fertilized.
I keep posting this video when the context seems appropriate because it was an eye opener for me who had a CS and a business education and had always thought SV was the proof of private capital's success.
SV is a lot different than it used to be.
Survivorship bias is a huge deal in this type of thing.
This can't be right. ATW, the first TRS-80 was released on August 3, 1977. Jobs and Wozniak were long past their blue box by then. They incorporated Apple on April 1, 1976, released the Apple I on April 11, 1976, and released the Apple II on June 10, 1977.
I found the use of 2000s-era "RadioShack" branding distracting. It was "Radio Shack" when it mattered.
Also surprised that Woz points to RS at all. I wasn't there, but I had the impression that there were better options in SV even back then.
A modern analogy would be someone finding some interesting tutorial or video online (for FREEEEEEEE probably) that gave them some information and sparked an idea that they decided to found a business on.
This is basically just a way to attach a cute, marketable, "humble" story to their company. It's useful that they have one, but it's not a blueprint for how to start a successful company.