![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
At the trade show I attended last week one of the keynote speakers was Steve Wozniak. "Woz", as he's known for short in the computer industry, co-founded Apple Computer with Steve Jobs in 1976 after inventing the prototype of what became their first personal computer, the Apple I. The topics outlined for Woz's appearance seemed only tangentially related at best to devops, the purpose of the conference, but I made sure to attend as I really wanted to hear what this legendary technologist has to say.
It turns out a lot of he said was, in so many words, "I'm a naive man-child oblivious to the astonishing privilege I have." Yes, I'm going to rip into an industry icon. Buckle up.
Woz's appearance was formatted as an interview. He reframed the first question asked of him to be, "What do you do for money?" He talked about how isn't it great that he gets paid to speak. Then he talked about opportunities he's turned down from a few cryptocurrency companies, explaining that they didn't want him to help build the product, they just wanted him to attach his name for advertising.
I only looked up his speaking fees as I was composing this blog, not as I was listening to his presentation paint an increasing picture of his naïveté. Let me come back around to that later, after I touch on the part of his keynote speak where he really jumped the shark.
Woz spoke for a brief minute about his involvement with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. That was actually my main interest in attending his keynote as I've been a fan of the EFF since watching with dismay when The Communications Decency Act of 1996 imposed draconian restrictions against free speech online, passed by a Congress that collectively had no f'ing clue what the Internet was other than what they saw in a scary movie somewhere, and signed by President Bill Clinton who had a tiny clue but was too timid to take a stand against it other than muttering something like, "This probably isn't even legal" as he signed it into law anyway.
So, what did Woz have to say about the EFF? In a nutshell, "It's too political." He explained when he found out they had lobbyists, people paid to lobby government lawmakers— yes, he spelled this out, with a sneer in his voice, like adults in America don't know what lobbyists are— he quit.
"I don't like politics," he reemphasized. "I don't vote. Well, except for last election."
He. Doesn't. Even. Vote.
That's where I had to speak up. Mindful of the fact that my comments in the virtual trade show platform had my name and my company affiliation on them, I fired off "Championing not voting 👎".
A colleague of mine, who coincidentally will no longer be employed at my employer after this Friday, posted at the same time, "Ahhh... must be nice to be able to ignore politics."
What does he think organizations like the EFF do? Does he think they just write blogs about digital privacy and free speech, which companies and governments choose to enact policy on because their better saints say they should? No! Politics is how we make social policy through government. Political change takes lobbying. And voting.
Moreover, think about what it means when a person gives a list of socio-legal-political causes he supposedly cares about (digital rights was just one of three causes he discussed in this interview) but then says he doesn't vote. If you don't vote you don't care— or you don't understand. To put it harshly, it means he's stupid or a liar.
I don't think Woz is a liar. I do think he's naive though. Through his whole 15-20 minute interview he came across as having a child's understanding of the world. He's a brilliant engineer and loves to tinker. But he's basically a technical genius 10 year old.
As an addendum, as I was researching background information for this blog entry I stumbled across a few interesting things that further paint the picture of startling privilege and naivete when put together. Woz has been widely quoted as claiming he doesn't care about money. "I didn’t want to be near money, because it could corrupt your values," is one famous quote. Yet his net worth in 2020 was estimated at $120 million, and the fees he earns for speaking/appearances earn him probably north of $1 million per year. Sure, it's easy to say you don't care about money— and to see voting as irrelevant— when you've got the privilege that wealth affords!
Another bit I found is that Woz is dishonest, perhaps even intentionally so, in downplaying how much he earns. When asked about jobs and income he mentions that he still gets a salary from Apple. He routinely describes it variously as "$5 a week", "$50 to maybe $100 a month", etc., "After taxes and savings are taken out." But here's the thing: that Apple salary is $120,000 a year (published record). Obviously he's trying to paint himself as a down-to-earth person doing what he does for the pure love of it. That one gig alone— which is only a tiny of his income and capital gains— is by itself more than the average American earns, yet to Woz it's such a pittance that he routinely passes it off as if it's just a few bucks.
It turns out a lot of he said was, in so many words, "I'm a naive man-child oblivious to the astonishing privilege I have." Yes, I'm going to rip into an industry icon. Buckle up.
Woz's appearance was formatted as an interview. He reframed the first question asked of him to be, "What do you do for money?" He talked about how isn't it great that he gets paid to speak. Then he talked about opportunities he's turned down from a few cryptocurrency companies, explaining that they didn't want him to help build the product, they just wanted him to attach his name for advertising.
"I didn’t want to be near money, because it could corrupt your values."
— person with $120 million net worth today (estimated) who earns probably $1,000,000+ per year for appearances
Um, okay, but what do you think this get-paid-to-talk thing is? You're not helping us build a product, you're not even helping us understand how to build a product, you're only being paid to appear in front of this audience because of your accomplishments in the 1970s and 1980s. Like, literally, what's the difference? And BTW, according to the speakers' bureau Speakers.com, Woz's fee for this appearance would be anything from $50,000 up to $100,000 or possibly more. — person with $120 million net worth today (estimated) who earns probably $1,000,000+ per year for appearances
I only looked up his speaking fees as I was composing this blog, not as I was listening to his presentation paint an increasing picture of his naïveté. Let me come back around to that later, after I touch on the part of his keynote speak where he really jumped the shark.
Woz spoke for a brief minute about his involvement with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. That was actually my main interest in attending his keynote as I've been a fan of the EFF since watching with dismay when The Communications Decency Act of 1996 imposed draconian restrictions against free speech online, passed by a Congress that collectively had no f'ing clue what the Internet was other than what they saw in a scary movie somewhere, and signed by President Bill Clinton who had a tiny clue but was too timid to take a stand against it other than muttering something like, "This probably isn't even legal" as he signed it into law anyway.
So, what did Woz have to say about the EFF? In a nutshell, "It's too political." He explained when he found out they had lobbyists, people paid to lobby government lawmakers— yes, he spelled this out, with a sneer in his voice, like adults in America don't know what lobbyists are— he quit.
"I don't like politics," he reemphasized. "I don't vote. Well, except for last election."
He. Doesn't. Even. Vote.
That's where I had to speak up. Mindful of the fact that my comments in the virtual trade show platform had my name and my company affiliation on them, I fired off "Championing not voting 👎".
A colleague of mine, who coincidentally will no longer be employed at my employer after this Friday, posted at the same time, "Ahhh... must be nice to be able to ignore politics."
What does he think organizations like the EFF do? Does he think they just write blogs about digital privacy and free speech, which companies and governments choose to enact policy on because their better saints say they should? No! Politics is how we make social policy through government. Political change takes lobbying. And voting.
Moreover, think about what it means when a person gives a list of socio-legal-political causes he supposedly cares about (digital rights was just one of three causes he discussed in this interview) but then says he doesn't vote. If you don't vote you don't care— or you don't understand. To put it harshly, it means he's stupid or a liar.
I don't think Woz is a liar. I do think he's naive though. Through his whole 15-20 minute interview he came across as having a child's understanding of the world. He's a brilliant engineer and loves to tinker. But he's basically a technical genius 10 year old.
As an addendum, as I was researching background information for this blog entry I stumbled across a few interesting things that further paint the picture of startling privilege and naivete when put together. Woz has been widely quoted as claiming he doesn't care about money. "I didn’t want to be near money, because it could corrupt your values," is one famous quote. Yet his net worth in 2020 was estimated at $120 million, and the fees he earns for speaking/appearances earn him probably north of $1 million per year. Sure, it's easy to say you don't care about money— and to see voting as irrelevant— when you've got the privilege that wealth affords!
Another bit I found is that Woz is dishonest, perhaps even intentionally so, in downplaying how much he earns. When asked about jobs and income he mentions that he still gets a salary from Apple. He routinely describes it variously as "$5 a week", "$50 to maybe $100 a month", etc., "After taxes and savings are taken out." But here's the thing: that Apple salary is $120,000 a year (published record). Obviously he's trying to paint himself as a down-to-earth person doing what he does for the pure love of it. That one gig alone— which is only a tiny of his income and capital gains— is by itself more than the average American earns, yet to Woz it's such a pittance that he routinely passes it off as if it's just a few bucks.
