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Malcom Gladwell discusses Steve Jobs with NPR

by Kelly Hodgkins May 17th 2011 at 9:30AM

Young Steve JobsIf you missed Malcolm Gladwell's article, Creation Myth: Xerox PARC, Apple, and the Truth about Innovation, in the May 16 issue of The New Yorker, then you should tune into a recent episode of NPR's All Things Considered. In this seven-minute interview, Gladwell talks about Steve Jobs and his now legendary visit to Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in the late 70s.

As the story goes, Jobs visited the research center and saw a demonstration of Xerox's $300 three-button computer mouse. Inspired by what he saw, Jobs brought the concept to industrial designer Dean Hovey. Hovey improved upon the concept and developed a single-button mouse that cost a mere $15 to build. This mouse became the center point of a new graphical user interface similar to one demoed at Xerox. This hardware and software eventually evolved into the now iconic Macintosh.

Unlike many who accuse Jobs of stealing the idea from Xerox, Gladwell distinguishes between invention and innovation. Xerox may have been the inventor, but Apple was the innovator and ran with the concept.



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If you missed Malcolm Gladwell's article, Creation Myth: Xerox PARC, Apple, and the Truth about Innovation, in the May 16 issue of The...
 

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ari

I always take Gladwell with a grain of salt (even more so than many others) after having done an exhaustive review of his book Blink!
Most of that book is plain wrong, or seriously misinterpreted. I went as far as reading almost all scientific studies referenced in the book, and researching every statement made by Gladwell. After that I severely distrust him.

Either he didn't read the sources, or he didn't understand them. Well, that or he just had another agenda to push.

May 17 2011 at 4:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
chas

There's a very informative response to Gladwell's piece at the PARC Blog -
http://blogs.parc.com/blog/2011/05/from-creation-myth-to-the-reality-of-innovation-today/ - that doesn't refute what Gladwell wrote, but rather, speaks to what he missed, namely, the concept of "Open Innovation." It has indeed always been a myth that Jobs "stole" the concepts in question (not only the mouse, but the GUI, and more...), but in fact, he "paid" for his visit to PARC with 100,000 AAPL shares. Adjusted for splits, that would be 800,000 shares of AAPL today. Apparently, someone at Xerox "corporate" sold the shares at some point (I don't know when, and at what price) but the case could be made that if highway robbery took place, it took place within Xerox with regard to this transaction...

May 17 2011 at 12:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to chas's comment
scamsnl

Yeah, see, that was my understanding all along. I mean, I'm not old enough to remember the events personally, so aside from a Apple trivia/history book and "Pirates of Silicon Valley," I don't know much about the story, but my understanding was that Apple bought … something (the tech, the patent, whatever) from Xerox and THEN developed it further. This is actually the first I'd heard of people claiming Jobs/Apple stole the concept, though I'm not surprised given detractors have said that about most every other product since.

May 17 2011 at 12:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mplaisance

Also to point out, no one can say Apple stole it! Two reasons: first the engineers at PARC were blown away by the excitement of the Apple engineers. The PARC engineers said that the Apple guys "just got it", they understood what was being done, unlike PARC's employer, XEROX, who for years did not understand what those guys were doing and because of this PARC engineers were leaving PARC. What good is innovation if it never sees the "light of day"?
And second: Apple gave PARC a Million in Apple shares to see and bring back to there own labs the technology. Also keep on mind many of the PARC engineers shortly after went to work for Apple including Apple Fellow, Alan Kay.

May 17 2011 at 12:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Darvin

"Jobs visited the research center and saw a demonstration of Xerox's $300 three-button computer mouse. "

"Hovey improved upon the concept and developed a single-button mouse"

HAHAHA. improved it by taking 2 buttons away.

May 17 2011 at 10:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Darvin's comment
milkmage

"... that cost a mere $15 to build."

and saved $285 in costs (142.50/button)

May 17 2011 at 10:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John Thobois

Most of what Steve saw at Xerox PARC had been invented decades before.

May 17 2011 at 10:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to John Thobois's comment
SpinThis!

The Mac invented the concept of the menubar, thetrash, copy and paste, and host of other things.

May 17 2011 at 10:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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