Baby Boomer visionaries transformed the world through their groundbreaking innovations, leadership, and scientific and artistic discoveries. Steve Jobs was certainly one of them.
The last words in the title above certainly describe this very unusual person. I, personally, have been labeled many different things in my life, eccentric is one of them. But, Steve Jobs is many levels beyond me in that category. Without a doubt, he was certainly a primary visionary among us Baby Boomers.
Finally, getting to the purpose of this post, I recently came across an article about a 1995 interview of Jobs that was, for whatever reason, lost before it was released.
Let’s get down to some of the insight he provided in that interview and take a look how his comments that relate to our current AI struggles (his comments are in red).
The Disease of “Process”
When a company gains a monopoly (like Xerox did with copiers), the product people can no longer move the needle. The company is already winning. So, power shifts to the sales and marketing people. They run the company, and the product people are driven out.
“People get very confused that the process is the content… IBM has the best process people in the world. They just forgot about the content.”
These quotes are the core difference between a PC and a Mac. The “process” people sell the products and at the point the product design is secondary to the profit potential.
How this relates to 2026 and AI:
Companies are obsessed with the process of AI — building prompt libraries, setting up governance boards, and debating ethics policies. They are forgetting the content — the actual product being built. Don’t be a “Toner Head” (Jobs’ insult for Xerox executives who didn’t understand computers). Focus on the result, not the bureaucracy
The Rock Tumbler of Teams
You throw in some ugly, sharp rocks. You add some grit. You turn on the motor, and they smash against each other, creating noise and friction. But the next day, they come out polished and beautiful.
“It’s through the team… bumping up against each other, having arguments, having fights… they polish each other, and they polish the ideas.”
This is the reason that at Apple remote work, at least since COVID, is no longer allowed. Jobs argues that working together is one of the critical parts of creative process. The friction is necessary to in order to polish the stones.
The 100 to 1 Rule
The best programmer is 50 to 100 times more productive than the average one.
This is why he insisted on hiring only the best at Apple because “A-Players like working with A-Players.” But B-Players hire C-Players because they don’t want to be threatened.
How this relates to 2026 and AI:
AI has exacerbated the 100:1 ratio. An “A-Player” using AI is now 1,000 times more productive than a “B-Player” ignoring it. The middle ground is vanishing. You are either leveraging the tools to become an exponential creator, or you are being rendered obsolete by those who are already doing that.
Innovation is a Survival Instinct
“Death is very likely the single best invention of Life.” It clears out the old to make way for the new
How this relates to 2026 and AI:
Don’t protect your “legacy” skills. If you are a writer, a coder, or a designer, and AI is encroaching on your territory, do not cling to the old way. Let the old version of your career die, so the new version can breathe.
Computer Science Is a Liberal Art
“Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer… because it teaches you how to think.”
“Musicians, poets, artists, zoologists, and historians” who happened to be computer scientists
How this relates to 2026 and AI:
As AI commoditizes the syntax of coding, the value shifts to the Humanities. The ability to code is becoming less valuable than the ability to understand history, storytelling, and human psychology. The future belongs to the “Poets who can prompt,” not just the engineers who can code.
The Hippie Spirit
Finally, the interviewer asks: “Are you a hippie or a nerd?”
“I’m clearly a hippie.”
He explains that being a hippie is about believing there is something more to life than a job and two cars in the garage. It’s about putting that “spirit” into products.
RJ's Corner - Having My Say 