Jony Ive recalls how Steve Jobs taught him to say no, especially when it hurts to do it
Late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs taught his chief designer Jony Ive not only how to say no, but to reject ideas that personally excited him. That process continues to help him to achieve a level of focus -- one that he said that Jobs himself had mastered.
Ive spoke Friday at The New Yorker TechFest, where AppleInsider was in attendance. When asked about his relationship with Jobs, Ive lit up.
"I had the most wonderful teacher in Steve," he said. "And I have never -- I have never met anybody with his focus."
He recalled that Jobs frequently asked Ive how often he would say no. And to appease Jobs, Ive said he would say no quite a bit -- but to things that he wasn't actually interested in doing.
The lesson from Jobs, Ive said, was to say no, and to say it with great sacrifice.
"The art of focus -- even if it's something that you think passionately about -- focus means ignoring it and putting it to the side," he said. "And often it's at real cost. And he (Jobs) was remarkable at that."
While Jobs was a master of focus, Ive admitted it is still something he struggles with to this day. He said that there have been a few occasion where he felt like he achieved that true level of focus.
"It's a little eerie," he said.
Ive did admit that Jobs could be hard on him. The New Yorker's David Remnick asked Ive if the abrasive nature of Jobs ever upset him. But Ive responded by recalling the dire situation Apple found itself in at the time -- on the verge of bankruptcy, having gone through a number of leadership changes, struggling to stay alive.
"The situation," he said, "was harder than his words."
Ive spoke Friday at The New Yorker TechFest, where AppleInsider was in attendance. When asked about his relationship with Jobs, Ive lit up.
"Even if it's something that you think passionately about, focus means ignoring it and putting it to the side." - Jony Ive
"I had the most wonderful teacher in Steve," he said. "And I have never -- I have never met anybody with his focus."
He recalled that Jobs frequently asked Ive how often he would say no. And to appease Jobs, Ive said he would say no quite a bit -- but to things that he wasn't actually interested in doing.
The lesson from Jobs, Ive said, was to say no, and to say it with great sacrifice.
"The art of focus -- even if it's something that you think passionately about -- focus means ignoring it and putting it to the side," he said. "And often it's at real cost. And he (Jobs) was remarkable at that."
While Jobs was a master of focus, Ive admitted it is still something he struggles with to this day. He said that there have been a few occasion where he felt like he achieved that true level of focus.
"It's a little eerie," he said.
Ive did admit that Jobs could be hard on him. The New Yorker's David Remnick asked Ive if the abrasive nature of Jobs ever upset him. But Ive responded by recalling the dire situation Apple found itself in at the time -- on the verge of bankruptcy, having gone through a number of leadership changes, struggling to stay alive.
"The situation," he said, "was harder than his words."
Comments
As for trotting out Jobs ghost, congrats on using a very old, very bogus troll trope. You don't know what he would or would not have done or thought because you are a random person a rumors site with no actual personal knowledge or data relevant to anything other than spouting off personal opinions. And you know what they say about opinions and assholes.
And made for gradual progress in iPhone design - instead of 4 years of lamentation and now all sorts of complications & compromises as you didn't imagine a bezelless phone in a timely manner. You selfimage has become a blockade. You seem your own, pedantic parody
Also, in case you weren't aware, the camera bump isn't comprised of empty space- it's as thin as it can possibly be while containing the required components for the photos it takes. They didn't randomly decide to make a thicket "bump", it was required.
You can't have a real debate about anything without being able to say No!
Moving forward in a design process involves a lot of Yes and No.
Sometimes you do have to compromise. I suspect that the 'notch' is one of them. We shall see next year won't we?
The most profitable company in the world ,but all their products do not take up much space.
Perhaps at some point in the future, Apple will invent the most useful product in human history. It will be nearly invisible and have a massive markup. AAPL stockholders will be overjoyed.
Jobs knew very well that engineering trades had to be made and that some blemishes may have to appear in his products until the trades could be modified through the passage of time & improvement of tech. The first iPhone lacked 3G, and it took several incarnations of iOS before copy/paste was even included.
So when someone says "Jobs would never have allowed <fill in the blank>", I have to laugh and say, "how the f*** do you know what he would have allowed if you don't know what all the trades are?"
>antenna lines shape in iphone 6 and 6s.
>camera bump (use thicker battery to cover it up). Remember when he said that had the phone been thicker, less people would have used it, so the thin-ness was worth the battery life and camera bump... eyes rolling.
>iOS 7 bad design choices
>slippery aluminum phones (negates good aesthetics due to case being used), and rounded edges.
Apple design was better when Steve was around, that's for sure. He was a good counter-balance to Ive.