Odd Jobs | Lifestyle.INQ

OCTOBER 27, 2022

1 He was a true blue hippie.

As a young man, Jobs would walk to work barefoot.  He lived in a commune of free spirits, went to India to find a guru and railed against authority.

2 He was a picky eater.

Steve Jobs picked up an eating quirk that never went away.  He’d have phases where he’d eat nothing but carrots (he even turned slightly orange), he was a picky vegan who also went several fasts which he believed led to a clearer mind.

3 He was a crybaby.

He cried when he was ousted from Apple, he cried when Steve Wozniak’s father accused him of shortchanging his son, he cried when old advertising partner Lee Clow pitched a campaign that moved him and he sobbed when he read a love note he had written for his wife near the end.  Whether in the throes of a tantrum or faced with something that moved him, Steve Jobs was not afraid to show his tears.

4 He loved walks.

He liked to walk.  As a kid, he discovered he loved walking and walked the fifteen blocks to his school everyday.  When he needed to clear his mind, he would take a long walk (sometimes barefoot).  He’d invite colleagues and potential business partners to walk with him and have serious conversations with them, and a lot of his interviews with Isaacson were conducted while they were walking.

5 He had an outfit quirk.

A trip to a Japanese factory developed his fascination for the uniform and what it represented, but his suggestions of employing it at Apple were vetoed.  Still, he liked the idea of a uniform depicting a signature style, and thus the black turtleneck he was heavily associated with was born.  His closet had enough to “last for the rest of my life.”

6 He had a virgin fascination.

He asked his mother if she were a virgin when she got married, and later on would also ask a group of people in Stanford how many of them were virgins.  While interviewing candidates for software manager, he asked one how old he was when he lost his virginity.

7 He was into acid & LSD.

During his hippie years, Steve Jobs liked to drop acid and take hallucinogens.  He later claimed that he got a lot of great ideas from this experience, and even recommended that every one should try it.

8 He was a music pirate in his teens.

Way before digital downloads, Steves Jobs and Wozniak would obsessively hunt down bootleg tapes of Bob Dylan’s performances.  Don’t worry, Steve Jobs would later make up for his brief stint with music piracy by revolutionizing the music industry with iTunes, a lifeline that record companies would latch onto during the height of digital music piracy.

9 He loathed the stylus.

You would think the iPhone came before the iPad, but Steve Jobs was already tinkering around with a tablet, except the iPhone’s conception and production finished ahead of the tablet.  One of the things that Jobs was adamant about in making both was abolishing the stylus, which he hated with a passion.  He was quoted to have said while waving his fingers, “God gave us ten styluses.” and “As soon as you have a stylus (with a device), you’re dead.”

10 He didn’t like baths.

As a young fruitarian, Steve Jobs believed that because the body was ingesting mostly fruits and organic stuff, this would result in a body odor that was pleasant, therefore, only one bath a week would be needed.  This would be one of his not so great ideas, because his colleagues would complain of his rank smell, despite his cleansing fruitarian diet.

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