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Steve Jobs Insult Response - Highest Quality

Jonathan Field · talk · Watch on YouTube

Tech pioneers & interviewsProduct & industrial design

What it is

A clean-audio clip from Apple's 1997 WWDC where Steve Jobs answers a hostile question from a developer about OpenDoc. He argues you must start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Quoted constantly as the canonical statement of product-first thinking over technology-first thinking, and as a model of handling a heckler.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2020, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “Really recommend watching the full thing if you have time, but also linking to a little excerpt from one of the best moments.”

    Jobs handles hostile questions gracefully and reframes positively.

    jkcorrea, 2020-09 · Strong recommendation · in “New Steve Jobs recordings from the '80s released”

  2. “Steve Job's response is brilliant here, frankly quite timeless and ultimately (in my view) apropos.”

    Jobs's brilliant, timeless answer on customer experience over tech.

    DieBruderBauer, 2022-11 · Strong recommendation · in “Oceanic+ on the Apple Watch Ultra and the perils of subscription based software”

  3. “You may want to watch [1] Steve Jobs Insult Response.”

    Shows Jobs's harshness toward questioner.

    ksec, 2024-01 · Recommendation · in “Mourning Google”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: steve jobs, wwdc 1997, customer experience, opendoc, product thinking

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