1장
The Genius Behind the Apple: How a Shy Engineer Changed Computing Forever
When Steve Wozniak first typed a character on a keyboard and saw it appear on his own computer screen in 1975, he knew he had created something revolutionary. This wasn't just another engineering project-it was the moment personal computing became truly personal. While Steve Jobs would later become the face of Apple, it was Wozniak's technical brilliance that made their vision possible. Named by TIME magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People of the Century," Wozniak's inventions fundamentally changed how we interact with technology. His memoir reveals not just the birth of Apple, but the mind of an engineer who approached problems differently than anyone before him. What's particularly fascinating is how Wozniak's creation emerged not from corporate R&D but from a passionate hobbyist who simply wanted to impress his friends at the Homebrew Computer Club. As Bill Gates once noted, "Steve Wozniak's contributions to computing were so fundamental that they influenced everything that came after."
2장
The Making of an Engineer: A Father's Influence
Growing up in 1950s Northern California during the Cold War, I couldn't ask my father about his work at Lockheed's missile program due to security clearances. But what he could share changed my life: a deep appreciation for extreme honesty and the fascinating world of electronics. Before I turned four, he began taking me to his workplace on weekends, showing me resistors, diodes, and oscilloscopes. Watching him work, I developed an unshakable belief that engineers must be the smartest people in the world.
By fourth grade, I understood the fundamental building blocks of digital devices: resistors, transistors, and logic gates. My father didn't just teach me to memorize connections-he made sure I understood how electrons actually flowed through circuits. He instilled in me the belief that engineering was the highest calling because engineers change the world.
In our neighborhood, everyone repaired their own electronics. I'd watch people testing vacuum tubes at grocery stores, wondering if someone could build tubes that wouldn't burn out, or televisions that didn't need tubes at all. This technical curiosity was always balanced with a human side-I told my dad at age ten that I wanted to be both an engineer like him and a fifth-grade teacher.
My childhood hero wasn't a sports star or musician, but Tom Swift Jr., a fictional teenage scientist-engineer who built spaceships and submarines to solve global crises. Reading those books by streetlight after my 9pm bedtime, I dreamed of creating inventions that would help people just like Tom did.
My first transformative project was a crystal radio I built with my dad when I was six. Taking a penny, scraping it, attaching a wire and earphones, we picked up actual voices through this simple device. That moment accelerated me beyond other kids my age-when I told classmates about my crystal radio, no one understood what I was talking about, giving me my first taste of being technologically ahead. This pattern of creating things others didn't understand would repeat throughout my life.
Throughout elementary school, I built project after electronic project with my dad. These experiences weren't just about learning technology-they were about developing a mindset that would eventually lead me to create the first personal computer that anyone could use.
3장
The Science Fair Years: Learning Through Creation
My science fair projects were crucial stepping stones in my development as an engineer. In junior high, I built an elaborate atom display showing electron orbits for all 92 natural elements, with lights that would illuminate when selecting specific elements. The project required understanding diodes to prevent feedback issues-a practical application of the electronics knowledge my father had been teaching me.
For another fair, I created a tic-tac-toe machine based on logic that would never lose, though it unfortunately "blew up" before the competition. My proudest achievement was the Adder/Subtractor, essentially a primitive computer that could perform binary addition and subtraction using over 100 transistors and 200 diodes. Though I felt cheated at the Bay Area Science Fair when lesser projects won higher awards, the Air Force recognized my work with their top electronics award.
These projects taught me patience and the critical engineering principle of learning one step at a time-a philosophy that would later prove essential in creating the first personal computer. I was developing a methodical approach to problem-solving that would serve me throughout my career.
While I excelled with electronics, my social life took a dramatic turn in sixth grade. Despite being popular and athletic throughout elementary school, I suddenly became painfully shy as other kids began socializing in ways I couldn't relate to. This social awkwardness persisted through junior high and high school, where I compensated by pulling elaborate pranks. I built electronic sirens to disrupt driver's education and created a ticking "bomb" metronome as a joke for a classmate's locker-a prank that backfired when the police were called.
My metronome prank landed me in juvenile hall for a night after the principal found the device and ran to the football field to dismantle it. I couldn't help laughing when they described how the principal clutched it to his chest, as I'd rigged it to tick faster when the locker opened. Even in juvenile detention, I stayed true to my electronics nature, showing the other inmates how to remove wires from ceiling fans to shock guards.
Years later, I found my tribe at the Homebrew Computer Club, where fellow nerds shared my dream of building affordable computers. Though initially too shy to speak during meetings, I eventually gained confidence by showing off computers I'd built, including what would become the Apple I. Throughout my life, I used my electronics skills as my primary way to communicate and connect with others when my shyness made normal socializing difficult.
4장
Finding My Path: From College Pranks to Computer Design
My high school electronics teacher, Mr. McCollum, transformed my education. A former military man who related well to students, he taught an intensive, logically structured electronics course with equipment better than most colleges had. He recognized my advanced skills and arranged for me to work at Sylvania on Fridays, where I encountered my first programmable computer. This experience changed everything for me, as I wrote my first program-a Knight's Tour chess algorithm-and learned that raw computing speed wasn't always enough to solve complex problems.
As high school graduation approached, I visited several colleges with friends, eventually choosing the University of Colorado at Boulder. My freshman year there was incredible-my first taste of independence. I made friends quickly and spent countless nights playing cards, especially bridge, which we taught ourselves. The freedom to choose my own schedule, friends, and activities made this the best year of my life.
During college, I created one of my favorite projects ever-the TV Jammer. Based on a circuit I'd seen from a friend's father, I built a tiny device using parts from Radio Shack that could jam television signals. I constructed it on a 9-volt battery case with a small antenna I could hide up my sleeve. After testing it successfully on a friend's TV, I took it to the main lounge where everyone watched TV. With my Christian friend Randy's help, we created an elaborate prank where he would hit the fuzzy TV and I'd secretly make the picture clear again.
Over weeks, we conditioned everyone to believe physical actions fixed the TV-hitting it, adjusting knobs, touching the screen, even standing in specific positions. One engineering student declared it was a "grounding effect" when the picture worked only with his hand on the screen and foot on a chair. The prank went too far when students violently attacked the TV during the Kentucky Derby broadcast after I jammed it during the final stretch.
I took the TV jamming concept further in my computer class, building an even smaller TV Jammer inside a Magic Marker. When I activated it during class, the teaching assistants immediately suspected someone had a transmitter but couldn't identify me. When a student near the worst-jammed TV left early, I made that TV's picture perfect as he walked out, causing a TA to declare "There he goes"-successfully framing someone else for my prank.
I got into real trouble that year by writing mathematical programs that generated mountains of printouts in my dorm room. I'd unknowingly run five times over the class's annual computer budget. Facing thousands in potential charges and probation for computer abuse, I decided not to return to Colorado and instead enrolled at De Anza Community College.
5장
The Phone Phreaking Days: Digital Rebellion
In 1971, just before heading to Berkeley for my third year of college, I discovered an Esquire magazine article called "Secrets of the Little Blue Box." It described "phone phreaks"-technical kids who had figured out how to make free calls by whistling specific tones into phone handsets. The article explained how they could manipulate the Bell phone system by seizing lines with certain tones, particularly a 2,600 Hz tone (a high E note), then controlling the phone network to dial any number worldwide.
After reading the article, I immediately called Steve Jobs, who was about to start twelfth grade. We were both incredibly excited by the possibility that regular people could understand and control the phone system. We drove to the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) library where I'd often "snuck in" on Sundays (though the doors were always open). There we searched for phone manuals until I found a blue CCITT Handbook that confirmed everything-a "1" was indeed 700 Hz and 900 Hz tones together, just as the article claimed. We were practically shaking with excitement, realizing we could build our own Blue Box.
That evening, I bought parts from Sunnyvale Electronics and soldered together two tone generators at Steve's house. Using his frequency counter, we recorded tones for each digit on a cassette recorder. We tried calling a free 555 information number, playing the 2,600 Hz tone to seize the line, then playing our recorded number tones-but it failed. The frequencies wavered too much; I couldn't make them accurate enough with the equipment we had.
At Berkeley, I gained a reputation as the dorm's "phone phreak" by sharing these stories. I explored our dorm and found an unlocked telephone wire access box, allowing me to tap into any phone line on the eight floors. I also discovered the "Black Box" from Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book and a detailed Ramparts magazine article. Unlike the Blue Box that let you make free calls, the Black Box made incoming calls free.
I decided to create a digital Blue Box-something I'd never seen or heard of anyone else doing. With my extensive circuit design experience from years of designing computers on paper, I created what remains the design I'm proudest of in my entire career. The circuit ingeniously used chips in a way that allowed them to do three jobs simultaneously instead of two. After a couple months of work, I built it in a day. Steve and I tested it at his house, successfully calling Orange County, California. We immediately drove to my Berkeley dorm, having promised our parents we'd never make illegal calls from home. I wanted to use the phone system to explore its flaws, not to steal from the phone company.
When Steve Jobs discovered Captain Crunch (John Draper) had done a radio interview, we desperately tried to contact him. We called KKUP in Cupertino where he worked, and within minutes, Captain Crunch himself called us back! When he arrived at my Berkeley dorm room, I was shocked-instead of the suave character I'd imagined, he was disheveled, missing teeth, and hadn't showered in weeks. Despite his appearance, he introduced himself majestically: "I am he." He showed us how to make international calls and impressed us with his "automatic" Blue Box that used sliding switches to pre-program phone numbers.
6장
The Birth of Apple: From Hobby to Revolution
The computer revolution as I see it started at the very first meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club in March 1975. This gathering of geeky engineers in Gordon French's garage inspired me to design what would later become the Apple I.
That first meeting changed everything for me. Despite feeling nervous and out of place among thirty people discussing microprocessors like the Intel 8080 that I knew nothing about, I attended and signed in writing "I have very little free time." Someone passed out technical specifications for an 8008 microprocessor, and examining it at home that night sparked an epiphany-it had the same instruction set as the minicomputers I'd designed on paper in high school. I realized the Altair everyone was excited about was essentially the same as my Cream Soda Computer from five years earlier, just with a microprocessor on a single chip instead of several.
In that moment, my vision for a personal computer crystallized. I could build my own affordable computer rather than spending $400 on an Altair. That very night I began sketching what would become the Apple I-a computer combining my terminal design with a microprocessor in the same case, eliminating the complicated front panel of switches and lights that characterized all previous computers.
I designed the Apple I to show Homebrew members that a real, affordable computer could be built with just a few chips. I wanted to give the schematics away for free, helping others build computers with keyboards and TV screens instead of airplane cockpit-style panels. After deciding on the Motorola 6800 processor, I later switched to the MOS Technologies 6502 which I purchased for just $20 at the WESCON show in San Francisco.
My design included a small "monitor" program stored in ROM that would let the computer boot up automatically and respond to keyboard input-something I'd learned from HP calculators. This innovation meant programs could be loaded in under a minute instead of the half hour required with an Altair. I constructed the computer in my HP cubicle during late nights, using sockets for all chips so they could be easily replaced if they failed.
When I typed a few keys and saw letters appear on screen, I was ecstatic! That Sunday, June 29, 1975, was pivotal-the first time in history anyone had typed a character on a keyboard and seen it show up on their own computer's screen right in front of them.
After completing my computer, I began showing it at every Homebrew Computer Club meeting. Though too shy to announce my creation during the main meetings, I would set up afterward and answer questions. I was immensely proud of my thirty-chip design-shockingly minimal compared to competitors-and freely distributed about a hundred copies of my complete design schematics to anyone interested.
By Thanksgiving 1975, Steve Jobs had attended several Homebrew meetings with me and made an observation: members were taking my schematics but lacked the time or ability to build the computers themselves. He suggested we build and sell printed circuit boards for $40 (costing us $20), allowing people to simply solder their chips onto ready-made boards.
I was skeptical we could recover our $1,000 investment, doubting we'd find fifty buyers among Homebrew's membership. But Steve's argument was compelling: "Well, even if we lose our money, we'll have a company. For once in our lives, we'll have a company." The idea of two best friends starting a business together was too exciting to resist.
7장
The Apple II: Engineering a Revolution
By early 1976, we had sold about 150 Apple I computers through the Byte Shop and other small stores across California. But our competitor Processor Technology was reportedly selling over 1,000 SOL-20 computers monthly. I wasn't impressed with their design-the SOL had adopted a keyboard after seeing my Apple I at Homebrew. Steve and I knew we could match their sales if we had funding to build our new prototype, the Apple II, which was ten times better than the Apple I.
The Apple II represented a complete redesign rather than an incremental improvement. While I'd built the Apple I with the capability to add color, I wanted to design a fresh computer with color integrated from the ground up for efficiency and elegance. I also redesigned the memory architecture, combining all memory into one bank of DRAM that could be accessed by both the microprocessor and display circuitry. This reduced the chip count by half compared to the Apple I while significantly increasing speed.
The Apple II made history with color, high-resolution graphics, sound, game paddle support, and built-in BASIC in ROM. It was the first computer that non-geeks could use straight out of the box-features that competitors would take years to match.
In spring 1976, Steve and I had our first argument over the Apple II's design. He wanted only two slots-one for a printer and one for a modem-to keep the machine smaller and cheaper. I insisted on eight slots, believing people would want to expand their computers in ways we couldn't yet imagine.
Though I'm usually easy to get along with, I stood firm: "If that's what you want, go get yourself another computer." I knew reducing the slots wouldn't save a single chip, and I was convinced users like me would eventually create new add-ons for any computer. I won that argument, and the Apple II was designed the way I wanted it. Years later, Apple designed the Apple III with fewer slots, which was a disaster.
After my success with the Apple II design, Mike Markkula pushed for floppy disk support after growing frustrated with how long it took to load his checkbook program. Though I had never personally used floppy disks before, I knew they existed in 8-inch format for expensive minicomputers. With only two weeks before the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I designed an elegant floppy controller that could read and write data at 100,000 bits per second-100 times faster than cassette tapes. I created a minimal two-chip design with a custom state machine that could handle the microsecond-level timing required, and even developed an acceleration/deceleration system for the read/write head that made it move with a smooth "whoosh" instead of clicking between tracks.
The floppy disk made the Apple II fast, but it was VisiCalc that made it powerful. Created by Bob Frankston and Dan Bricklin in Boston working with Mike Markkula, VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program for personal computers, designed for business forecasting and "what-if" scenarios. Only the Apple II had enough RAM to run it, along with our graphics capabilities and two-dimensional display. When VisiCalc was released on floppy disk, our business exploded as the market shifted from hobbyists to businesspeople who became 90% of our customers.
8장
The IPO and Beyond: From Garage to Fortune 500
In December 1980, Apple went public on the NASDAQ exchange. It was the most successful IPO up to that time, making front-page news everywhere. Suddenly we were legendary and wealthy beyond imagination. Mike Markulla had been right-we really were becoming a Fortune 500 company in just five years. By 1981, we were competing directly with IBM's first personal computer.
Just before Apple went public, I created what I called the Woz Plan. While executives and founders had plenty of stock, many regular employees didn't. I decided to sell my own stock at just $5 per share to employees who deserved it-allowing engineers and marketing people to buy 2,000 shares each. This was unheard of at the time. I also gave stock worth about a million dollars to early employees like Randy Wiggington, Chris Espinoza, Dan Kottke, and Bill Fernandez who hadn't received any. Steve Jobs apparently thought I was weak for doing this, but it allowed me to buy a beautiful house in the Santa Cruz Mountains for myself and Alice.
The Apple III was a disaster-completely unlike the reliable Apple II. It had serious hardware problems, frequently crashing or failing to boot at all. Nearly every unit was returned. The fundamental problem was that it wasn't developed by engineers but by committee and marketing executives. They wanted to position it as a business computer while relegating the Apple II to "home hobby" status, despite the Apple II being our bestseller. Bizarrely, they even added chips to disable key Apple II features when the Apple III ran in Apple II mode. Despite fixing reliability issues later, the machine's reputation was ruined. Yet from 1980-1983, Apple poured almost all resources into the failing Apple III while the Apple II-which would become the first computer to sell a million units-carried the entire company financially without even being advertised.
After the US Festivals and completing my Berkeley degree, I returned to Apple as an engineer, not wanting management responsibilities. However, my role had changed significantly-I was constantly pulled away by media requests, speaking engagements, and philanthropic projects. While I could still develop architectural concepts to improve processor speed, I relied on other engineers for detailed design work. I joined the Apple II division, where many engineers from the discontinued Apple III project had been reassigned. I particularly loved the Apple IIc computer being developed below me-a laptop-sized machine that became my favorite Apple product ever.
9장
Woz's Rules: Wisdom for the Next Generation
At fifty-five, I've finally decided to write my memoir to correct the many inaccuracies about me in books about Apple's history. Common errors include claims that I dropped out of college (I didn't), was expelled from University of Colorado (I wasn't), was a high school classmate of Steve Jobs (we were years apart), and that we engineered the first computers together (I did them alone). Even my departure from Apple to start CL 9 was misreported by the Wall Street Journal as me leaving Apple disgruntled-when in fact I'm technically still an Apple employee with an ID card and salary. I also wrote this book to advise young inventors who feel outside the norm and want to change the world.
The first rule for inventors is to believe in yourself without wavering. Most people think in black-and-white terms, following popular opinion and unable to imagine revolutionary new ideas. Don't let these people discourage you-they're simply reflecting cultural prejudices against the spirit of invention. The world isn't black and white but grayscale. As an inventor, you must see this grayscale, remain open, and forget everything you've heard. Approach problems with scientific objectivity rather than rushing to conclusions and then searching for material to support your position. Engineers have an easier time accepting this grayscale nature of the world because they already live in it, having hunches about what can be before it exists.
Most inventors and engineers are shy and live in their heads-they're almost like artists. In fact, the very best engineers are artists, and artists work best alone, outside corporate environments where they can control an invention's design. Nothing revolutionary has ever been invented by committee. Engineers strive for perfection, building small components into larger ones with elegance and beauty. If you're that rare engineer who's both inventor and artist, work alone. In corporate environments, there's little freedom to turn clever ideas into revolutionary products. When working as your own boss, inventions become like children you love and want to support, giving you huge motivation to create the best possible work with passion that could never exist for someone else's assignment.
Predicting the future is difficult, even for those guiding computer development. At Apple in the 1970s and 1980s, we could only reliably see a year or two ahead. The exception came around 1980 when we toured Xerox PARC and saw the first graphical user interface with windows and a mouse. I instantly knew it was the future-a one-way door you could never turn back from. It meant non-technical people could do powerful things without learning complicated commands. Years later, Apple designed the Lisa and Macintosh around this concept, followed by Microsoft Windows. When you see the future like that, you know it immediately. Trust your instincts and leap at the chance to get involved.
In the mid-1990s, Apple appeared to be in trouble, with media reports creating a feedback loop of fear. When Gil Amelio became CEO and bought NeXT's operating system for $400 million, Steve Jobs returned-initially as an advisor. Jobs provided exactly what Apple needed: marketing leadership and charisma to restore customer loyalty. The products credited with saving Apple-colorful iMacs and iPods-were already in development under designer Jonathan Ive, but Jobs' presentation skills made them seem revolutionary. The iPod proved perfectly designed with its built-in disk drive and iTunes software that treated your computer as the center of your music library. Unlike other MP3 players, the iPod worked intuitively with Apple's iTunes software, exemplifying Apple's strength in making both hardware and software that work seamlessly together-exactly in line with Apple's early values of excellence in product design and creating an emotional feeling of fun.
