Steve Wozniak needs little introduction to anybody who is remotely interested in computing or the evolution of Apple. Woz, as he is affectionately known, was one of the co-founders of the company with Steve Jobs and Woz’s great friend Ronald Wayne.
While Jobs was the public face and showman of the company, Wozniak was widely perceived as the geek-behind-the-scenes, a persona that was largely backed up by recent movies about the life of Steve Jobs.
But this representation hides many interesting and crazy things about Woz that the so-called public character represents. In many ways, Woz is a more interesting person than Jobs ever was.
At the end of last year, Wozniak was invited to the influential BDL tech event in Beirut to share his experience with a highly enthusiastic audience of 10,000 people during his first visit to Lebanon.
This writer was privileged to interview him in front of that crowd for an hour after an intense briefing backstage when Woz told revealed personal stories that, indeed, showed a deeper and more fascinating personality than is widely acknowledged.
The first story surrounds his business card; an object that is made of metal and looks as if it was 3D-printed from Star Trek’s USS Enterprise. While it look’s exactly what a successful geek’s should look like, the reality is somewhat different.
According to Woz, this card was born of necessity, not pomposity. After the events of 9/11 all jets, be they private or public, were not allowed to carry steel utensils; all knives, spoons and forks had to be made of plastic.
This fazed Woz who was very fond of an airborne steak, so he circumvented these cutlery restrictions by creating a metal business card that allowed him to cut his steak in the style to which he was accustomed.
Another better-known fact about Woz is that he may have tried very hard, but he’s not the world’s best dancer. In 2009 he accepted an invitation to appear on Dancing With The Stars to take part in four different dances including the Argentine tango.
Despite pulling a hamstring and fracturing his foot, Woz manfully carried on, but was eliminated early. When encouraged to replicate his moves on the stage in Beirut, Woz cited his membership of the ‘Reality TV Show Trade Union’ as a reason not to do so.
While Woz may not move particularly well in dancing circles, he certainly does when it comes to celebrities. Wozniak and his wife Janet are allegedly very good friends with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
More strikingly, Wozniak used to smuggle ‘coke’ into Oregon, US and Russia in the 1980s, an at-first stunning admission, until he clarified that he meant Coca-Cola, not any other substance or stimulant.
In those days, it was impossible to buy ring-pull cans of Coke in those two divergent places, so Woz used to stake up with cans so he could drink his favorite beverage when travelling there.
Woz is also an athlete; he is a big advocate of Segway polo, a globally recognised sport and one of the positive criteria that Google used to use to evaluate applicants when hiring people. Every year there is even a four-day tournament called the Woz Challenge Cup.
Not only did Woz put up with Steve Jobs, he managed to survive another difficult experience in 1981 when piloting a plane. After taking off from the Santa Cruz Skyway, he crashed on the runway and was seriously injured.
The mishap caused him to suffer head injuries and temporarily lose his short-term memory. It has been alleged that Woz said the computer games on the Apple II helped him to regain it, but his wife confirmed this was not the case; Woz ‘did it all by himself’.
While Woz is indeed a extraordinary person with an awesome life, there is, unfortunately, another story about Woz that he himself says is not true.
According to the IMDB movie site, Woz appeared as an extra in the seminal 1971 chase movie Vanishing Point as a hippy. As much as many would like this to be veritable, it is not so. Woz says this woz not woz.
Woz has also been married four times and continues to live as the star he undoubtedly is. Steve Jobs may have got the headlines, but like most things in life, it is the power behind the alleged throne that is more interesting.
Steve Wozniak, the so-called geek who really did inherit the earth, while being on a different planet of his invention, has always done it his way.
