Steve Jobs and Dennis Ritchie's Guide to Success

Within four days the world lost two of the greatest technology pioneers. Apple’s CEO and founder, Steve  Jobs and Dennis Ritchie, an American computer scientist  and co-creator of the programming language C and operating systems such as Multics and Unix. Jobs’ and Ritchie’s characters couldn’t be more different. Jobs was known to be fiery and ruthless whereas Ritchie was humble and gentle. Catherine finds that despite being like chalk and cheese, they were both innovators who found a code to success...

Steve Jobs and Dennis Ritchie’s Code to Success 

1.   Reverse a trend. Ritchie and Jobs went against the grain and created something unexpected and new. They say that Jobs knew what customers wanted before they wanted it. Ritchie and his partner Kenneth Thompson felt that operating systems were too complex and they “attempted to reverse the trend” with the UNIX operating system.

2.   Make technology simple. The UNIX operating system was created to make computing as simple as possible and the vision for C was to create a programming language at a higher level of abstraction that people would understand and use. In the same breath, Apple’s intuitive, fuss-free iPods are cited as being one of the greatest gadgets of all time.

3.  Create a community. Ritchie explains that UNIX was created not just to be a good programming environment in which to do programming but a system around which a community or a fellowship could form. He said “close communication” was of key importance. Apple on the other hand created devices and a brand so iconic that they created a cult following so loyal they would rather go without than not have the little munched apple stamp on their phone or computer. The world boils down to a defined matrix of two hemispheres, two genders, and whether you’re a part of the Apple movement or not.

4.    Make it easy on the eye. UNIX was created to have “graceful facilities for decomposing complex computer tasks into simple subtasks”. Now, who’s to argue that Apple’s operating system isn’t graceful and their apps decompose life’s complex tasks into a small series of manageable subtasks.  

5.    Let the technology take centre stage. Their success wasn’t about them; it was about what they created. Jobs and Ritchie were both private men. One of Ritchie’s colleagues says of him, "I worked across the hall from him for more than 20 years, and yet I feel like don’t knew him all that well.” Steve Jobs on the other hand was the same but his insistence on leading a private life only fuelled the cult of personality that surrounded him.