There are big changes coming in software development — and Jobs, of all people, is trying to lead the way. This time the Holy Grail is object-oriented programming; some have compared the effect it will have on the production of software to the effect the industrial revolution had on manufactured goods. "In my 20 years in this industry, I have never seen a revolution as profound as this," says Jobs, with characteristic understatement. "You can build software literally five to 10 times faster, and that software is much more reliable, much easier to maintain and much more powerful."
Of course, this being Silicon Valley, there is always a new revolution to hype. And to hear it coming from Jobs — Mr. Revolution himself — is bound to raise some eyebrows. "Steve is a little like the boy who cried wolf," says Robert Cringely, a columnist at Info World, a PC industry newsweekly. "He has cried revolution one too many times. People still listen to him, but now they're more skeptical." And even if object-oriented software does take off, Jobs may very well end up a minor figure rather than the flag-waving leader of the pack he clearly sees himself as.
Realtime in 2009, or Object Oriented in 1994, whatever it was -- it was hot. And the tech press needed its talking points.
Luckily Jobs kept going, pushing through whatever the prevailing fad of the day. He kept building and pushing on technology. To create the bicycle for the mind.
To read a blast from 15 years ago makes you realize that over even a decade you can get branded a messiah, a genius, and a has-been all in the blink of an eye. But to make it out on the other side, redeem yourself, and to hit a home run even bigger than your first, you'll need to believe in yourself when nobody else does.
As an aside, my favorite quote here is: "People say sometimes, 'You work in the fastest-moving industry in the world.' I don't feel that way. I think I work in one of the slowest. It seems to take forever to get anything done."
Man, is that ever true, even a decade and a half and an Internet revolution later.