His goal was to be vigilant against " the bozo explosion"…
““His goal was to be vigilant against " the bozo explosion" that leads to a company's being larded with second rate talent: For most things in life, the range between best and average is 30% or so. The best airplane flight, the best meal, they may be 30% better than your average one. What I saw with Woz was somebody who was fifty times better than the average engineer. He could have meetings in his head. The Mac team was an attempt to build a whole team like that, A players. People said they wouldn't get along, they'd hate working with each other. But I realized that A players like to work with A players, they just didn't like working with C players. At Pixar, it was a whole company of A players. When I got back to Apple, that's what I decided to try to do. You need to have a collaborative hiring process. When we hire someone, even if they're going to be in marketing, I will have them talk to the design folks and the engineers. My role model was J. Robert Oppenheimer. I read about the type of people he sought for the atom bomb project. I wasn't nearly as good as he was, but that's what I aspired to do.””
About This Quote
This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.
Excellence comes from assembling top talent who thrive together; mediocrity hampers progress.
In simple terms: Hire the best and let them collaborate.
Key Takeaway
Prioritize A‑players in teams.
Themes
excellence
teamwork
hiring
leadership
Mood
inspirational
strategic
Type
practical
motivational
When to use this quote
- building startups
- recruiting senior staff
- leading tech teams
- performance reviews
Key Concepts
Talent clustering
collaborative culture
Questions to Reflect On
- How can you nurture A‑player traits in existing staff?
- What risks arise from a homogeneous high‑performer group?
A Different Perspective
Finding enough A‑players may be unrealistic for many firms.