Thought for Food

Even when he’s not even trying, Steve Jobs kicks everyone’s asses

From a “Marketplace” interview with the author of The Pixar Touch.  Brief backstory: Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas when it was a computer graphics hardware subsidiary of LucasFilms.

Ryssdal: So how did it come to pass that this really lousy computer company turns into a movie company?

Price: Well, they had this guy named John Lasseter working out of a hallway making short animated films to promote the company’s products. The idea was that if you were a tech guy who was in the market for graphics hardware, you’d see one of John Lasseter’s shorts at an industry conference and you’d think, “Oh, I can do this kind of thing with the Pixar Image Computer; this is really great stuff.” And so they never actually meant to make any money off of the stuff he was doing, but he was putting out “Luxo Jr.” and “Tin Toy” and “Red’s Dream” and that got the attention of Disney and that was really their entry into doing feature animation.

Yes, this post’s for you, Matt.