Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing
, Biography, 1993
An early NeXT story that puts ambitious product choices beside customers’ existing investments in technology and know-how.
About the book
Published in 1993, this critical business biography follows Jobs after leaving Apple as NeXT spends heavily on design, manufacturing, and higher-education sales, then pivots toward software. It is a close study of how a gifted founder can repeat management and market mistakes.
Reading perspective
Stross follows Jobs from his departure from Apple through NeXT’s launch, funding, product delays, and eventual exit from computer manufacturing. The account is sharply critical; a contemporary reviewer argued that its apparent antipathy toward Jobs sometimes weakened the narrative’s tension.
What you’ll learn
Account for what customers already have
A new system is not evaluated in isolation. Existing machines, software, and the time people have spent learning them can make a change harder to adopt, even when the newcomer offers different capabilities.
Treat form as a production choice
The insistence on a perfectly cubical case shows how a visual requirement can shape manufacturing: a housing that was harder to release from its mold added tooling expense. Design preferences can therefore carry practical production consequences.
Editorial sources
Book guidance draws on these sources; Founders evidence determines the ranking.
Why it ranks here
Reading rank #60. First covered in Episode #77. 21 scored evidence components. 9 Founders episodes. Coverage Score 188. Praise on record: At the close, David says he cannot recommend the paired study enough, calls NeXT's failure important to study, and directs listeners to purchase links for both this book and Return to the Little Kingdom.
Explore evidence and score breakdownOpen timeline
How the Coverage Score works
Reviewed Founders evidence adds points: a dedicated episode, a qualifying reread, explicit praise, or a reference in a later episode. Repeats of the same kind in one independently recorded discussion count once, including reviewed reused passages. Genuinely new qualifying discussion adds points. The score measures coverage, not quality.
Sources: official Founders episodes — #77, #79, #145, #204, #214, #235, #249, #265, #345
The largest contribution to this Coverage Score is Cross-episode reference · Secondary recommendation (49 points).
Original Founders sources
- Steve Jobs (The NeXT Years) — The host built this episode around Randall Stross's account of Steve Jobs's NeXT years, using it as the primary source for the discussion.
- Charlie Munger (The Complete Investor) — David names Randall Stross's The NeXT Big Thing and points back to the prior podcast.
- William Randolph Hearst — Host references Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing to compare Hearst's unconstrained spending to Steve Jobs's financial indiscipline at NeXT.
- Steve Jobs (Inside Steve's Brain) — David identifies the NeXT book through its exact title and Founders #77 while placing it in his Steve Jobs reading order.
- Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography — David references this book, previously covered in full at Founders No. 77.
- Steve Jobs (The Pixar Story) — Notes the book was covered on Founders episode 77, about Steve Jobs's NeXT years.