

In the early iChatAV days...Steve Jobs called me “fuckchop” - reubeneli
http://gklst.tumblr.com/post/24870582043/in-the-early-ichatav-days-one-of-the-many-things-steve
Announced on Geeklist - “In the early iChatAV days, one of the many things Steve Jobs called me was a “fuckchop”. When I got to iPod, I thought it would make a nice title.” - Andy Grignon
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wyclif
This post failed to answer the one question I had while reading it: _why_ did
Steve Jobs call him this?

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agrignon
Good questions - here ya go :

Why did I get called a fuckchop? Scott Forstall had these meetings with Steve
every Tuesday, where Scott and team gave updates on things Steve wanted to
know about. Sometimes these were fun, sometimes not. (imagine a small room
full of anxious people.. [execs, UI guys, engineers] getting a call from
steve's admin saying he was on his way. 'oh, and he's just coming back from
the dentist, not in a good mood') This day in particular started light, with
Steve laughing/incredulous about this insult he was called or had heard
"fuckchop", and wtf did that mean anyway. (this is the way back machine here,
so it's fuzzy) I was up to show what would become iChatAV, very early days.
That still didn't excuse a bad demo. We talked about a couple things, and then
I went to my office to get the party started. A few seconds in to the demo, my
mic went dead - I could hear/see them, they could see but not hear me. Trying
to debug during a demo is a rook move, but I did it anyway. He got agitated,
and said something to the effect of "I think I've figured it out... _you're_ a
fuckchop!". It was meant to be funny.. or at least that's I say when I cry
myself to sleep at night.

What was I doing wrong? Well, plenty I'm sure! Anyone who had any dealings
with Steve at any point eventually incurred his wrath. Just the way it was.
You didn't get to that point however by being an idiot (or, 'fuckchop'). Steve
always pushed the envelope, and that guaranteed you were going to fail at some
point. That's good! If you don't fail, you're not trying hard enough. However,
chalking up failure with a simple "oh well"... that's bad! He wanted you to
take failing seriously. Or maybe he was having a bad day. Either way, you got
the business.

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chapel
I work for Geekli.st and was honestly surprised to see some of the
achievements Andy Grignon was apart of. I honestly feel that is is people like
him, not well known, but an important part of creating some of the things we
love and use every day. Everyone hears about the big names, but it are the
people you don't hear about that make stuff happen.

I also have some invites if anyone is wanting to get into the beta. It will
work even if you have signed up and are waiting for beta.

<http://geekli.st/chapel/invite/80F1354E49>

~~~
stefanhoth
I'm impressed by his achievements, too and like the way Geeklist surfaces such
people.

But if you want to get into Geeklist better take my invite code, it's WAY
better <http://geekli.st/stefanhoth/invite/992C6CFAE8>

