---
tags: quotes
date-published: 2013-12-03T00:00:00Z
resource: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3497-you-know-one-of-the-things-that-really-hurt
title: Sculley's Disease
uuid: 117af064-eea6-4eff-aaa8-c18c35d97ad3
permalink: /posts/sculleys-disease.html
og-image: /images/selfies/3.jpg
type: post
---
<p style='display:none'></p>

Just found this quote by Steve Jobs on 37signals’ blog. It's taken from
[The Lost Interview](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4L26Jp_AT4&list=TLMnOz1ppz1Sw)
that was conducted shortly after Steve left Apple and founded NeXT. The question
was: “What's important to you in the development of a product?”

> You know, one of the things that really hurt Apple was after I left John
> Sculley got a very serious disease. It’s the disease of thinking that
> a really great idea is 90% of the work. And if you just tell all these other
> people “here’s this great idea,” then of course they can go off and make it
> happen.
>
> And the problem with that is that there’s just a tremendous amount of
> craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product. And as you
> evolve that great idea, it changes and grows. It never comes out like it
> starts because you learn a lot more as you get into the subtleties of
> it. And you also find there are tremendous tradeoffs that you have to
> make. There are just certain things you can’t make electrons do. There
> are certain things you can’t make plastic do. Or glass do. Or factories
> do. Or robots do.
>
> Designing a product is keeping five thousand things in your brain
> and fitting them all together in new and different ways to get what
> you want. And every day you discover something new that is a new
> problem or a new opportunity to fit these things together a little
> differently.
>
> And it’s that process that is the magic.
> <cite>Steve Jobs</cite>
