Stephen Wolfram Remembers Steve Jobs

One of the many people whose lives have been touched by Steve Jobs, Stephen Wolfram remembers his first meeting with the man as well as key episodes in their relationship over the years.

Stephen Wolfram is a distinguished scientist, inventor, author, and business leader.

He is the creator of Mathematica and of Wolfram|Alpha - a computational knowledge engine, and he is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. He also wrote a book called A New Kind of Science.

“Our first meeting was classic Steve Jobs,” Wolfram writes for The Guardian. “He explained that he expected that what he was doing would change the world and, by the way, make a lot of money too.”

“And he told me he was picking all sorts of bold new hardware and software technologies for his computer and he wanted one of them to be Mathematica,” he says.

“Steve took a great interest in the development of Mathematica; in fact, it was he who suggested the name,” Wolfram reveals.

The scientist remembers that it was one particular thing he admired about Jobs the most - his clarity of thought.

Like many scientists and inventors who’ve met the visionary, Wolfram remarks: “Time and again, he would take a complex situation, understand its essence and use that understanding to make a bold and unexpected move.”

But Jobs wasn’t all work and no fun (though it certainly seems that way from the various reports that describe the man). “There was a human side to him as well,” writes  the inventor.

“I remember visiting him once in his swanky offices in Redwood City. We were talking about technology strategy, when suddenly he apologised for being distracted. He said he was going out that night on a date with a woman he'd met the day before and suddenly all his confidence as a technologist and businessman melted away. Happily, the date worked out and the woman he met became his wife for the rest of his life,” says Wolfram.

He recalls Jobs’ guidance, highlighting one famous remark coming from the tech genius: “…like when I asked him for a back-cover quote for my book A New Kind of Science that I'd spent a decade writing and he responded: ‘Isaac Newton didn't have back-cover quotes; why should you?’”

“And just the day before Steve died came the announcement of the iPhone 4S, and Siri, which uses our Wolfram|Alpha knowledge engine. The timing was so tragic. But it was a quintessential Steve Jobs move,” Wolfram says.