Inc. Magazine
Steve Jobs wanted the first Macintosh to be simple and user-friendly, even without a manual. He hired a high schooler to write a clear, approachable guide. Today, AI can help you achieve the same simplicity in writing, making complex ideas easy to understand, just as Jobs envisioned with his minimalist approach.
Steve Jobs Hired a High-Schooler to Write the First Mac Guide. Here’s How You Can Use AI to Follow His Example
Author: Carmine Gallo
Steve Jobs introduced the first Macintosh in 1984 as a computer for ordinary people who wanted something simple and easy to use. Today, you can use artificial intelligence to accomplish just what Jobs was striving for back then.
Jobs didn’t want the first Mac to have an owner’s manual because he thought it was ready to use out of the box. Jobs’s team talked him out of it, so he gave Jay Elliott, a former IBM executive who’d just joined Apple, an assignment.
“He turned to me in the meeting and said, ‘Jay, go to a high school and find a 12th-grader to write the manual,’” Elliott told me during an interview for my book, The Bezos Blueprint.
Elliott put out a notice to local schools that Apple was looking for a good writer. They found a student and invited him to play with the computer and help write the manual.
The original Macintosh came with a thin user guide with a simple message. In the first sentence alone, people knew they’d have a less intimidating and more approachable experience than traditional computers offered at the time.
The first lines of the guide read:
You’re about to learn a new way to use a computer. If this is your first experience with a computer, you’re starting at a great time. If you’ve used “traditional” computers, you’ll appreciate the Macintosh difference. No more guessing what the computer wants. No more memorizing long commands with names only a programmer could love. With Macintosh, you’re in charge.
“Part of Steve’s genius was that he looked for the right people who could help you make things simple,” Elliot said.
Looking for the right people is still crucial, but today we also have the right tools. Those very same computers give us access to AI that, in a full-circle moment, can help us write the way Apple did in those early days of the Macintosh.
Here are three steps you can take to use AI platforms for writing simply, like Steve Jobs preferred.
1. Analyze for readability
Write material as you usually would. Then ask your favorite AI platform to analyze it for “readability.”
I tested the text from the original Mac manual with three different platforms: ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Anthropic’s Claude. Each returned similar results, assessing the Mac manual’s readability at the 8th to 9th grade level.
2. Strive to get your message to an 8th-grade reading level.
This step requires a little courage. When you try to bring down the reading level to 8th or 9th grade, you’re not “dumbing down” the material. You’re making it accessible to a broad audience.
Eighth-grade level means:
- Short sentences and simple words that reduce cognitive load, making it easier for anyone to quickly understand the message.
- Short, straightforward sentences that are easier to recall.
- Clarity and conciseness, which reduces the risk of confusion.
- Words and phrases that are familiar to the audience.
3. Test out elevated language.
Once you know how simple sounds, elevate the language to see the difference. I prompted all three AI tools to write the Mac manual for “college age” and “PhD level” readers.
It began:
An Introduction to Macintosh Computing Paradigms: You are on the cusp of engaging with a revolutionary computational interface. For neophytes in the realm of digital technology, this marks an auspicious entry point. Conversely, those well-versed in conventional computing architectures will undoubtedly appreciate the paradigm shift embodied by the Macintosh ecosystem.
College-age reading level means:
- Complex sentences with embedded clauses.
- Abstract framing (“computational interface”).
- Longer sentences (more than 20 words in some cases).
- Technical terms and jargon (“paradigm shift” might make you feel smart, but you’re not impressing anyone)
I can’t imagine anyone preferring the elevated version over the original. “You’re about to learn a new way to use a computer” speaks to everyone.
Testing your material for higher reading levels is a good exercise because learning what not to do will make you a better writer. You can always make your message more complicated—but start from a simple foundation. Note that according to ChatGPT, this article “aligns well with an 8th- to 9th-grade reading level.”
When I wrote the first book on Jobs and his presentation skills back in 2009, I showed readers how his simple, minimalist approach to computer design extended to his now-famous presentations. One of my favorite Jobs quotes is: “Simple is harder than complex, but when you make the complex simple, you can move mountains.”
In this case, moving mountains means persuading people to your way of thinking. Pitch your ideas simply and concisely. That’s the Steve Jobs way.
Credits: TCA, LLC.