{"id":46278,"date":"2025-01-01T15:52:30","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T20:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=46278"},"modified":"2025-03-18T14:23:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T18:23:22","slug":"scott-knaster-occasionally-misses-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/01\/scott-knaster-occasionally-misses-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Knaster Occasionally Misses Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scott Knaster<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I worked in Silicon Valley for many years with brilliant people at amazing companies that changed the world. A lot of my stories are about those people and places. But some of them are about something unexpected I saw on a walk around my neighborhood. Stuff like that.<\/p>

I tell stories face to face, over a meal, in online posts, and on stage. And now I’m trying this new way! Here I’ve written a bunch of stories in this Google Doc, like a little book. I’ve told some of them before and refreshed them a bit for this book. Others are brand new and I’m telling them here for the first time.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Steve entered the little interview room and sat down 3 feet away from me across a tiny round table. He leaned forward and said: “Are you the best technical writer in the world?”<\/p>

I was stunned into silence for a few seconds, as I tried to figure what to say. And then, like an idiot, I gave a direct, thoughtful answer. “No. The best technical writer in the world is my friend Caroline Rose, and she already works here at NeXT.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Via Dave Mark<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I’ve known my buddy Scott Knaster for a VERY long time. He and I wrote some of the earliest Apple developer books, became fast friends in that surprisingly small universe.<\/p>

Scott just released a Google doc with a draft of his memoirs. Scott is a very entertaining writer, and the doc is chock full of pictures and wonderful anecdotes.<\/p>

If you are a techie of any stripe, this is worth your time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Some of his excellent books are How to Write Macintosh Software<\/a> (PDF<\/a>) and Macintosh Programming Secrets<\/a> (PDF<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n