Atari founder Bushnell: Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs

If the name Nolan Bushnell doesn't ring a bell with you, perhaps it should. Bushnell is a tech veteran who started up Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, and he hired 19 year-old, sandal wearing Steve Jobs back in 1974 as a developer making $5 an hour. His sense of current Apple CEO Tim Cook is that he is the guy you would want to keep things steady. "But I just feel like somebody needs to stick a little bit of dynamite under his left cheek," Bushnell says. Saturday will be the second anniversary of Jobs' death after the Apple co-founder and CEO finally succumbed to Pancreatic Cancer.


Bushnell has a new book out titled "Finding the Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Keep and Nurture Talent." Bushnell sees Cook as a conservative, buttoned down executive. "I have a feeling -- and this is a funny thing that happens with people who are very buttoned down -- that (Cook) probably thinks he's innovating, when in fact it's just micro-evolution," said Bushnell. "They were able to build (the new iPhones) cheaper, which is something I would expect Tim Cook to do." As for Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the Atari founder says that they had passion and "fire in their belly".

Bushnell is a fan of Google's approach which might lead to some clunkers here and there, but has lead to the self-driving car and Google Glass. And while he had a chance to be an early investor in Apple, Bushnell turned down the opportunity because he never thought that Jobs could become a CEO.


source: CNN