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Hello again, and welcome back to Fast Companys Plugged In. On January 16, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniakknown to all as Wozreceived the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award, an honor bestowed each year by the Tech Interactive, a science museum in San Jose, California. The ceremony and a conversation between Wozniak and comedian Drew Carey capped a gala event in which several organizations were named laureates for using technology to improve the world. Their creations include a brain-computer interface (BCI) that helps people with disabilities communicate, a forum that lets patients who have received BCI implants shape the technologys best practices and ethics, a headset that uses ultrasound therapy to treat mental conditions, and a device that provides people with Parkinsons disease the ability to walk more confidently. Until he took the stage himself, Wozniak sat in the audience with his wife, Janet, watching presentations about each honoree with rapt attention. In a conversation after the event, Wozniak marveled at what hed seen. They were creating something to solve a problem they had with the world, and that’s where you get the best products, he said. He likened the honorees ingenuity to his own implementation of color graphics on 1977s Apple II, a killer feature at a time when other microcomputers could barely draw pictures in black and white. Rather than adding to the machines cost and complexity, he explained, his approach took no chips at all. I mean, it was just so far out of the box. It violated all the rules of mathematics on color TV. From left: Tech for Global Good Celebration honorees Jay Sanguinetti of Sanmai Technologies, Sidney Collin of NexStride, Steve Wozniak, Andreas Forsland of Cognixion, and Ian Burkhart of BCI Pioneers Coalition in San Jose, California, on January 16, 2026. [Photo: Don Feria] Wozniak has spent close to half a century being celebrated for his technical brilliance and irreplaceable role in bringing computing to the masses. Just three years after starting Apple with Steve Jobs (and, briefly, Ron Wayne), he received the Association for Computing Machinerys Grace Murray Hopper Award. Six years after that, he and Jobs won the National Medal of Technology, resulting in a memorable photo opp with President Ronald Reagan. He said last weeks award was particularly meaningful to him because it reflected his efforts as a humanitarian rather than solely as a technologist. Those efforts have often focused on culture and education in Silicon Valley. A native of San Jose, Wozniak provided funding that was instrumental to bootstrapping the 27-year-old Tech Interactive as well as the citys Childrens Discovery Museum. (The latter is located on a street named Woz Wayyet another of Wozniaks many tributes.) In his memoir, iWoz, he writes about paying for computer labs in local schools and fulfilling a cherished dream by teaching computing skills to fifth graders. Even earlier, he donated the very first Apple computer to a teacher named Liza Loop. After Apple employees dating to its days as a garage startup werent cut in on its 1980 initial public offering, Wozniak gave them a meaningful percentage of his personal stock, purely because it felt like the right thing to do. He was also a principal founding donor to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an essential advocate for civil rights in the digital age. The list of his good deeds goes on, and is not thoroughly documented: In conversations with people who have known him for decades, Ive heard multiple stories about his unpublicized support for other worthy causes. All along, Wozniak has remained on Apples payroll. (One of the best things about attending product launches at Apple Park is observing him mingling with the preshow crowd, otherwise made up of journalists, creators, influencers, and Apple PR people.) But its been more than 40 years since he wound down active work at the company. Though hes since been involved in several startupsin areas ranging from remote controls to space junkhis post-Apple life has mattered in ways that have nothing to do with money or power. His desire to leave society better than he found it is one big reason why. Its not tough to connect the dots between the Woz who engineered the Apple-1 and Apple II when he was in his mid-twenties and Woz the 75-year-old humanitarian. He does so himself, arguing your personality settles down between 18 and 23 years old. From then on, youre the same person. (Having reassessed his priorities after surviving a small plane crash in 1981, he does allow that something like a horrible shock or near-death [experience] might have an impact.) His interest in inventing stuff, he told me, began as a form of self-expression that helped him overcome being painfully shy: The only way I could do anything to communicate was to design something cool. And people, other geeks, would talk to me about it. Steve Wozniak accepts the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award from presenter Katie Ferrick. [Photo: Don Feria] Apples first machines grew out of Wozniaks desire to own a computer himself, at a time when no computer was built or priced for consumers. That led to him wanting to help other people own them, an early sign of his fundamental generosity of spirit. At first, that meant sharing the Apple-1 schematics so that other hobbyists could assemble their ownin part because he couldnt convince his pre-Apple employer, HP, that PCs might become a pretty decent business. I proposed it five times, he remembers. I got turned down. No computer company really felt it was going to go anywhere. Fortunately for Wozniak, and us, others showed more foresight. Essential support came from Paul Terrell, whose Byte Shop computer store became Apples first dealer, and Mike Markkula, the companys first angel investor and, later, its CEO. It took a couple of people like that to really give us a chance, Wozniak says. (What about Steve Jobs? Discussing their time together at AppleJobs resigned after a board fight in 1985, the same year Wozniak moved onWozniak calls him a good talker, a good promoter, a good marketer of the Apple II but also points out the failure of the companys third and fourth computers, the Apple III and Lisa. As Jobss Mac got off to a sluggish start, he notes, the Apple IIs continuing popularity provided the company with a lifeline. Wozniak waxes more enthusiastic about the iPod, a crucial element of Apples comeback after Jobs returned: It wasn’t a computer, but he knew what people wantedhe knew people.) In this century, the Apple II has remained admired and loved in equal measurewhen I helped assemble a list of the greatest PCs of all time, we ranked it No. 1. Even so, the world may underappreciate the degree to which it reflected Wozniaks outlook on life. It certainly delivered on his life philosophy, which he calls the secret of being a good person: Happiness equals smiles minus frowns. Im not sure if a single offering from todays Silicon Valley outperforms the 49-year-old Apple II on that score, and AI is only making matters more fraught. Maybe thats a lesson for todays product designers: Be more like Woz. One other trait sets Wozniak apart. In an industry brimming with self-serious workaholics, he is a lifelong prankster, a pastime he discussed onstage with Carey last week. (My takeaway: Never, ever let Woz talk to Siri on your iPhone.) I asked him if theres a link between his mischievous streak and his philanthropic one. He wasnt sure. But he stressed that humor and creativity are deeply intertwined. If you can make jokes, you can look at the world in different ways, he told me. They just come together naturally. His own life proves his point, and were all richer for it. Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on fastcompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard. More top tech stories from Fast Company You probably shouldnt click that email unsubscribe link. Heres what to do insteadIts tempting to click on unsubscribe to defend yourself from spam emails. But that can sometimes make things worse. Heres a safer way to take control. Read More This ingenious weightless camera is changing live sports foreverNorwegian startup Muybridge has rocked pro tennis. Next up: soccer, hockey, F1even emergency medicine. Read More Intel admits consumers don’t care about ‘AI PCs’yetTurns out most folks just want better battery life and faster graphics. Who knew? Read More 2026 will be the year Cybertruck diesTesla CEO Elon Musk overpromised sales of 250,000 Cybertrucks annually by 2025. The company has reached barely 8% of that target. Read More Google Glass, Amazon Fire, Friendster: Why great ideas from successful companies failHere are the traps companies fall into. Read More 37signals has a fix for boring, complex, AI-infested productivity apps: FizzyThis personality-filled organizational app has a radically different philosophy than Trello, Jira, and Asanaand youd better believe thats by design. Read More
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E-Commerce
I like to say that my job as a charity auctioneer is the ultimate sales role. I stand onstage night after night encouraging people to give money, playing off the audience to push them to bid higher, in the name of charity. If theres one thing the stage has taught me, its that flexibility is everything. The faster you can adapt and offer a solution, the more successful youll be whether youre selling a product or an idea. Here are three of my favorite sales secrets. 1. THE POWER OF SUGGESTION One of the quickest ways to lose someones attention is to tell them how you think your product should work for them. If a donor has offered their mountain house as the ultimate ski vacation house and I walk onstage and announce that Im selling a ski house, Ive immediately eliminated half the room as potential buyers of this lot simply because half of the room probably doesnt ski. Add to that, if you dont like to ski, what is the appeal of renting a house where you sit around in a cold climate with nothing else to do. If I get onstage and position it as a mountain house for all seasons, I open it up to the entire audience again. A mountain house has countless uses, and skiing is just one of them. When you give people multiple ways to imagine using something, you invite them into the story. You expand the possibilities rather than narrowing them. In sales, and leadership, suggestion opens minds. Assumptions shut them down. 2. THERES MORE THAN ONE WAY TO GET FROM LONDON TO PARIS Be open to different paths to agreement. Before a sales pitch, or before stepping onstage, I like to play a simple game: How else could this be used? Ill ask friends, colleagues, or clients how they see value in the same item. Take a piece of jewelry, for example. It could be a gift to yourself, a gift for a friend, or something to pass down to your daughter. Or, for the men in the audience, an opportunity to be the guy who brings home a surprise gift just because, or a future birthday, anniversary, and Valentines Day gift. For those who are single, an opportunity to have something when you meet the girl of your dreams. When I understand all the ways someone might emotionally connect to an item, I can meet them where they are instead of forcing them down a single path. 3. BEFRIEND YOUR UNDERBIDDER Every auction has a winner and a runner-up. Its one of the few places where not everyone gets a trophy, but that doesnt mean anyone has to walk away feeling like they lost. The same is true in sales. No matter how prepared or enthusiastic you are, a deal wont always close. What will be remembered is how the other person felt in the process. As Im about to drop the gavel, I keep eye contact with the underbidder until the very last second, watching for any sign they might reengage. If its clear theyre done, I acknowledge them publicly, often asking for a round of applause for a strong underbidder. Why? Because people who feel respected and appreciated are far more likely to come back. In auctions, in sales, and in leadership, making someone feel good, regardless of the outcome, keeps the door open long after the deal is done.
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E-Commerce
Sports are entering a new era and it could be powered by artificial intelligence. Jeremy Bloom, CEO of the X Games, is placing a bold bet on AI to revolutionize how competitions are judged and scored. From reducing human error to enhancing fairness and accuracy, AI judges could redefine the future of professional sports. But can machines truly replace human judgment on the worlds biggest stages?
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E-Commerce
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