We talked to people close to the TalkTalk hack before the arrests began -&#160;and they told us why they allegedly did it

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Sean Gallup/Getty Images</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>America may be great at many things, but education isn't one of them.</p><p>It's here that standardized testing creeps behind students like a shadow and where fun experiments take a back seat to rote memorization.</p><p>But in some ambitious K-12 schools across the country, philosophy courses have made tangible improvements to the way students learn.</p><p>In these classrooms, teachers tackle big concepts like ethics and epistemology. They ask, <em>How can we know what we know? - </em>a classic epistemological quandary - but they use Dr. Seuss to get there.  </p><h2>Inside the classroom</h2><p>Jana Mohr Lone has taught philosophy at all levels, from preschool to college. She directs the University of Washington Center for Philosophy for Children, and for 20 years she's been the president of <a href="http://plato-philosophy.org/">PLATO</a>, a nonprofit organization focused on bringing philosophy to schools.</p><p>Over that time, she's learned an important lesson: It doesn't take much to get kids thinking.</p><p>"Our general approach is to start off with some kind of stimulus," Lone tells Tech Insider. For younger kids, that's often a picture book or a game. In middle or high school it could be a novel or work of art. "Then we ask the children, 'So what questions does this make you wonder about?'"</p><p>After the inevitable outpouring of curiosity, Lone says teachers will typically put the lesson to a vote - which question do people want to explore the most? The winning topic then forms the basis of a discussion.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Robert Benson/Getty Images</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Pretty much anything is up for grabs. </p><p><span>Scout and Atticus Finch can stimulate a discussion on the nature of courage. "The Velveteen Rabbit" gets kids thinking about the question, "What is real?" Often, Lone says, the simplest stimuli can produce profound insights. In her 2012 book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Child-Jana-Mohr-Lone/dp/1442217332/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1438181927&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=the+philosophical+child">"The Philosophical Child,"</a> she recalls one particularly poignant lesson involving the nature of existence.</span></p><p><span>After asking a fifth-grade class whether we can know for sure that we are real people and not part of a virtual simulation, a bright 10-year-old girl sitting up front offered her take.</span></p><p><span>"Okay," the girl said, "maybe I can't know that I am not just the mind of a computer or living in a cave and seeing only shadows. But what I can know is that if I'm thinking about what I can know, I can be sure that at least there is me thinking, even that's all I can know about myself or anything else."</span></p><p><span>Lone was blown away, she writes. "I told her that the philosopher René Descartes had come to a similar conclusion almost four hundred years ago."</span></p><h2><span></span>Set for life</h2><p>Though <a href="http://www.academia.edu/2708557/Philosophical_Paradigms_of_Education_How_Philosophy_impacts_on_Learning">formal research on the benefits of early exposure to philosophy</a> is still light, anecdotal evidence from the front lines suggests clear benefits. </p><p>"It gives them all the skills we want them to learn," Lone says. Learning philosophy has taught her students to listen better, accept different ways of seeing the world, speak clearly, and articulate their opinions.</p><p>One of PLATO's chief goals is finding creative ways for philosophy to tiptoe into a system that hasn't been all that accepting of disruption. Lone, for instance, only teaches once a week or every other week in her hometown of Seattle. Frequently, PLATO draws on graduate and doctoral students to work part-time in classrooms.</p><p>Graduate student Ariel Sykes has taught philosophy in elementary schools throughout the northeastern U.S.. </p><p>"I find that students bring the conversation out into the schoolyard and use things we use during our discussions in everyday conversations," Sykes says. Kids will ask their peers to repeat or clarify their previous point, request reasons if asked to do something, and seek to solve problems before arguing.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/66159203@N05/6025721767/in/photolist-abtp9B-afcm6J-enhU5-9siACi-9hUqhm-7MY1VZ-5EbNJB-9HVQv-5F3sWg-b5Mq7P-ehWo9w-2UCq8Z-2UGPSh-6auefz-fyzsW-bVz3Zo-2UGPLU-6ayoyU-7PfbNe-7eAR8L-6P1rxs-pZF9Kj-7cFzEf-io3HC-9hdTUT-4i4EUi-8iJJg9-coNGDh-Gxj83-qTYBY-bUPdto-7PfbQF-8iJJnY-5fahMS-5fahKS-5f5V6z-6uywnN-7LVEkZ-bByicx-7MXZvV-4i44Gv-cdswiE-5aJ6oh-5aDPpe-qTYC1-9Gyg2H-d8JarC-kKfFp-9GB8Hy-7Qhu3b">Asher Isbrucker/Flickr</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>One big hurdle to bringing philosophy lessons to school is funding.</p><p>Reticent to stray from the core curriculum laid out by the state, many schools fear bringing in additional resources for a program that, from a top-down view, doesn't seem integral. But for many teachers, philosophy supports other aspects of learning far more than it detracts.</p><p>"I think that philosophy has huge cross-curricular appeal," says Allison Cohen, who teaches philosophy at Langley High School in McLean, Virginia, and sits on PLATO's board of directors. When she and her students study applied ethics, for example, they ask big philosophical questions about genetic enhancement: Should we produce designer babies? Is cloning morally sound? </p><p>"My students will come back from their science classes and talk about what they learned that day," Cohen says. "And then in their science class they'll apply some of the concepts we talked about in philosophy."</p><p>In English class, the benefits are even more obvious. Many of the students Cohen teaches are juniors and seniors, which means they are right in the throes of prepping for the SAT and AP exams. The skills learned in philosophy - reason, argument, logic - are essential to aceing the written part of those tests.</p><p>"They have to be able to have the argument before they can express the argument," Cohen says.</p><h2>Making room for philosophy</h2><p>While Cohen has the luxury of seeing students five days a week for an entire school year, most elementary schools don't offer electives. But Lone is skeptical of schools that claim they don't have the time or money. </p><p>"You don't have a teach a philosophy class in order to get philosophical inquiry into the classroom," says Lone, who has conducted <a href="http://rce.csuchico.edu/teachers/nhc">several webinars</a> on non-philosophy teachers bringing concepts into their studies. "These questions come up in every subject."</p><p>Discussions about America's suburban sprawl after World War II can spark conversation on personal identity. Simple geometric proofs use logical thinking skills. And the best part, according to Lone, is that philosophy is democratic, so anyone can find a voice. </p><p>"I'll see a child really struggling to articulate what it is he or she is thinking, and the other kids, by April or May, are just quietly sitting there for him or her to finish," she says. "It's really powerful for me to see, and I see it almost every year."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/students-skype-foreign-teens-philadelphia-schools-2015-4">A bunch of teens used Skype to meet and learn from kids from all over the world</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="NnNTlhdDoLaZCjoSTLVJZtSi2DVM9WXx" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Schools are starting to teach kids philosophy-and it's completely changing the way they think

<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>THE details may vary. Americans sling their business cards casually across a table; the Japanese make the exchange of cards as elaborate as a tea ceremony. Some cards are discreet. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Guangbiao Chen, a Chinese tycoon, crams his with titles such as "China earthquake rescue hero", "Most prominent philanthropist of China", "China's foremost environmental preservation demolition expert" and, in case you didn't get the message, "Most influential person of China". </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">But the swapping of business cards is as close to a universal ritual as you can find in the corporate world.</span></p><p>Business cards have been around a long time in one form or another. The Chinese invented calling cards in the 15th century to give people notice that they intended to visit. European merchants invented trade cards in the 17th century to act as miniature advertisements.</p><p>They can provoke strong emotions. Nothing will provoke more discussion at a board meeting than the design of the company's business cards, says a veteran director.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>In Bret Easton Ellis's novel, "American Psycho", the serial-killer antihero tries to impress some fellow masters of the universe with his new business card.</p><p>He is crestfallen when they all whip out equally fancy ones--and aghast when one produces an absent colleague's card, which is on thicker paper and has a watermark.</p><p>Lots of companies try to turn their cards into miniature plugs for their products. Employees at Lego give out miniature plastic figures with their contact details stamped on them.</p><p>McDonald's business cards are shaped like a portion of fries. Bon Vivant, a Brazilian cheesemonger, uses a miniature cheese-grater as its card.</p><p>A Canadian divorce lawyer once gave out cards that can be torn in two--one half for each of the feuding spouses.</p><p>Such gimmicks can quickly pall--or grate, in the case of Bon Vivant's cards. For techno-utopians, they just go to show that the physical business card is in its death throes.</p><p>After all, why bother exchanging bits of thick paper at all when you can simply swap electronic versions by smartphone?</p><p>However, one can just as well argue the opposite: that business cards are here to stay, and in a blizzard of meetings and correspondence, it is more important than ever that your card stands out. Attempts to reinvent business cards for the digital age have got nowhere.</p><p>Even at the trendiest of Silicon Valley tech gatherings, people still greet each other by handing out little rectangles made from dead trees rather than tapping their phones together. Facebook's boss, Mark Zuckerberg, who briefly had a business card printed with "I'm CEO, bitch", now hands out a sensible, grown-up version.</p><p>That business cards are thriving in a digital age is a forceful reminder that there is much about business that is timeless. Take, for instance, the eternal and inescapable question of whether you can trust someone. The number of things that machines can do better than humans grows by the day. But they cannot look people in the eye and decide what sort of person they are.</p><p>And they cannot transform acquaintanceships into relationships. A good deal of business life will always be about building social bonds--having dinner with people, playing sport with them, even getting drunk with them--and the more that machines take over the quantitative stuff the more human beings will have to focus on the touchy-feely.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The rapid advance of both globalisation and virtualisation means that this trust-building process is becoming ever more demanding. Managers have to work harder at establishing trust with people from different cultures: chief executives of global organisations routinely spend three out of every four weeks travelling. They also have to get better at using personal meetings to reinforce bonds that were first formed over the phone or internet.</p><p>Here, business cards are doubly useful. They can be a quick way of establishing connections, particularly in Asia, where they are something of an obsession. The Chinese are following the Japanese in treating them as semi-sacred objects. Some businessmen hand out 24-carat gold cards. Nursery-school children sometimes carry cards not only with their own contact details, but also with the job descriptions of their parents and even grandparents.</p><p>Cards can also act as a physical reminder that you have actually met someone rather than just Googled them. Rifling through piles of different cards helps to summon up memories of meetings in ways that simply looking through uniform electronic lists never would.</p><p>They can even raise a smile: David Cheesewright, the boss of Walmart's international division, hands out miniature cards made of recycled paper and emblazoned with the name "Dave", presumably in an attempt to persuade people that, in spirit at least, Walmart is just like your friendly corner shop.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Business Insider" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53d003fe69bedd667cf02669-960/bi_graphics_businesscards-01 (1).png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Business Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h3>Don't you know who I am?</h3><p>Business cards are also proof of a second timeless principle--that hierarchy still matters. Management gurus such as Gary Hamel of the London Business School preach the virtues of flatter management structures. Firms like Zappos, an online shoe-shop, try to run themselves as a collegial "holacracy".</p><p>But business cards tell a different story: that someone's job title is an essential part of his identity (even Mr Cheesewright's jokey card leaves you in no doubt about his importance).</p><p>Exchanging business cards is not just a way of sparking a conversation. It is a way of placing people correctly in the pecking-order without the embarrassment of asking them their formal title. As "wearables" go, this is a killer app.</p><p>The business world is obsessed with the notion of disruptive innovation. But there are lots of things that do not need to be disrupted or innovated. Your columnist finds paper diaries less fiddly than electronic ones.</p><p>Having dinner with someone is a better way of getting to know them than Skypeing. And exchanging business cards still seems to be an excellent way to initiate a lasting relationship.</p><p>The ritual swapping of paper rectangles may be old-fashioned but on it will go.</p><p>Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist</p><p>This article was from The Economist and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.</p><p> </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/drunk-driving-checkpoint-regulation-hack-2015-2">A lawyer in Florida has come up with an ingenious way for drivers to evade drunken-driving checkpoints</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="EwZXE5czqobpJLXsPUCBDsxSm8XxaRw0" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Why the business card is thriving 

<p><div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="David Paul Morris/Getty Images" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/527d69776bb3f73070114525-960/steve-jobs-34.jpg"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source">David Paul Morris/Getty Images</p></div></div>Everyone "knows" <keyword id="6357934" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Steve-Jobs">Steve Jobs</keyword>, or thinks they do, in the sense that we saw him do those legendary on-stage product launches of the iPhone and the iPad. But what was Jobs like when he was off stage, when he wasn't changing history with Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, Jony Ive and Tim Cook?</p>
<p>There's an amazing thread on Quora, the question-and-answer site, for <a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs">people to tell stories of the times they "randomly" met Steve Jobs</a>.</p>
<p>We've edited a few - there are many more on the thread, go look! - and excerpted them here.</p>
<h3>This person told Jobs he would "ruin" <keyword id="6354427" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Apple">Apple</keyword>.</h3>
<p><em>Michell Smith tells this story:</em> Prior to his return to Apple, it was obvious that the company was in trouble. Larry Ellison had floated the idea of a hostile takeover of the company, but it seemed to some of us Apple watchers that then-CEO Gil Amelio's turnaround plan might work.</p>
<p>I wrote an impassioned email to Steve at Pixar, pleading with him to find something else to do with his time. "Please," I implored him, "<a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Michell-Smith">don't come back to Apple, you'll ruin it</a>."</p>
<p>… And then he wrote the words I'll never forget:</p>
<p>"You may be right. But if I succeed, remember to look in the mirror and call yourself an asshole for me."</p>
<h3><div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source">Mike Nudelman/Business Insider</p></div></div>A childhood friend of Jobs pretended he didn't recognize him.</h3>
<p>Jack Heringer was a childhood friend of Jobs from early 1960s, but they parted company when they went to different middle schools. Then, in 1976, they met in a store: <br /><br />He showed up, recognized me and called me over. "Aren't you Jack Heringer from grammar school?" he asked. And, in that millisecond, my life's single most regretful experience occurred. I replied, " Yes that's me...and WHO ARE YOU?" I pretended I didn't remember him at all.</p>
<p>I have been kicking myself forever since!!!!!!!!!</p>
<h3>Jobs met this woman who was smoking at dinner and did not like it one bit.</h3>
<p><em>William Matthies and five others had dinner with Jobs in the early 1980s in New York:</em> Dinner was over and while we waited for desert, Ann lit up a cigarette (remember this was the early '80's in NYC), holding it away and blowing smoke away from the rest of us at the table. Steve, who was seated next to Ann, gave no indication that this bothered him. He simply went on talking animatedly as he had all dinner.</p>
<p>At one point Ann put her lit cigarette in an ashtray the opposite side of Steve. He never looked at it but must have seen her put it down because without so much as a glance toward her or the cigarette, without breaking from whatever topic he was currently holding forth on at that moment, he reached across her, <a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/William-Matthies">picked the cigarette up from the ashtray, and dropped it in her half full water glass</a>.</p>
<p>I can still see the stunned looks on everyone's face except Steve who continued to educate the rest of us on...I have no idea.</p>
<h3><div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</p></div></div>The day Jobs argued at the checkout at Whole Foods</h3>
<p>Roy Pereira bumped into Jobs while doing the groceries:</p>
<p>I bumped into Steve at the Palo Alto Whole Foods near both of our homes.  He was in front of me in line paying for his groceries. It was the express checkout and he was wearing his traditional black turtle-neck. This was back in the early 2000s.</p>
<p>Here was a very wealthy, smart guy <a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Roy-Pereira">arguing with the cashier about what the correct change was</a> for his purchase. He was demanding that he got another quarter ($0.25) for his change. This discussion went on for several minutes and held up the line so much that everyone behind him (including us) were getting annoyed.</p>
<h3>The time Jobs got excited by Excel in 1985.</h3>
<p><em>Randall Edwards met Jobs at an IT conference:</em> I had to get back to work so I headed out of the hotel into a nearby hotel where my car was parked.  I pressed the button for the elevator, the doors opened and there was ... Steve Jobs!</p>
<p>I told him how much I enjoyed his presentation and shook his hand. He asked me what I did and I told him I was an IT Consultant. <a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Randall-Edwards">He told me about this amazing software that Microsoft was working on called "Excel"</a>.  It is going to be phenomenal and that I should check it out. I told him I would.</p>
<h3><div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><a href="http://www.legendtoys.jp">Legend Toys</a></p></div></div>"Boy, what a dick," I remember thinking, but ...</h3>
<p><em>In the mid-1990s, after Jobs was kicked out of Apple and went to work at NeXT, Ramin Firoozye got a meeting with Jobs:</em> He walked in 1/2 hour late, put his feet up on the table and asked me what I had. I introduced myself and mentioned that a couple of the engineers were ex-Apple people. ...</p>
<p>For the next half an hour he went on to rant pretty much non-stop... about the arrogance of Apple (!!!), the quality of their products, and anything unsavory you could think of. There were a lot of 'you Apple people' in there. I tried to break in and mention that we weren't really related to Apple (except  the demo was running on a Mac Powerbook) but there was no stopping him.</p>
<p>"<a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Ramin-Firoozye">Boy, what a dick</a>," I remember thinking. It went on and on.</p>
<p>… Then he comes back in. I was sitting down. He gets in front of the whiteboard and starts drawing notes. For the next I-don't-know-how-long he mapped out precisely how the product could be rolled out, the strategy for taking it to market, how it should be positioned, what other parts would be needed to fill in the gaps, all the way down to the features that should be taken out or added. It was the most amazing, useful, spot-on, and entertaining display of product management erudition I'd ever seen. He completely understood the product, the space, and what it could be used for.</p>
<h3>The day Jobs visited a rival electronics store across the street from Apple in 2007</h3>
<p><em>Mark Young remembers Jobs' appearance at the Helio store in 2007, located in Palo Alto across street from the Apple Store. Jobs had poked his head in once and the store staff did not recognize him:</em> Two weeks later, the same manager was inside the store giving a demo of the amazing Helio smartphone to some prospective customers when he was interrupted by someone at the door. It was the same guy in the black turtleneck and blue jeans. "<a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Mark-Young-5">You guys STILL just don't get it, do you</a>???" the guy said in an elevated voice from the entrance of the store. Then before the manager could respond, the guy was gone again.</p>
<p>The manager was visibly annoyed and said to his customers "Who is this guy and who the hell does he think he is???"</p>
<p>"That's the founder of Apple," replied the customers.</p>
<h3><div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source">AP</p></div></div>This guy's car broke down outside Jobs' house.</h3>
<p><em>Tim Smith knew his car was in front of the Jobs family house but tried to play it cool:</em> <a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Tim-Smith-18">So Steve comes out</a>. ... so Jobs actually sits down in the Alpine and tries to crank it - with his kid sitting behind him. To no avail.</p>
<p>... The car didn't start. ... Steve said something like "piece of shit" as he got out, and walked back into the house. Classic Steve - he was right.</p>
<h3>Jobs used this guy's fan mail in at an iPad product demo.</h3>
<p>Chaitanya Pandit wrote jobs an email: I went home and before going to bed wrote a short email to Steve about how <a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Chaitanya-Pandit">an iPad got a girl interested in me</a> and almost forgot about it until. ... Days later, it was his WWDC keynote and I was following a few live blogs that night as I always do (I was GMT +5:30), then suddenly I saw something that was very familiar, it was my email that Steve displayed on the huge screen behind him. He said "It is magical, I know it because I got this email: I was sitting in a café with my iPad, and it got a girl interested in me!." "So there's proof."</p>
<h3><div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><a href="http://www.legendtoys.jp/sj-2012.html">Legend Toys</a></p></div></div>This guy got a customer service phone call from Jobs when his computer was broke.</h3>
<p>Matt McCoy couldn't get any joy out of Apple customer service when his MacBook wouldn't work properly, so he randomly emailed Jobs: The next day I got a call from Palo Alto.</p>
<p>Me: "Hello?"</p>
<p>Caller: "<a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Matt-McCoy-6">Hey Matt. This is Steve Jobs</a>. I just wanted to let you know that I got your email and we are going to do everything we can to recover your missing hard drive.</p>
<p>Me: "Whoa... thank you!"</p>
<p>Caller: "I'm going to pass you on to my assistant, and he's going to take care of you from here. We'll get you taken care of. Hold."</p>
<p>Then the call was transferred to a guy named "Tim". I'm still not sure what Tim's last name was... is it even possible that it was Tim Cook? I don't know what Tim's history is at Apple.</p>
<h3>The day Jobs ate unrecognized at an Indian restaurant.</h3>
<p><em>Anurag Wadehra was at the restaurant:</em> So, it was with great amusement, we watched Steve raise his hand several times to attract the attention of the waiter, who summarily ignored him. As the only white guy in the restaurant, we thought he would be instantly recognized and served with special attention. Instead, <a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Anurag-Wadehra">he had the worst table in the house</a>. A bored waiter passed plastic menu cards at his family without giving a second glance. Eventually, he did get served with the mass efficiency of an overworked staff. And, no one bothered him during his dinner either.</p>
<p>My wife and I observed in awe as Steve and his family enjoyed a quiet meal in the riotous, inexpensive place in the heart of Silicon Valley. It dawned on us that no one in the restaurant had recognized Steve in his low key attire and a stubble. At the end, when no one came to his table to present the check, Steve rose up, dropped a few cash notes on the table and walked out, as the server wiped his table.</p>
<p>Just then, the manager walked by, and I asked him, "Did you know that was Steve Jobs?". He smiled and gave me the Indian head shake - a cross between yes and no. To this day, I don't know what he meant.</p>
<h3><div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source">REUTERS</p></div></div>The day Jobs met a recruiter for Sun Microsystems.<br /><em></em></h3>
<p><em>Bill Lee:</em> In 1988, I was self-employed as a recruiter and had referred a number of candidates to Steve at NeXT Computer, which he subsequently hired. I had also worked at Sun Microsystems as a contract recruiter. In September of that year, Steve invited me to his offices on Deer Creek Road in Palo Alto for an informal interview. He was 45 minutes late. As soon as Steve led me into his office and closed the door, he turned and said, "<a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Bill-Lee-13">You recruited for Sun and Sun hires shitty people</a>."</p>
<p>"Well," I retorted, "You hired the ones Sun didn't want." </p>
<p>At that point, Steve cracked a big smile and exclaimed, "Touché!"</p>
<h3>This man discovered Jobs was on email as early as 1989.</h3>
<p><em>Phillip Remaker recalls:</em> When I was at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989, some sales folks from NeXT did a demo of the NeXT Cube to some students at the Distributed Systems Lab.  I noted on their business cards that NeXT email addresses were of the form firtname_lastname@next.com.  On a lark, <a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Phillip-Remaker">I shot off a note to Steve_Jobs@next.com</a> asking if he read his own email and expressing my fanboy sentiments.</p>
<p>Phil:</p>
<p>Yes, I do have an Internet address.  Please help me by not spreading this fact around indiscriminately....</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback.</p>
<p>I'm glad you like our little machine.</p>
<p>Take care,</p>
<p>Steve Jobs.</p>
<h3><div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537">Simon &amp; Schuster</a></p></div></div>Jobs goes to the repair store just like everyone else.</h3>
<p><em>Andrew Gerber-Duffy remembers:</em> I was in the Sony Style store at the Stanford Mall. I can't remember what it was I was buying.</p>
<p>As I was waiting in the checkout line, I realized that Steve was 2 people ahead of me. He was wearing his usual black turtleneck and faded blue jeans. He was holding a projector.</p>
<p>"So I'd like to get this repaired," he said to the obviously bored cashier.</p>
<p>To my surprise, the man at the counter seemed totally oblivious to his identity.</p>
<p>"Okay," he responded, "what name do you want it under for pickup?"</p>
<p>"<a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Andrew-Gerber-Duffy">Just put it under Steve</a>," he said.</p>
<h3>The day Jobs explained why he improved the cafeteria food at Apple.</h3>
<p>Gavin Cook worked at one of Apple's biggest clients. At a formal meeting, he asked: "Hi Steve, So how did changing your company cafeteria effect the company culture?"</p>
<p>... and with that Steve was off...</p>
<p>"It.. It, had nothing to do with company culture! <a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Gavin-Cook">The stuff they were feeding us was slop</a>!"</p>
<p>"And you know hardly any one was eating here, and when they go off campus they don't go for an hour, they are gone for an hour and a half or two hours, So less work is getting done. And when they are out in a restaurant talking about their projects, people overhear things."</p>
<p>"So I called my friend who was an executive chef and asked him what it would take for him to come work here and fix it. He said he wanted a wood burning pizza oven and I said 'Done!' So now our cafe staff are company employees and when the engineers have to work late we can have the cafe stay open. Now we have vegetarian options and more variety. With better food people stay on campus and interact with each other more."</p>
<h3>The day Jobs was nearly killed in the parking lot at Apple.</h3>
<p><em>Anonymous:</em> I may or may not have been a passenger in a car that may or may not have <a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answers/2162529">nearly hit a certain person who may or may not have been Steve Jobs</a> as he walked across the parking lot of an Apple Campus in California. He may or may not have held up his hand, winced, then smiled and waved as those of us who may or may not have been Apple employees in the car looked on in complete shock, too terrified to wave back. He may or may not have jogged out of harm's way at that point, while we may or may not have just sat there, stunned.  We may or may not have switched drivers for the rest of our training week out there.</p>
<h3>This couple asked Jobs to settle a bet over how the Macintosh was named.</h3>
<p><em>Bill Sheppard's wife had long maintained the name came from a contest for school students:</em> We approached Steve and asked if he could settle a marital dispute for us.  Without any hint of a smile he responded "if I can have one of your children" (which didn't come across at all creepy, though I see as I write this that it could be interpreted that way).  We offered the dog (he wasn't interested), then my wife told the story of the naming contest.  Steve said that Apple had a large marketing department to do things like pick names for their computers, and <a href="http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Bill-Sheppard">it was absurd to think they'd leave that to fifth graders</a>.</p>

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