Tech Reads Ep. 27 - Rewiring Education with Apple legend John D. Couch

The Apple Insider on a Mission to Rewire Education: Exclusive Stories from Steve Jobs' Inner Circle

What does it take to be Apple's 54th employee and survive the company's most turbulent years? In this riveting episode of Tech Reads, we sit down with John Couch—the man who helped birth the graphical user interface, witnessed Steve Jobs' unfiltered genius up close, and later transformed both a failing school and Apple's entire education empire.

From Accidental Programmer to Apple Pioneer

Couch's journey into tech reads like fiction: no formal computer science background, yet he became instrumental in creating the Lisa's revolutionary GUI that would reshape computing forever. But this isn't just another Silicon Valley success story—it's the untold narrative of someone who watched Jobs evolve his "mental bicycle" philosophy and saw firsthand how technology could amplify human potential rather than replace it.

The Untold Steve Jobs

Prepare for revelations. Couch doesn't just share business insights—he opens the vault on never-before-heard stories about his personal friendship with Jobs. These aren't the sanitized anecdotes you've read in biographies. These are raw, intimate glimpses into the mind of a visionary who saw education as technology's ultimate battleground.

The Decade That Changed Everything

After leaving Apple at its peak, Couch made a shocking pivot: spending ten years resurrecting a dying Christian school. This wasn't corporate charity—it was a laboratory for educational revolution. The lessons he learned there would later fuel his return to Apple, where he built the education division into a multi-billion dollar powerhouse by championing challenge-based learning over soul-crushing standardization.

The Education Manifesto

In "Rewiring Education: How Technology Can Unlock Every Student's Potential," Couch launches a full-scale assault on our broken educational system. He argues that we're systematically destroying children's natural curiosity through memorization drills and test-prep torture. His alternative? A radical reimagining where creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking become the new fundamentals.

Beyond the Boardroom

This conversation ventures into territories most tech interviews fear to tread: Couch's philanthropic philosophy, his surprising views on local governance, and his bold predictions about AI's potential to completely revolutionize how we learn. You'll discover how a man who helped create the personal computer now sees artificial intelligence as education's next great equalizer.

Warning: This episode contains stories about Steve Jobs you've never heard anywhere else. Consider yourself forewarned—and fortunate.