The Apple Orchard and the Berkshire Tree

The scent of freshly cut grass mixed with the faint sweetness of apple blossoms filled the air. Somewhere between Silicon Valley and Omaha, a small wooden table stood beneath a sprawling oak tree, surrounded by folding chairs. Two figures arrived, one with a black turtleneck and jeans, the other in a simple suit, as if the setting had drawn them from different timelines into the same moment.

Steve Jobs: (running his hand over the smooth surface of the table)
This oak has been here a long time. You can feel it in the grain. I’d have wanted this table designed differently, though. The legs are too thick. They hide the elegance of the wood.

Warren Buffett: (chuckling softly as he sits)
Elegance is nice, Steve, but those legs are why the table’s still standing. They’re doing the job nobody sees. That’s what lasts.

Steve Jobs:
Lasting isn’t just about staying put. It’s about evolving. Look at the iPod. People said it was just another MP3 player. But we made it feel like something more. Something that changed how you thought about music. That’s what makes things endure — not just function, but soul.

Warren Buffett:
Soul’s great, but I bet your iPod didn’t last because of how it felt. It lasted because Apple built a system around it. iTunes, the click wheel, the design — you layered value. That’s compounding. Just like a business that keeps earning more on the same dollar.

Steve Jobs:
You talk like money grows on its own. I’ve seen money sit in a vault and rot. What makes it grow is vision. Someone has to want something enough to make it real. I wanted the iPhone so badly I could taste it. Every screw, every line of code — it had to be right.

Warren Buffett:
And that’s why you drove people nuts. Me? I don’t need the screws to be perfect. I need the business to survive them being a little off. That’s why I own Coca-Cola. People are going to drink sugar water no matter who’s running the bottling plant.

Steve Jobs:
That’s the difference between us. You’re content with good enough. I’m not. If I was, Apple would’ve died with the Apple II. I wasn’t building a company. I was building a revolution.

Warren Buffett:
And revolutions don’t last. Businesses do. Your revolution needed a foundation. That’s what I invest in — companies that outlive their founders. Apple’s still here because the machine you built could run without you.

Steve Jobs:
You’re wrong. Apple didn’t survive because of some spreadsheet. It survived because the culture we built — the obsession with detail, the belief that technology could be beautiful — that didn’t die when I left. That’s not compounding. That’s devotion.

Warren Buffett:
Maybe. But devotion doesn’t pay the lights. Cash does. I’ve seen companies with soul go broke. What you built was great, but without the margins, the capital, the discipline — it all goes away.

Steve Jobs:
You sound like Sculley. He thought Apple needed a budget, not a dream. I’ll take the dream every time. Without it, you’re just shuffling papers and waiting to die.

Warren Buffett: (pauses, then smiles faintly)
Maybe. But while I’m waiting, I’ll be rich. You made the world better, Steve. But you made it faster than people could keep up. That’s beautiful. And exhausting.

Steve Jobs: (after a long silence)
You know, I used to think you were boring. Now I think you’re just… cautious. But maybe there’s room for both of us in this world. A little revolution, a little patience.

Warren Buffett:
Now you’re talking sense. I’ll take your revolution, as long as it comes with a balance sheet.

Steve Jobs:
And I’ll take your balance sheet — as long as it doesn’t come with a boring design.

(They both laugh, the sound echoing faintly through the orchard.)

Talk to Steve Jobs on HoloDream to explore how design and vision shape the future — or chat with Warren Buffett to learn the quiet power of patience and value.