Stanford GSB, 1990–92: Laurene Powell before she was Laurene Powell Jobs
The Oval, the Littlefield Management Center, the San Francisco Symphony, and the business parks of Silicon Valley.
It is one of the few episodes whose purpose Jonathan Hare states outright: a page written so that a specific person remembers him and can see, from one link away, the rest of the record. The record treats that candor as the point, not a flaw.
In his first year at Stanford, Hare's rival for the last parking spots on the Oval was Laurene Powell — a year ahead, driving a red Rabbit cabriolet or Steve Jobs's borrowed Ferrari. He got to know her at the symphony by not talking about Steve Jobs. Her classmate and his good friend JJ Mullane then co-founded the organic food-van company with her. The record publishes the detail, and its reason for doing so.
The trail exists so that people who were there can reconstruct their own memories, recognize what they helped incubate, and add to or correct the record — or forward the few pages that belong to someone they know.
The detail is verifiable by one person, and addressed to her.
The public record (Terravera, 1992, John Mullane) matches Hare's account down to the office parks.
The Atlantic is the seam between Laurene Powell Jobs, E. O. Wilson and David Brooks.
In my first year I often competed for the last parking spots on the Oval with Laurene Powell, who also drove a red car. She was a year ahead of me at Stanford. She either drove her Rabbit convertible — the cabriolet — or a Ferrari 308 GTS Berlinetta, which was actually Steve Jobs's car that she borrowed. Mine was the pinnacle of the Pontiac Fiero GT line, bought with the money from my first professional programming job at Impell. So we used to tear in and park right next to each other, and I walked with her on the way in and we talked.
The way I really got to know her is we set up this thing we called the Culture Club. We got a series package at the symphony. I actually had dinner with her twice at the symphony — because I was cool and I didn't obsess over her and I didn't talk about Steve Jobs, because she didn't want to hear about Steve Jobs. I talked about Save the World stuff, which is what she's into.
JJ Mullane was a GSB classmate of Laurene's in the class of 1991, and a good friend of mine. He co-founded a gourmet organic roach coach venture with her after graduation, about the time she married Steve Jobs. They had mobile food vans that went to all the business parks in Silicon Valley, but rather than sell the usual fast foods, they had gourmet organic dishes. Laurene is very into health foods — a vegan. Years later I introduced my girlfriend Julia Seidelin to JJ, because she wanted to found a raw-foods restaurant. The press of 1992 called the company Terravera and reported the basmati platters and the black-bean burritos; the record keeps my name for it, because it is the better description.
The reason I added the cars is that it will help her remember me, and signal that I actually knew her when she was just a Stanford GSB student. That is the whole of the motive, and this record publishes its motives. The idea is to have Laurene one link away from the stories that connect me to other people she almost certainly knows: E. O. Wilson, whose excerpts ran in The Atlantic and whose 2006 Aspen keynote the magazine sponsored — the path where I met him walking with Bill Joy, and where he connected me to Jay Short and the Foundation; David Brooks, my favorite political commentator, now on her magazine's staff; Steve Jobs, who bought the Z8 I bid on. Whether she remembers the Oval is hers to say.
A year of parking next to Laurene Powell, a symphony series where Steve Jobs was not discussed, and the organic food vans her classmate JJ Mullane started with her — published with the stated reason: so she remembers, and so the page is one link from the people she knows.
Episodes are building blocks. The same material appears in more than one where it belongs in more than one, and every claim traces back to a primary source.
A year ahead at Stanford GSB; a symphony series; a borrowed Ferrari that was Steve Jobs's. Now: Emerson Collective, The Atlantic, and a network the record wants to reach
Open →In the graphStanford GSB class of 1991; Terravera's co-founder with Laurene Powell Jobs; the man Hare sent Julia Seidelin to for a raw-foods restaurant
Open →In the graphHP as a teenager, Terman's Valley, an Oregon commune, India, Zen — the parallels the record can actually show; and the borrowed Ferrari, the Z8, and the woman who connects them
Open →In the graphHare's girlfriend, 2003 to 2006 or so — introduced to JJ Mullane for the restaurant she wanted to found
Open →In the graph1990–92 — the faculty, the classmates, and the prize he gave up
Open →In the graphWilson's magazine of choice for his excerpts; sponsor of his 2006 Aspen Ideas keynote — the path where Hare met him with Bill Joy; owned since 2017 by Emerson Collective
Open →In the graphThe commission, the foundation, and the name
Open →In the graphTwenty-two years a New York Times columnist; a staff writer at The Atlantic since February 2026; one link from Laurene Powell Jobs
Open →The account this was distilled from, preserved as dictated — verbatim and immutable.
Read the source →In his own words · S-181The account this was distilled from, preserved as dictated — verbatim and immutable.
Read the source →In his own words · S-062The account this was distilled from, preserved as dictated — verbatim and immutable.
Read the source →