His sheer force of personality is the reason why Apple Computer continues to lead the tech industry. Without him, in 1997 Apple would have fallen into an interesting footnote.
People often hate creative geniuses like Steve Jobs and Carl Sagan for their arrogance. This is precisely why I like them. There are few beliefs more arrogant than, "I can change the world." But it is precisely that attitude and that arrogance that is required to create change.
Visionaries are usually arrogant. Because usually only the arrogant can withstand the monotonous, relentless drum beat of the status quo, "You can't. You won't. It shouldn't be. You'll fail."
"I can. I will. It should be. Watch me."
Every time I watch The Jobs, I fall under his spell. No matter what he's selling, while he's selling it, I'm buying. And it's not until a couple hours later and the effect wears off that I go, "Wait a minute! It's not a revolution! It's just a fucking mouse!"
But I love him and admire him for it, for his ability to make me believe and to want.
Years ago, I drank the Apple Kool-Aid. I'm a little older now. And I no longer count myself among the true believers. But I still use Macs. As a computer consultant, I make my living on Macs when I can, and on PCs when I have to. I still have a fondness for The Macintosh Way. And I still like a good technology show.
Steve Jobs' most recent webcast was for the launch of the iPod Nano and iTunes Phone. The "news" in this presentation is, "We made the iPod smaller and we made a cell phone that plays music."
That's it.
Smaller.
Phone.
Period.
But I defy you to remember that while you're watching it. I defy you to not believe that it's a "Revolution!" And I defy you to not want to buy two of everything he's selling by the end of the show.
If you want to see the intersection of technology and art done right, check it out.
1 comments:
Completely in line with this blog post, it's worth noting that the made-for-TV-movie Pirates of Silicon Valley just got released to DVD last week, which of course meant that I immediately had it show up in my mailbox via Netflix.
For those of you who haven't seen it, the movie oversimplifies some of the technical twists and turns of what was going on with the computer industry (a necessity probably, or the plot would have been just too confusing). An interesting thing to note, however, was the destructive nature that the (portrayed) Jobs was having internally at Apple at the time.
It would be interesting to have a better inside perspective on this. Was Jobs at the time going down a destructive path and getting canned from Apple was what was required to give him some balance? Or was that whole aspect some sort of inaccurate corporate spin? After all it was a heartbeat later that he reemerged with NeXT which was arguable far more brilliant than Macintosh had been.
But in the end I agree with Dale. I've drunk the red cool-aid, and even when my Mac does bone-headed things (like wipe out my entire hard drive when I first upgraded to Panther) I forget it all the moment I see the master his stage, spreading the gospel.
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