Steve Jobs
Sunday, October 26, 2014
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I finished the audio book on Steve Jobs. I am listening to it once more. It is that good. Once every few decades a genius changes the way we do things; this genius resets the way we experience and see the world. I will point out a few things in this essay that struck me personally, listening to the story of this life of extreme triumph and loss.
Travel to India
Jobs wandered to India in his early years. This voyage had a lasting effect on him. He mentioned that Indians had a high level of intuition that westerners did not appreciate or use. He said that he learned that rational thought processes were not the only way to think about things and that intuition was very important - perhaps more important than rational methods. Jobs would trust his intuition throughout his life, and this was a theme of his that set him apart from other technical leaders.
Calligraphy
At Reed college, Jobs took a class in calligraphy. This exposed him to the ideas of beauty and how typefaces vary widely and the effect on beauty can be manipulated using different methods. This was another theme that Apple would have: the use of graphics and bitmapping to integrate many different fonts to dazzle the user with not just technical showmanship, but with beauty.
Gestalt Techniques and End to End Design
Connecting his interest in Zen Buddhism, he was exposed to design techniques that emphasized a holistic approach. Throughout his life he was obsessed with control over the product so that it would be a completely integrated experience for the user. The hardware and the software would be tightly integrated, and the physical design had to be infused with beauty and with the care of an artist. Jobs cared about the art just as much as he cared about the engineering. He did not want people to be able to get into the hardware or mess around with the software so that things would be disintegrated and messy like the Microsoft approach. One may think of Jobs’ approach as that of designing a beautiful appliance like a microwave oven; nobody would every think about writing a virus for a microwave oven or modifying its user interface to accept add ons from other manufacturers trying to improve the microwave after it was sold to the end customer.
User Experience
Jobs even wanted to control the user experience down to the opening of the product box. As anyone who ever purchased Apple products knows, the packaging is perfect. Every little detail of the cardboard box, the plastic, the shock absorber foam is absolutely perfect - both mechanically and aesthetically. Opening the box of an Apple product is a ritual. It is an experience. It is a sequence of events designed to draw in the customer toward the product as an artist who has made a painting draws the eyes of the observer, with the additional feature of a dance ritual - a movement toward a marriage of customer and product.
Insanely Great
Jobs wanted his products to not only be good and great, but insanely great. This means that the user will be dazzled with an integrated work of art and engineering. It was to be the best of art and technology in a unified whole. One often thinks of some Japanese quality approached that is often translated into English as “Customer Delight,” but one alternative translation - and perhaps a more important translation - is an idea almost like the word Salvation. It is as if Jobs was out to save souls: his and his customer’s soul with the marriage of customer to product to the company called Apple.
Change the World
Jobs was not shy about what he was doing. I think he asked a marketing director candidate working for Pepsi Cola something along these lines, “Do you want to change the world or do you want to continue to sell sugary sodas?”
Reality Distortion Filter
There is a lot of discussion about Jobs’ reality distortion filter. He was a very charismatic man. He had a forceful personality. He was a gifted salesman. He seriously believed that he would change the world. He would never have customer focus groups. He did not think that the customer knew what he wanted. He was very dramatic in introducing his products to the world and getting his fans very excited about Apple products. He was extremely convincing.
The irony is that many people thought this was a distortion of reality. The irony is on all of us. It is actually the opposite. We are all stuck in this reality distortion filter. We are stuck in modes of thoughts and ways of doing things. We cannot imagine a different way of doing things. It takes a genius to change our minds and to show us the way. Steve Jobs clearly perceived reality as it really was. We are the ones with the Reality Distortion Filter. We are the blind ones.
He had the eyes, ears, and heart to perceive reality.
He was the genius.
///
Freddy Martini
Sunday, October 26, 2014
///
I finished the audio book on Steve Jobs. I am listening to it once more. It is that good. Once every few decades a genius changes the way we do things; this genius resets the way we experience and see the world. I will point out a few things in this essay that struck me personally, listening to the story of this life of extreme triumph and loss.
Travel to India
Jobs wandered to India in his early years. This voyage had a lasting effect on him. He mentioned that Indians had a high level of intuition that westerners did not appreciate or use. He said that he learned that rational thought processes were not the only way to think about things and that intuition was very important - perhaps more important than rational methods. Jobs would trust his intuition throughout his life, and this was a theme of his that set him apart from other technical leaders.
Calligraphy
At Reed college, Jobs took a class in calligraphy. This exposed him to the ideas of beauty and how typefaces vary widely and the effect on beauty can be manipulated using different methods. This was another theme that Apple would have: the use of graphics and bitmapping to integrate many different fonts to dazzle the user with not just technical showmanship, but with beauty.
Gestalt Techniques and End to End Design
Connecting his interest in Zen Buddhism, he was exposed to design techniques that emphasized a holistic approach. Throughout his life he was obsessed with control over the product so that it would be a completely integrated experience for the user. The hardware and the software would be tightly integrated, and the physical design had to be infused with beauty and with the care of an artist. Jobs cared about the art just as much as he cared about the engineering. He did not want people to be able to get into the hardware or mess around with the software so that things would be disintegrated and messy like the Microsoft approach. One may think of Jobs’ approach as that of designing a beautiful appliance like a microwave oven; nobody would every think about writing a virus for a microwave oven or modifying its user interface to accept add ons from other manufacturers trying to improve the microwave after it was sold to the end customer.
User Experience
Jobs even wanted to control the user experience down to the opening of the product box. As anyone who ever purchased Apple products knows, the packaging is perfect. Every little detail of the cardboard box, the plastic, the shock absorber foam is absolutely perfect - both mechanically and aesthetically. Opening the box of an Apple product is a ritual. It is an experience. It is a sequence of events designed to draw in the customer toward the product as an artist who has made a painting draws the eyes of the observer, with the additional feature of a dance ritual - a movement toward a marriage of customer and product.
Insanely Great
Jobs wanted his products to not only be good and great, but insanely great. This means that the user will be dazzled with an integrated work of art and engineering. It was to be the best of art and technology in a unified whole. One often thinks of some Japanese quality approached that is often translated into English as “Customer Delight,” but one alternative translation - and perhaps a more important translation - is an idea almost like the word Salvation. It is as if Jobs was out to save souls: his and his customer’s soul with the marriage of customer to product to the company called Apple.
Change the World
Jobs was not shy about what he was doing. I think he asked a marketing director candidate working for Pepsi Cola something along these lines, “Do you want to change the world or do you want to continue to sell sugary sodas?”
Reality Distortion Filter
There is a lot of discussion about Jobs’ reality distortion filter. He was a very charismatic man. He had a forceful personality. He was a gifted salesman. He seriously believed that he would change the world. He would never have customer focus groups. He did not think that the customer knew what he wanted. He was very dramatic in introducing his products to the world and getting his fans very excited about Apple products. He was extremely convincing.
The irony is that many people thought this was a distortion of reality. The irony is on all of us. It is actually the opposite. We are all stuck in this reality distortion filter. We are stuck in modes of thoughts and ways of doing things. We cannot imagine a different way of doing things. It takes a genius to change our minds and to show us the way. Steve Jobs clearly perceived reality as it really was. We are the ones with the Reality Distortion Filter. We are the blind ones.
He had the eyes, ears, and heart to perceive reality.
He was the genius.
///
Freddy Martini
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