Steve Jobs, The Man Who Changed The World ... Almost

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The man who changed the world ... almost

Tulsathit Taptim

I didn't like Steve Jobs that much.

This is quite ironic for someone who was an early adopter of both the iPhone and iPad. His success, I guess, should be measured by the array of gadgets at my home - from some of the very first iPods to his first version of computer tablets - and the fact that I'm seriously considering iPhone 4S. Whether you loved him or hated him, Jobs' innovations kept pushing their way through your door.

I'm writing this shortly after he died, long before my column deadline. The reason is that if I wait, the feelings will have all been gone after five days. And surely I'm not the only one. When you read this, the Jobs fever must have subsided. It's him who was partly responsible for our life on the emotional fast track. In this era, you don't linger with any feeling.

Jobs' tools flood us with alternatives. They lead us head-on to something, only to snap us away from it just like that. You need a great attention span in a world spinning at the rhythm orchestrated by the function of his products. If they bring you a sad experience, you may need to shed a tear fast, because in no time the world will whirl on to the next subject of interest.

Make no mistake, Jobs' tools reflect his philosophy that life is too short to be contemplative. "Your time is so limited," he said during that now-famous "Connecting-the-Dots" speech, "so don't waste it living someone else's life." And he helped us jump from one thing to another by the tips of our fingers. Why read only when you can also solve sudoku puzzles on the same screen? Why indulge in just classical music when the thrill of a slasher flick is just one touch away? One by one, he brought down the barriers, including the age limits for playing computer games.

His "Stay hungry, stay foolish" motto is intriguing. Jobs' innovations may have made us just what he wanted his lectured students to be. The tools make us feel the sky's the limit, and so we want even more. The products increase our appetite for knowledge, entertainment and personal satisfaction. Everyone is a beginner, one more time. Just as Jobs felt when he was fired by Apple: "The heaviness of being successful is being replaced by the lightness of being a starter again."

But can his tools make each day count? Jobs no doubt was the kind of man who didn't want to waste a second. "If you live each day as if it was your last, some day you'll most certainly be right," he quoted in a one-liner to try to persuade his listeners, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, to try to reach for the stars at every waking moment. With the lure of his innovations, I have doubts about this as-if-it-was-your-last-day persuasion. Advertisements depict iPad and iPhone as serving creativity, but the challenge for users is how to avoid a repetitive lifestyle after you use them for a while, even if you try to pretend it's your "last" day.

Then there is the "prices" issue, which I have always debated with Jobs-admiring colleagues. His tools, no matter how brilliant, did not "democratise" the technological playground due to the aloofness of their market values. On his way to becoming a man credited with changing the world, Jobs got considerable help from cheap or free outlets of creativity and even those who copied his products. Connecting the dots carefully and we'll see how the producers of cheap MP3 players and the likes helped turn the world into what it has become.

We can say whatever we like about Steve Jobs, but the bottom line is, nobody is perfect, and he must have given us the best he could. His ideas may not have come to us cheaply but, as they say, there's no such thing as a free lunch. He was an integral part of a new-world era, and that's what history will keep saying about the man.

But, to Jobs, the fun may not have been only about making history, or seeing iPad become the fastest-selling technology device ever. How many of the millions of people taking to the air every hour are thinking of the Wright brothers? Without Thomas Alva Edison, human progress may not have been what it is now, but who has thought of him over the past week or even the past year?

Jobs has simply helped connect the key dots. That's all. That must be where his fun was. And that's what I'm thanking him for. RIP, Mr Apple. (Or would you rather be called "Father of the Apps"?)

-- The Nation 2011-10-12

[chiangmaicharlies]

Not sure where this piece was going! I am not an Apple fan, neither do I own anything tasting of Apple, but this guy does strike me as some sort of real visionary.

[animatic]

Tulsathit is clearly mis-applying his personal reactions to the speeding up of society, to Jobs personal philosophies and adding the company marketing on top of it.

It is far from simply devices that have cascaded from Job's creative endeavors that have caused the great speeding of life. Tulsathit only focuses on Jobs, and not all the other technos and content providers, who did or didn't copy his break throughs. If anything Jobs made computing function for many people in ways that made it personalized, not a business function, but something the people with limited computer science knowledge could do to make their personal experience better. iMac/iBook with printer for students, iPod, iPhone, iPad. His technologies actually allows you to focus your choices more closely to your views not force you to another's views. Mac revolutionized the music production, print and video production worlds, making it accessible to most anyone with talent. So more product, and the INTERNET provided distribution paths. Bear in mind the INTERNET was not predominantly a Mac domain, but has done much to put poor Tulsathit in his funk of too much input.

Yes the world speed up and people are swamped for choices, but often these times in your iPod listening what YOU put in there was a way chill out and shut out the noise of society for a spell. And a very great probability is that those pieces of music and visuals were, in whole or in part, created on a Mac, or 3D, compositing, morphing and rendering software with origins on NeXT systems via Pixar and others who partnered with Jobs.

So if K. Tulsathit is swamped mentally by societal choices, so be it, but he should not get a pass to myopically blame one innovator for his inability to filter effectively in the communication world he lives in.

Edited October 13, 2011 by animatic