Apple changed my life,
thanks to the creative genius of Steve Jobs.
What a giant of a man!
We mourn his premature passing.
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. Stay hungry. Stay foolish."
I remember my commutes across the bay in the late nineties, with billboards along 580 doing for once for me what they were designed to do - invoke a desire for the product they advertised. Those iBooks in their sleek design and their cute colors (purple my favorite, but the blue one was on sale refurbished) looked like something I might actually want to lay my eyes on, have near me and learn how to use.
"I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. Humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing about a third of the way down the list....That didn't look so good, but then someone at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of lomotion for a man on a bicycle and a man on a bicycle blew the condor away.
That's what a computer is to me: the computer is the most remarkable tool that we've ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds."
That's what a computer is to me: the computer is the most remarkable tool that we've ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds."
I took to the Apple iBook like a Mermaid takes to water. Not a geek by any means I was able to learn, mostly by myself and would not be here without an Apple laptop, I am currently still only on my second iBook, now in it's 7th year of use.
"It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."
This quote of Steve's sure rings true in my ears and supports my experience in my approach to bodywork. Clients would show up for one, usually superficial reason, relaxation, and leave often with an epiphany. They had no idea, about the state of their bodies, their true needs and wants! Steve Jobs differed in that he knew how to advertise his products. He knew how to create a desire for products we had no idea yet we wanted, much less needed. He also had inventions for sale that could be looked at, held, inspected, played and experimented with. Very different from my selling an experience that comes and then goes and gets forgotten, or at best stored as a cherished memory in some deep dark recesses of the brain.
"[Y]ou can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."
Jobs had grown Apple into the world’s most valuable technology company through his scrupulous attention to detail and his ability to, in his own words, marry technology with liberal arts and humanities to “make our hearts sing.” Huffington Post
"... great things in business are never done by one person, they're done by a team of people."
Many blame Apple for manufacturing their products outside the US and depriving Americans of badly needed jobs. Laws may need changing in this respect, but to blame a company for choosing cheaper labor in areas of the world with lower living standards is excessively idealistic and unreasonable. What may constitute worker exploitation needs to be adjusted to each culture, but world wide basic standards ought to apply. Nobody wants to exploit child labor, yet some children are rather happy to be able to work. I started a paying job, illegally then in Switzerland at the age of 14, and loved it! Maybe a hefty import tax would solve the problem?
Many blame Apple for manufacturing their products outside the US and depriving Americans of badly needed jobs. Laws may need changing in this respect, but to blame a company for choosing cheaper labor in areas of the world with lower living standards is excessively idealistic and unreasonable. What may constitute worker exploitation needs to be adjusted to each culture, but world wide basic standards ought to apply. Nobody wants to exploit child labor, yet some children are rather happy to be able to work. I started a paying job, illegally then in Switzerland at the age of 14, and loved it! Maybe a hefty import tax would solve the problem?
Steve Jobs died of complications of Pancreatic Cancer, diagnosed in 2004. He worked as CEO of Apple until 6 weeks prior to his passing. "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being," Apple
President Barack Obama said Jobs was "among the greatest of American innovators -- brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it. "
President Barack Obama said Jobs was "among the greatest of American innovators -- brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it. "
RIP Steve Jobs!
