Steve Jobs and me

© MMXI V.1.1.3
by Morley Evans

I am working my way through Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

I have used Apple products since 1978 when I bought my Apple II. I chose the Apple because of the look and feel of the manual which was beautiful and skinny. I could understand it. My eyes glazed over when looked at the competitions' manuals which were like telephone books. "I'm too stupid for them," I concluded. When the Macintosh was introduced, I bought one because I understood it even better. I thought everyone would want such a machine once they tried it. I was wrong. They liked DOS, incompatibility, difficulty, confusion, breakdowns, high costs and crap. They had jobs fixing all the problems. I overlooked the Mac's shortcomings and worked around them. I did a lot of work for the next 15 years with my trusty little Macintosh. I paid a big price for sticking with Apple, but then I was rewarded by more "insanely great products" after Steve returned to Apple. 

I was always the odd-man-out in every organization and I had to work hard to be compatible with them while they made no effort to be compatible with me. They worked hard to make my life miserable. Times have changed. At Christmas, everyone had a new iPhone or iPad. One die-hard Windows user gushed, "I can do everything with my iPhone! I never go anywhere without it! Apple is the best!" In the waiting room of my chiropractor a few weeks ago, a baby, not much older than one, sat on her mother's lap playing with an iPad. The baby knew what she was doing! One of my nephews has a tablet made by ASUS that uses the Android OS. He can make it do impressive-looking things. I can't make it do anything. Jobs hated Google because they stole from Apple to make Android. I think Jobs can rest easy. After almost thirty years of development (copying the Mac), Windoze is still a dog. Android is no better. Reversing markets of ten years ago, Microsoft stock is $25 today while Apple is over $400. Google is flying high on it's many other achievements. Apple helped them to get off the ground.

In psychological tests that I have taken, INTUITION is — by far — my strongest attribute. Intuition is how I think and function. That is why I like Apple. That is what Steve Jobs brought to Apple. Jobs loved Zen and the Japanese esthetic. He didn't bathe every day and was rude, however, so he was not like me or the Japanese in many ways. Like Svengali, Jobs could manipulate people to squeeze the best out of them. I can't get anyone to do anything so I am a lone wolf. Zen is why I survived all the abuse I took in my first fifty years, especially after returning from Japan. Zen — and nutrition — is why my next fifty years promise to be much better! When I am one hundred years old and surfing the North Shore of Oahu, someone may pay attention. Unlike Jobs, I am a bristlecone pine or a tortoise that lives slow but lives long. "Be humble, like the dirt."

Jobs was a personality like Tesla, Ford, Napoleon and Alexander. Steve Jobs did change the world as everyone is saying today. My iPhone is a university in my pocket. It is also a concert hall, a broadcasting system and much more. Just "Think Different."

Did I mention that I never read a manual? I just dive in and start swimming.

Happy New Year!

- Morley