The Bite Out of the Apple

Impressive testimonials on all media channels, to announce Steve Jobs' leaving the ethereal world of Apple and its unearthly devices, October 5, 2011. Mr. Jobs' death sadly marks the passing of a visionary whose drive and vision will be remembered for decades to come, and who gave both geeks and technocrats comfortable, almost fashionable hats they could wear, although he was probably more a showman (half politician and half circus-star) than either of those labels.
 
The NY Times reporting of the event rightly announced the passing of the "co-founder" of Apple, a fact that even Obama's eulogy did not mention. Most radio reports I heard and news snippets I read this morning also seem to cast Mr. Jobs in that same flattering post-mortem light. It leaves me wondering if everyone is just floating on the same emotional, lost apple-pie-in-the-sky vision of the man, or if even half the fuss would be made over the passing of the other Steve, Mr. Wozniak, the true genius behind the technology which Jobs then took to market. The two complemented each other very nicely, I admit, but this latest praise only for the glittery element of the Apple duet seems a bit unfair. NYC Mayor Bloomberg went so far as to equate Steve Jobs with Thomas Edison, whose filament lightbulb brightened up our world. It is a cool and flattering (though overblown) parallel, and doesn't take into account the fact that Edison did not simply take another inventor's great idea, and mercilessly market it into stardom. The Apple trajectory was not all uninterrupted success, despite what the cult wants to remember of the brand's excellent achievements: the Cube and the Mac Newton are basement-shelf souvenirs today, gathering dust.
 
Most of my work is done on an Apple, and I am willing to give credit where credit is due, however. I work on Macs and have loved their stability, extraordinary quality and, yes, their almost faultless finish. I say "almost" for at this very moment, as I write this, the razor-sharp front edge of my MacBook Pro 13" is digging into my wrists, leaving red marks that most MacBook Pro users are familiar with. I have a pretty good idea whose unrelenting perfectionism is behind this annoying design element, chosen no doubt because a slight chamfer on the edge would have looked slightly different, and someone, somewhere, felt that it would compromise some sort of celestial ideal. What that same person forgot, is that people who know how to type properly, and don't just do so with two or four fingers, will rest their hands exactly along that sharp edge, keen enough for a two-handed suicide in a swift lateral motion. Although I love the rest of this machine, looks and pizzazz should not discount basic everyday ergonomics in a portable computer.
 
A last thought on the passing on of Mr. Jobs. In the worlds of business and technology, the same ones where modern women are at last making inroads, bringing important qualities of collaboration, harmony, and team-driven inventiveness, I wonder how Mr. Jobs' well-known authoritarian, almost dictatorial style, would be seen. Is all this praise for his success a reflection of the kind of corporate world we want to see in the future? A fellow Mac user and friend of mine recently commented that in the political arena, the equivalent of Steve Jobs might be one of those despicable dictators that we prefer to see the world without. We named a few, with a shameful blush. It was a tough realization, that leaders and visionaries are often those with the most unbearable personalities, a long way from the gentler, more collaborative management styles forecast by feminists. While we all recognize Steve Jobs' great legacy, we can ask ourselves if all that Apple has achieved would have been possible without his iron hand at the controls. Maybe we'll have to give a call to Steve Wozniak about that, one of these days, just to see what he thinks...
 
Rest in peace, Steve, and may you continue to inspire us all from afar. Your uncompromising, control-freak nature is responsible for the sharp aluminium edge digging into my wrists as I write this, but your Stanford Commencement address is a brilliant legacy, a very valuable message that should be mandatory listening for every teenager, undergraduate or exploring young person in all nations.
 
Denis Guiet