Steven Paul Jobs was a saint, of technology. His creative urges fueled a long period of disruptive innovation in computer history. And then, in the prime of his genius and the height of his success, Jobs died of pancreatic cancer.
But imagine if he had written a book, in which, he compiled all the knowledge that helped him create the ‘Apple’ philosophy – ‘The Book of Jobs‘. Then 3 major principles would form the core of that book:
1. Intuitiveness
This was the most important principal of Jobs’ design philosophy. Everything has to be intuitive. Jobs was of the opinions that computers shouldn’t be difficult to use; in fact, they should be utterly instinctive. A child should be able to use a computer the moment he touches it. This philosophy was an effort to make computing accessible to the average joe – a fundamental reason why Apple’s computers overtook IBM’s and proved to the world that computing is also meant for the masses.
2.Disruption
The second most important and yet equally paramount to Jobs’ success, was his knack for disruptive innovation. All of his endeavors were based either on completely original ideas or complete original takes on old ideas. One such revolutionary product that Steve Jobs pioneered was the ‘iPod’. The ‘iPod’ was the first device to allow you to fit 1000 songs in a space as small as your pocket. Until then, music could only be heard on large boomboxes -which were too heavy to be comfortably carried anywhere. So the norm was that music couldn’t be carried with you. The release of the ‘iPod’ disrupted that norm and itself created a new norm.
3.Simplicity
In 1974, Jobs traveled to India in search of spiritual enlightenment. There he learned the most important ideal to live by – simplicity. After returning to the States, he practiced Zen Buddhism for a while – which enforced the ideals of simplicity learnt in India. And in his tenure as the leader of the technology revolution, Jobs exuded simplicity. All you have to do is take a look at the clothes he wore. A plain black turtleneck, a pair of jeans and shoes was his usual pick. And to top it with a cherry, his round glasses that remind many a folk of Gandhi – the patron saint of simplicity.
Sadly, The Book of Jobs does not exist. But the principles that made Steven Paul Jobs a revolutionary, are found in books around the world. All you have to do is look.
Mind Feed 