Steve Jobs, 0 to go

The final book on the list, which means it is also the final blog post for this class.

Initially I was not looking forward to this book, the entire thing was in black and white and was completely unappealing, it was large and bulky and made me dread reading it. However the material in the book was a lot more interesting than I had predicted.

Steve Jobs is famous in the computer industry for starting Apple, a company that recently surpassed Microsoft in number of computers being used by customers with their operating systems. Also the creator of the famous Ipod, Ipad, and Iphone, Steve Jobs is pretty much a household name. Less people know about Steve Jobs and his role in creating Pixar, and it seems likely that very few people know about how unique Steve Job's was and how it led him to be as successful as he was.

Steve Jobs had a unique personality in many ways, one was that he had little or no control over his emotions, he could be furious one second, overjoyed the next, and then suddenly be crying his eyes out, all in the course of a few minutes. He was verbally abusive to everyone he met, and would arbitrarily call someone's work worthless without even knowing what it was. Then he would be told what it was, and a week or two later come back to that person with their own idea and present it as his own if he liked it.

Steve Jobs was also a supreme perfectionist, everything about all of Apple's products had to be exactly as Steve imagined them, both internally and externally. This, combined with his aggressive personality and sharp tounge, caused a lot of problems over time and drove off many employees. It also made Apple's products a cut above everything else.

In all regards Steve was pretty much a jerk with OCD, but the interesting thing is, people followed him. He would abuse them, put them down, cause them endless grief with his antics, and they would still follow him loyally. Several of them described Steve's charisma as a "reality distortion field" that you were subjected to and couldn't help falling in line with. I found this phenomenon quite intriguing, my personality has some similarities to Steve's, similarities that I've tried to get rid of for obvious reasons. I have a temper that I have tried to reel in, and I'm rather bad at concealing my emotions. I have mood swings like Steve, albeit they are a bit less frequent than his are. So why does he have a reality distortion field and I just made a lot of enemies? What aspect of his personality is so different from mine so as to create such a different result? Perfectionism? Aggressiveness? This is something I am puzzled about and am unable to find an answer too. I feel like I would have to meet Steve Jobs and experience his charisma first-hand in order to truly understand how it works. Unfortunately if I ever meet Steve Jobs I don't think it'll matter that much to me anymore, I'll have much bigger problems to deal with.

Before I go any further, I'd like to point out that when I use the word charisma I am not using it incorrectly. Charisma is generally thought of as the ability to make people like you and follow you because they like you. Though this is generally what it entails, it is technically incorrect, charisma is only the ability to make people follow you, regardless of their opinion of you. It is in this sense that I use the word in reference to Steve Jobs.

Quirks of his personality and my inability to see how they work aside, the result of his personality is something to marvel at. The teams formed and managed by Steve Jobs are all made up of the cream of the crop employees. These are creative, skilled, passionate, and hard-working people who are confident in their abilities and can stand up for themselves. To work with Steve Jobs they had to be, anyone who was not all of these things wound up quitting or being fired from Apple.  His practice of abusing his employees weeded out all of the B-list workers, leaving him with a team of A grade employees who were just as passionate about their work as he was. It's amazing that it worked, and the result is incredible as well. To top it all off, there is practically nobody else who can pull this feat off in their companies, making Steve Jobs and his teams unique. What I wonder about this is what will happen to Apple now that Steve Jobs isn't there to help it along. Historically when Steve Jobs was not in control of the company they performed poorly, so poorly in fact that they practically begged him to come back after being the ones to kick him out of the company in the first place.

Unfortunately I have run out of things to talk about now, I had hoped to make my last blog post the greatest of them all, but the well of ideas ran dry early and I have nothing left to say. So now I am going to end things here while I'm on a high note. For the final time, farewell, and be sure to read frequently, it's better for you than watching TV.

Life of Pi

Well this was a relatively enjoyable read, it was certainly more interesting than the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was.

I am unsure if this book was fiction or non-fiction, though I am inclined to believe it was fiction due to the incredibly unlikely things that happen in the story. On the other hand, when the main character recounts his story to reporters at the end of the book they make the same conclusion of the story being fictitious and press for the real story, which the main character is unable to provide them since the real story is what he had already told. During the conversation he accuses the reporters of not wanting the true story, but rather that they wanted a story that would confirm their existing knowledge of the world without expanding their horizons. In this sense I am forced to wonder if perhaps the unusual qualities of the story do not necessarily make it false. Granted it is miraculous to think that someone could survive in a lifeboat for nearly a year with a full-grown tiger as a passenger, but if things truly progressed as they did then it is not quite impossible.

I could discover if the story was true or not through some research, however I feel it is more satisfying to leave the nature of the story unknown in this case and enjoy the uncertainty. Now I can choose whether or not to believe the story is true based on my mood, rather than have to deal with the reality, whatever it may be.

Apart from that, I found the view of religion held by the main character to be quite interesting, as it is strikingly similar to my own beliefs. The main character practiced three religions at once because he felt all of them let him get closer to god. This led to a rather amusing scene as the priests of each religion (or appropriate substitute depending on the religion) all converged on him and tried to badger him into picking a single faith, at the same time attacking each other verbally with the zeal that can only be found in religious fanatics.

My own personal belief is that there is no organized religion that can truly claim to have all the answers and be the one true faith. I believe there is a supreme being(s), I believe he(they) did create the universe, but I don't believe that the Christians are the only ones who worship those beings properly, nor do I believe any other religion has the only correct method of worship. I've noticed that all religions share the same basic principals, namely their code of conduct, things like "thou shall not kill" are present in all religions (excluding Satanic ones, in which killing is glorified). Keeping this in mind, I feel that the best way to honor whatever "God" exists is to follow those things that are considered by every religion as morally correct. I don't need to go to church to know that killing people is wrong, nor do I need to go to any other place of worship.

Because of this belief, I despise most, if not all, organized religions. Particularly in the case of Christianity, organized religions are very eager to toss their beliefs out the window and use religion as an excuse for their depraved acts, namely crusades against other religions. In my opinion there is no religion that is justified in attacking another simply because they are different religions, it goes directly against the values that are supposed to be an integral part of the religions. I want no part of such corrupted organizations, so I do not go to church or any other religious institution.

It was interesting to find my view replicated in this book to a degree, whether or not there is actually a person out there who feels that way.

Apart from these things I have little to say about this book, so I think I will end here. This leaves only one more blog post to go before this ends, so soon I shall be saying farewell for the last time, but until that time farewell.