My friend Lisa sent me a gchat message while I was "gettin SWOLL" to say she was glad to see the blog up and running again ... I suppose she was one of the 5 or 6 people who read this tripe. I then took Blago to the dog park and while there I got a facebook message from Benny, which I assumed was political in nature. I then got an email from Rafael which as he is a former colleague in the Congressman's office at once clarified Benny's message and made me realize it was not political at all ... it was religous.
For in fact I somehow without reading either message knew to google "Steve Jobs" to learn that in fact the King had died. While reading this news I then immediately encountered one of the ironies of living in his Majesty's Realm. I was distracted with "screenface" and didn't notice that Blago had made a new freind.
She likes Ron Paul (but not politician's in general). I sent her an email with my suggestions for the City Council race with the idea that she would give me the info for this Ron Paul group she's a part of. I of course have multiple motives in this 1. the pursuit of "domestic issuese" and 2. One of the candidates for City Council I support could probably gain some support from these folks. Had I not been so screenfaced I might have been charming enough to get her phone number but perhaps she'll email me ... I added a picture of Blago to the email ... he's "very good".
I then went to the supermarket ...
Going to the supermarket is a big deal for me. There are a limited amount of people who are in the circle enough to go to the supermarket with me. Not that I have some weird supermarket ritual that i'm embarresed of, it's just I actually feel thats somewhat intimate time reserved for people that actually matter. Some people feel it's weird to ask casual friends to help them move, I on the other hand will go and make friends with someone who has a truck for the sole reason of them helping me move -that day if neccessary. I'll by the beer and if they're cool we can totally hang out again, but it's gonna be awhile before I give you a ride to Safeway.
Another thing that's a big deal for me is songs. I have songs that are associated with people but not everybody gets a song but those who do know. And Molly's song came on while I was at Safeway ... This blog post is about His Majesty King Steven the First but first I need to tell this story of a girl ...
This is Molly's song, Molly who oddly enough I have spent a considerable amount of time with at the IGA in Londonderry VT. (We were the stars of a great sitcom that got cancelled, it had an auspicious start with cigarrettes and cans of coke in front of the IGA and ended with a hurricane). It is because of Molly that supermarkets are a big deal for me, and becuase of Divia and Molly and a few other "Smart Girls" that I became a "Steveangelical".
It happened in Weston VT. In a gazeebo which has since been devastated by the above stated hurricane. For many years (ok like 3) I had been a die-hard PC person. Sony in particular. The reason being that I liked to edit movies. Divia being herself already a loyal Tory in His Majesty's Kingdom thought that I was ridicoulus for not being a Mac person based on my own stated interests. Hindsight, a very sound argument.
But what worked on me was FOMO. I can't remember who all was sitting in the Gazeebo but everyone except me had a MacBook. Every one except me was connected to the internet and thus the world beyond the Gazeebo. But more importantly to each other via iChat. I was missing out ... TWICE, thrice if you count that my clunky VAIO had terrible battery life. In the face of overwhelming I evidence I had to change my belief.
Two weeks later I'm at Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y. with my sister who finanlly convinced me to get an iPod. Wise advice considering I was about to drive across the country. It actually did change everything ...
The first time I drove from N.Y. to Boulder 4 years I bought this huge hard drive that you can install into your car's radio. On the drive east I had made 3 weeks ealier I had some misc. mp3 player with a battery life of about 15 seconds.
For years before I had an iPod, infact for awhile before it even existed, I definitely wanted one. I didn't realize it until I had one but once I did I learned that when it comes to technology, Steve Jobs know's what I want so it should just be his job to decide that for me.
I admit to being a "fanboy". And it's not just Apple, it's also BMW, Salomon and Mozart. I am a sucker for the perfect balance of form and function. Like BMW cars, Salomon ski's and Mozart string quartets, Apple products are not the best at anything. What they are is in all things perfectly balanced. They may not have everything you want but they have everything you need in such mesmerizing yet understated perfection that it is truly Majestic.
Over the next few years I got a MacBook, then an iPhone.
And it was while I was buying pancake mix when Absolutely came on the radio ... which btw since when is that on supermarket radio?
I wanted to share this moment with Molly. I called, but she was probably not by her phone. I was just talking to her on gchat though and I remembered that Safeway has WiFi (because I frequently complain about it) so I get on the Safeway WiFi and call her computer. FaceTime was something I didn't know I wanted until I had it. And thanks to Steve Job's vision I was able to go grocery shopping with Molly from 1800 miles away.
We are still in an awkward phase with technology. But really what about society is not in an awkward phase right now?
At the same time technology distracts us from what is happening directly in front of us it lets us maintain and share profoundly across great distance in real time. It's not the real thing but its a great thing and a profoundly neccessary thing in a world where information is power. Like written language before it, the internet has revolutionized humanitie's ability to communicate for the better, forever.
Our society has been enhanced by technology, and this enhancement has increased exponentially since Steve Job's figured out how to humanize technology. Not only that but do it in a way that's sustainable. If you want people to be able to fully utilize technology they have to be able to access it.
A reliable way to ensure the access is to control the access. And once you control the access the best way to get it to the maximum amonunt of people is to if neccessary give it away. Power, Priviledge and Patronage, all you need for a Monarchy. And Machievelli would be proud of this Prince. To give you an example a few weekends ago I went to an apple store because something was wrong with my iPhone and it was my fault.
So they gave me a new one.
The following day I drop the new iPhone into a lake while sailing (great story for another time) and the same apple store gave me yet another new iPhone ... free of charge. Was this an act of Generosity from a kind and loving King? Yes, a little but more importantly the iPhone is a loss leader. Without the iPhone I can't buy anything from the app store, or iTunes or any of the myriad cash cows. Not to mention I wouldn't be writing this lengthy piece of free advertising. But I'm doing it as a labor of love to boot. If you're going to be King why not inspire in your subjects absolute devotion to match your absolute power? Steve Job's made Apple one of (and temporarily the) most valuable companies on the planet. But more importantly he made it one of the most loved. And not that loving Apple is good in it's own right, its how apple has humanized technology that the company and its leader are rightly reverreed. It's not that the revolution via twitter or the current occupy wall street movement was organized on an iPhone, its that the iPhone gives the concept of twitter a friendly user-interface. It's not that iOS is better or inferior to Android, it's that the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word Android would still be R2D2 had it not been for the iPod.
In Boulder there is the perpetual debate about recreation vs. conservation. It's the same on forest service land in the high country. In this debate I'm on the side of recreation because were it not for skiing maybe I wouldn't understand why its important to preserve some places. And maybe some people can't ski, but they mountain bike, or snowmobile or whatever it is they do to get around outside. If they can't go, and then bring others and teach them, who will be the next conservationists? I grew up in N.Y. where there ample non-profits and hippies trying to get kids to care about the planet. Music camp is why I'm an enviromentalist, because I got to go outside and it was awesome so now I care about it. When people value something even things like land conservation have a way of self correcting. If everyone has access to wild places then everyone will understand why it's important to protect them and everyone will become vigilant in their protection. But if i've nver been there i'm unlikely to care.
Likewise for the imposotion that technology can be, it is important that it gets adopted and that people become comfortable with it. Screenface is not going away, what matters now is how society adjusts. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't very long ago that it was thought to be a bad idea to teach people how to read. We don't get technology right right away. But what Steve Jobs did -as is a proper role of any King- is to remind us that through his Majesty we as a society are one. There will be much said and written about how Steve Job's was a business genius, a design genius, and a micromanaging tyrant. But here I want to say that I believe history will place him in the same league as a Mozart.
It is not often in the course of history where there is a truly great mind that lives and is also understood to be and celebrated as such in their lifetime. When these occassions occur, society rightly pauses when such a person leaves the planet. In Steve Job's we loose the embodiement, a contemporary manifestation of human progress. But he was only one servant and he shall be succeded by another.
Steve Job's loved Apple. I also believe he loved his mission -whatever he thought it may have been, I never had the opportunity to ask him, though I want to believe that the moment I got to have at Safeway because of FaceTime was in fact his mission. So simple, and perhaps counterintuitive. I believe his mission was not to replace the here and now with Screenface, but that Screenface is an enhancement to the here and now. That technology when applied properly enhances "real life" and it can do so without compromise.
We are of course not there yet. Written Language, printing press and T.V. in their turns all tried and in some ways succeded at bringing us all a little closer together. The difference now is that we have devices that can bring you either the entire world, or just the portion of it you want to see, and nearly on demand. Having never had the opportunity to meet the man I cannot speak to his personal character but I can say that I know my personal world, the people and things that matter most to me are enhanced by the labor of Steve Jobs and for this I owe a tremedous gratitude. And I write this on a MacBook while I stream Mozart requim (which I just downloaded from iTunes) from my iPad to my Apple TV to play through my living room speakers. Appulence ... I Has it!
Thank you Steve, for all accounts you would not have wanted to be called King but I hope your Gracious Majesty Understands that I call you King because you were the right kind of leader. The kind of leader many should aspire to be. Success and Wealth were the byproducts not the goal of Apple. The goal has been and I believe continues to be the constant perfection of the user experience. Apple's great success in value came as result of its acheivements in pursuit of it's values.
Thank you Steve for showing us that by focusing on what matters, its not only possible but sustainable to achieve what people seem to care about.
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