Steve Jobs and Philosophy

By: Topher Kashif - H01

Steve Jobs was an American inventor, designer, and entrepreneur who was the co-founder, chief executive, and chairman of Apple. He was born in 1955 to parents who were graduate students from the University of Wisconsin. They gave him up for adoption which led Jobs to be directionless, drop out of college, and experiment with different pursuits before co-founding Apple with Steve Wozniak in 1976.

In a Steve Jobs interview, he said, “As you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is, and your life is just to live your life inside the world and try not to bash into the walls too much.” He believed that this life was very narrow and limited life. Once you realize that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. You can change, influence, mold, and even build your own things that other people can use that they will then integrate into their definition of life. He believed that once you shake off the erroneous notion that life is just there, and you’re going to live in it, then you can embrace the world and make your mark.  

Steve Jobs often described himself as more of an existentialist. He believed that most entrepreneurs would describe them as such because of their ambition and pursuance for something new and improved. Jobs would say that without people like him, new and improved technology, procedures, designs, or anything thereof would never be developed.

Whenever Jobs would begin to talk about the work he has done or hopes to do in the future, he is extremely humble. Whenever he explains how advanced and fast-paced the technological field is, he says that it is almost like building up a mountain. Whoever is the latest and greatest won’t be able, or want to look down at the layer below, however, as we know today, that is somewhat untrue. Whenever people reference the improvements made to various technology, the previous generations are always mentioned just to show the leaps that we have and will continue to be making.

When Jobs began to talk about life and death, he had a rather blunt perspective on the entire topic. No one wants to die. Even the people who want to reach Heaven don’t want to die in order to get there yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it, and that is as it should be. Simply put, death is the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent to clear out the old while paving the way for the new.

While Jobs doesn’t necessarily believe in the saying, “everything happens for a reason,” he believes in making the best of the situation you are in. For example, when he was fired from Apple when he was 30 years old, he was devastated in the moment, but he now references that time as “the best thing that could have ever happened to him.” It freed him from the heaviness that came along with such success from Apple and he embarked on one of his most creative periods of his life. He started a company named NEXT and another named PIXAR. Both companies were extremely successful with NEXT eventually being bought by Apple which led Jobs back to Apple and Pixar being bought by Disney while creating the first computer animated feature film: Toy Story. Then he continued developing at Apple.

Quiz:

1.     In what year was Steve Jobs born?

2.     Did Jobs attend college?

3.     What did he often describe himself as?

4.     Jobs said that death is the “_____ ____ _______ of ______”

5.     What saying does he not necessarily believe in?

6.     What was the “single best thing that could have ever happened to him?”

Discussion Questions

·      Do you believe that Apple would be the world’s first trillion-dollar company that it is today without Steve Jobs’ influence?

·      Do you think the smartphone field would have developed the way it has especially with such competitiveness without the introduction of the iPhone as the first touchscreen phone without a stylist? Would it have taken longer for the field to develop?

·      Do your thoughts align with Jobs’ in regard to the saying, “everything happens for a reason?” Why or why not?

·      How do you think Apple was able to sustain such high sales in various products while also having some of the highest price tags in the industry?

·      Would you say you mostly, slightly, or not at all align yourself philosophically and ideologically with Steve Jobs? Why?