The 5 most important lessons we can learn from Steve Jobs
A lot of Apple insiders and industry analysts have used the genuinely sad occasion of the death of Steve Jobs to try and extract positive lessons from how he did business and how he oversaw the designs of Apple’s products . This may be slightly cynical but is also from a sincere desire that these lessons are not lost as the technology industry comes under the sway of a slightly greyer group of CEOs.
Confusingly, many of the lessons seem completely self contradictory as writers and analysts see their own beliefs validated through the success of Apple. This is normal, we all do this, seeing what we want to see, projecting evidence of what we emotionally want to be true onto every success and failure. But it makes it hard for us on the outside of Apple to learn from their success when every expert we rely on to understand these lessons claims the same insights that they were claiming before they analysed Apple’s success.
To address this I have quickly jotted down the actual 5 most important lessons we can learn from Steve Jobs. What makes my list more authoritative that the previously published ones is that I have owned an apple product, have access to the internet, have the typing skills to assemble my list and a blog I can publish it on. The list follows:
1. Shininess is not just skin deep
The reflective qualities of both Apple product materials and marketing visuals are not a decorative throwaway or an unintended artifice of manufacturing. Apple’s own research discovered (and later filed patents on) the effect highly reflective surfaces (both actual and rendered) have on user perception, consumer behaviour and actual technological performance. This is why they have persisted with the reflective floor visual style in their marketing materials even as it has fallen out of fashion over the last 5 years. This is why their computers have transitioned to highly reflective screens even on professional machines and against the protestations of their small group of power users. In short, they discovered that the higher the level of reflectiveness the higher the ‘technologicalitiness’ of the device. And not just the perceived technologicalitiness but the actual scientifically measurable amount of technologicalitiness that is in inherent in the designiness of any consumer product. This is true because I have created a graph illustrating the effect:
2. Protect your neck
Steve Job’s decision to wear polonecks at first seems a strange anomaly when viewed in the context of the superior grasp of formal aesthetics displayed in the apple product line. However he was utilising a phenomenon that was once common knowledge but has recently fallen out of popular conciseness. The phenomenon is this: The majority of physic power is lost through the neck. A quick reference to the historical fashion of subjected vs ruling civilisations will validate the rise and fall of this piece of strategic knowledge. It is also mentioned on the internet.
3. Black cloth deflects telekinesis
Apple could chose any colour under the sun for the little cloths they put over their prototypes. They chose black. As well as being slimming the colour’s abilities to deflect destructive telekinetic attacks from Microsoft and Google are well documented I would imagine. This may sounds slightly grasping but I ask you this: What colour are Steve’s polonecks?
4. Put little bumps on the bottom
My computer has little bumps on the bottom to stop it from sliding around and scratching the base. That must be a thing I assume.
5. Don’t trust people with little hands
Look at all the Apple product videos. Every engineer and designer presenting has hands in a pleasing proportion to the rest of their body. This is no coincidence, research may have shown that people with unusually large hands design ridiculous products with controls the size of Duplo blocks, while people with tiny squirrel hands have a propensity to steal. Maybe. I don’t know.