Why I Miss 𝕊𝕥𝕖𝕧𝕖 𝕁𝕠𝕓𝕤

We are stuck.

It has been over a decade since Apple released the first iPhone in 2007.

Since then, we’ve seen the emergence of a new species of car, the birth and explosion of a new currency, grown meat in science labs, and even introduced of a seductive new extension of reality. The world has changed quite a lot in the last few years and seems only to be accelerating.

But in the personal device industry? It seems to be slowing down.

A streamlined evolution of the iPhone

Apple is a good company. They make nice, high-quality products that people enjoy using. They treat their employees well and their shareholders even better. People are happy.

But that is the Damn problem.

People are ‘happy.’ 🙄

For the duration of his time as CEO and Chairman of Apple, was Steve Jobs ever satisfied? If you’ve read Walter Isaacson’s biography you’ll know that Steve Jobs was a hurricane of passion, distress, metamorphosis, and ideation. He never would have called himself “happy,” because he wasn’t. “Happiness” is just a watered down way of saying “complacent,” and 👈 that word was not in Steve Jobs vocabulary. He was an agent of progress, of relentless dissatisfaction, and of a hard-fast yearning to improve the world. Change is almost never pleasant, but it’s (almost) always necessary.

But now he’s gone and we’ve been fucked ever since.

If you have read any of my stuff before, you’ll know that I’m fairly critical of modern technology and the way it has pried open man’s vulnerability through the folds of our brains. But, you’ll also know that I refuse to lay the onus entirely on one social platform, innovation, or company.

It’s not all Apple, nor any of its employees, nor even any of its consumers. They are doing what any company needs to do to survive, and doing it well. What they are missing is the fiery flair of a king who forgets the name of his country so that he can make room for the names of his people.

‘Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

The Great Stagnation🌧

The great stagnation of modern technology is not so different from a football team imploding down the stretch in the Super Bowl, or the failure of Economics Reform, or even a movie flopping at the box office.

It’s easy for any constellation of events to knock a frontrunner from his/her pedastal. It’s tough for one to stay there. But the greatest challenge is one that only few can even find, let alone achieve. The Bill Belichick’s, the Angela Merkel’s, the Christopher Nolan’s, the Steve Jobs’ of the world. They think different. They aren’t interested in merely maintaining a post atop the proverbial hill. No, they set out in search of a mountain — and usually climb that one too.

But leaders - exacting, trailblazing, leaders - are often overlooked and ignored due to their idiosyncratic edge. Here’s a snippet of what people called Jobs’ “Reality Distortion Field:”

It was confounding melange of a charismatic rhetorical style, an indomitable will, and an eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand. Amazingly, the reality distortion field seemed to be effective even if you were acutely aware of it, although the effects would fade after Steve departed. We would often discuss potential techniques for grounding it … but after a while most of us gave up, accepting it as a force of nature. — Andy Hertzfield

It’s not fair to say that Apple’s early genius, the genius that pushed the world into the golden age of mobile devices only to be followed up by a rut of glut and stagnation, was solely the result of one man. There was the Wizard of Woz and Jonny Ives and Timothy Cook and Guy Kawasaki and plenty of others. Their names may seem to have come straight out of a children’s fiction novel, but the truth of the matter was that they were all brilliant, true, men.

However, changing the world isn’t about collecting as many IQ points as possible; it’s about finding the common thread that loops them altogether.

After a tumultuous start with the company, the needly overbearing attitude that was Steve Jobs stepped into its lace, and used the thread to weave together a new paradigm for the world. The iPod, the Mouse, the iPhone, the MacBook, iTunes, iPads, Earbuds, they were all Apple and they were all innovation. So, I will say with no hesitation: Steven Paul Jobs, of Palo Alto California, was the first undisputed president of the technological revolution.

But since that sad 6th of October, 2011, the Silicon Throne has awaited its next rightful heir. Plenty (Musk, Bezos, Ellison, Zuckerberg) are tried and trying, and perhaps one will succeed. Perhaps not. The only thing that’s for certain is that the realm is divided and a realm divided cannot stand.

Our attentions’ are divided. Our politics’ are divided. Even our ambitions’, divided. How can America and Silicon Valley expect to lead, to drive progress, when we can’t even pass a bill, protect net-neutrality, or qualify for a world cup?

It’s always a matter of leadership.

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower Steve Jobs

Right now, in both the technological and political realms, it feels like, our society is lodged deeply in a, to borrow an economic term, dismal “market trough,” waiting complacently for the next offbeat, visionary, ideologue to step to assume the throne.

This is not to say that there aren’t good leaders. There are plenty. The problem is that the ones who think different are buried in the crowd. If we’re to believe a theory from Joseph Schumpeter, it might not be until the next big correction that there will be room for the crazy ones to breath.

Maybe then we’ll find out: 𝚠𝚑𝚘’𝚜 𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚝?