Keith,
I think you are missing the points regarding Steve Jobs. You simply can't teach or learn in a basic design course what he could and did do. Here is my take on his "mythical" accomplishments.
Steve Jobs and Apple have shown that it is possible for a corporation to operate at the creative level of purposeful thought. Job’s background as an abandoned child adopted by loving parents, a father who taught him to care about unseen craftsmanship, an early interest in electronics, growing up in the entrepreneurial, hacker community of Silicon Valley and the California counterculture shaped his extraordinary views of how to develop products and services that were ”insanely great”. He was a perfectionist who cared about small details, materials, and finishes, remaining alert to new information, resources and techniques. He organized Apple as one collaborative enterprise with no departments and only one budget. He participated fully in the conceptual modeling, integration and analysis of all Apple products during their development. He was a master communicator who shaped presentations, (Macworld), marketing (Think Different) and environments (Apple Stores) in creative ways. He demanded collaboration, integration, simplicity, beauty, and a seamless user experience across all products, services and environments. He shaped both human and material processes to make them timely and efficient, often applying funds in unique ways to assure outstanding execution, performance and delivery. He demanded quality in everything, people included, and was often a harsh judge. He extended his vision and knowledge to transform whole industries and shape cultures. He creatively applied all the dimensions of purposeful thought. No one has been able to integrate design and business better than he, or build a company more creative than Apple.
He really was creative across every domain in A Theory of Design Thinking. He also raises the question again regarding what makes a mind creative?
Best regards,
Chuck
On Jan 9, 2012, at 7:00 PM, Keith Russell wrote:
> Dear Kristina,
>
> There is no mention of prototypes being given to children in the
> Biography (unless I missed those pages?). Which indicates, for me, the
> general lack of a larger critical perspective in the book. Isaacson
> seems to have given up on getting Jobs to look at larger issues. He
> tries, in the early parts of the book, to draw Jobs into mythological
> dimensions, but Jobs just uses his magic stare and Isaacson allows
> himself to be stared at.
>
> Jobs's often repeated claim that he did no consumer testing and that
> consumers need to be taught what they need seems to match up with a lot
> of infuriating aspects of Apple products. I often reflect on the Apple
> "bozos" who designed this Apple "shit" (to quote Steve on other people's
> products). Yes, I do the same for Windows machines and my Android
> devices. And, I own more Apple IT products, at the moment, than
> non-Apple ones (7 Apples and 5 non-Apples - I teach IT stuff on
> Apples).
>
> Where can I find the information about children using Apple
> prototypes?
>
> Cheers
>
> keith
>
>>>> Kristina Borjesson <[log in to unmask]> 01/10/12 10:03 AM >>>
>
> I have also read the Steve Jobs biography recently. I was struck by
> about the same details as you. But my reaction and reflection was quite
> different: knowing that many of Apple's prototypes were put in the hands
> of children, it becomes very obvious that Apple' success partly is due
> to the company bringing back technology to the service of humans rather
> than the opposite.
> Best regards
> Kristina Borjesson
> Sent from my BlackBerry* wireless device
|