Steve Jobs' Biography by Walter Isaacson: A Review

Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs is a good read. No doubt. How could one go wrong with a subject such as Jobs? All the years I've been reading about Steve Jobs, I used to get a kick out of people complaining about his controlling ways, his voracious appetite for work, and his unrelenting quest for excellence. Well, I wouldn't expect new devices like the iPod and the iPad to come to life by a slow, lassez-faire type with no sense of urgency.

Isaacson's biography is not peppered with too many 'genius' references. I'm glad it's not. It's another strong aspect of the book. Isaacson portrays a person who is aware of societal hierarchies and knows that to get any kinds of access, one needs to be in the right place at the right time. The anecdote of young Jobs forcing his parents to sell their house so that they could move to a place they couldn't quite afford just so that he could attend a better school was most compelling. Those who observe that Jobs did things his way and had disregard for established hierarchy seem to be wrong here. Young Jobs understood that everyone needs a good beginning, even one who has the ability to bring us the iPod.

Another griping snippet in the book was Jobs' refusal to have any sort of relationship with his biological father. Birth anxieties seem to have accompanied him his whole life. Isaacson seems to infer that much of drive was informed by the fact that he was given up for adoption. Jobs' personal relationships were well captured in the book. Two other people stand out in this section as well, his sister and his illegitimate daughter. Through it all, Jobs looks like any average person out there. He was accompanied by ontological insecurities and found work a good place to be and maybe hide in.

Those who refer to Jobs as a genius seem to do so decontextually. What is a genius anyway? What standards are we employing here? Are we talking 'Leonardo' genius or 'Einstein' genius? Apropos, since I mention the latter here, what made Einstein interesting from a popular culture point of view is the fact that he was, for some intents and purposes, quite average. He didn't excel scholastically, didn't have big professional ambitions when in the work force, ah, and, most importantly, had a troubled relationship with mathematics. It took many a person to help and inform him.

And just like Isaacson's biography shows, it took a lot to help and inform Steve Jobs. But while Jobs was extremely hard on those who crossed him, he would be harder on those he liked and, as a result, held to a standard they couldn't always keep. What people like Jobs have is tenacity. Skill comes in many forms. There might just be as many ways of being good at something as there are moments in time. What allows one to produce a great product, in the case of Jobs, is his ability to understand that function could never truly shine outside the realm of form. Aesthetics is never inconsequential. This is a sentence I find myself uttering often. Form is not the stuff of levity. Form has heaviness, the heaviness of importance. It's one nugget I am certain of and one I also saw elaborated in this text.

I recommend that you read it. It won't necessarily inspire but then again, should it? Fundamentally, we are all the same whether we're creating things that millions will want to have or not.

Poetry and the iPhone 4s

I have a knack for poetry.
And poets.
Especially, poets.
I have much respect for people who have an innate ability to produce poetry. Maybe that's why I privilege my poet friends to the degree that I do. I am aware of their skill and I pay homage to it. I was never good at writing it. However, I vouched to get decent at interpreting it.

Today I met a poet.

We met while talking about the iPhone 4s and how it compares to other super phones in the market. The conversation started most business-like. I've been in the technology business for a year now and there has been a shift in my quotidian jargon. I've replaced words like la terza rima, literary tropes, synecdoche, and gender theory with words like multicore, downloading speeds, data, and Android. The latter choice is faster, very 'now', technical and, at times, not very poetry-informed. It's denuded of tropes. It's clean, clinical, and free of literary entanglements.

At times though, my literary scholar self comes out most unexpectedly and, voila, a poet is befriended.

The following conversation took place today between me and the poet:

The poet: "So, what do you make of the Samsung Galaxy S II dominating Europe right now?"
I: "It's good. It speaks well for the Samsung brand but Apple is still king. It's tough to ignore the 'cool' factor of the brand. Especially now. The iPhone 4S is going strong."
He:"The Galaxy S II is a superphone, though."
I: "No doubt. The S II is a superphone, it has a double core, 14.4+ downloading speed, 4.2; screen, 8MP camera. At the same time the iPhone is a super phone to all those who have it and have experience with it."

I continue and this is where the connection takes place.

"You know, the new 4s is poetry."
He:"What do you mean by that?"
I:"It's a beautiful balance of form and content. It has capabilities that I doubt most users will ever come close to making use of and, not insignificantly, it's aesthetically pleasing. It's like a good poem."
He: "Hmm. Funny you say that. I do that. I perform my poetry."
Instead of resuming the conversation like any other 'normal' person, I channel my literary scholar self and say, "structured or free verse?"
He: "Allen Ginsberg. All the way, Ginsberg."
I: "He seemed to need so much affection, a shame not to make him happy."
He: "Death & Fame." Hmm. Really?"

He looks happy to have outed someone. Someone like him. Someone of his ilk.

...
At this point we know we're not about to go back and talk about Wired articles on super phones or Steve Jobs' passing, the Apple brand, or superphones.

He: "So, who's yours? Favorite, I mean."
I: "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita...."
He: "Dante."

Needless to say, we will speak again. Meeting poets with a knack for technology doesn't happen often. Most of my poet friends are not technofiles. Or infected by neophilia, for that matter.

My new friend says he reads his own poetry at a cafe nearby.

In a businesslike fashion, I open up my iPhone, tap on the calendar app, ask for the name of the cafe, click on the GPS and calculate the distance from work. Beautiful. It's only 2.4 miles South.

Neophilia and Tiger Woods-ing

Neophilia is a term I first heard used with reference to me years ago. I already knew I had it. I just hadn’t been officially diagnosed with it yet.
I suppose it was one of those things everyone knew to be true but never felt the need to address out loud.
She’s a neophiliac, you know? Or if she's not fully a neophiliac she has definite tendencies for neophilia. To me, the thing sounded almost like a chronic condition which, I have to admit, I found rather amusing.
So, what’s a neophiliac? According to Wikipedia, a neophiliac or neophile is an individual who is unusually accepting of new things and excited by novelty.
Accepting of new technology? Check.
Excited by technology? Mais oui. Check, please!
So the diagnosis was one I accepted fully.
A close friend noted the other day that he has yet to remember seeing me use old things. He suggested that we go vintage clothes shopping and before finishing the sentence he says, "Oh, yeah, I know. You don't do old or vintage."
I can’t use old things. I don’t get a kick out of going to vintage stores (I have tried. I did the legwork et al.), I don’t like used stuff, I literally feel like I’m breaking into hives the moment I try someone else’s clothes, for instance. I’m not a germophobe, though. It’s the fundamental craving for neophilia that creates this kind of discomfort with old things.

I’ll illustrate the point by bringing up a concrete example: the iPhone and my continuing love affair with it.

I wonder how it happened that a little gadget became more appealing to me than the most exciting and interesting person you’ve ever met who constantly carries on about some very exciting topic: how wonderful they think you are and blah, blah, blah. And yet, you have the need to check the New York Times App and see what new articles have been posted in the past few hours you haven’t checked or if iTunes has resolved that problem you had with your recent Entourage purchase.

Because, of course, you cannot check at a different time.

You’re out with the people you like very well. You’re having an enjoyable time, the topic of discussion are attention-grabbing and you're especially proud of the ensemble you put together, and, yet, in the middle of the night you have this strong need to reach down your purse/messenger bag and take out your iPhone. Meanwhile the other people are in the process of narrating. You find yourself following along even interjecting the usual ‘wow,’ ‘huh,’ ‘gripping’ and yet you do what you otherwise do not tolerate. And social multitasking vexes me. I generally find it a bad idea and I expressly comment against it. The double standard here is so strong that to address it I’d have to write another post and I’m not feeling particularly self-correcting at the moment so I’ll let it go for now.

I’ve managed to manage basically most of anything else but my craving for neophilia. If it’s a new notion, it’s aesthetically pleasing, and companies I respect created it, I feel I have to, at least, try it. I tried to explain just this to my party on a recent trip to Chicago that I had to stop at the Apple store just for a little bit. Translation: a two-hour stop. I think the answer was something like, "You know, some go to the Gap, others watch the Wendy Williams Show. My guilty pleasure is allowing my eyes to graze at the Apple store. Let it go. It's my thing."

I’ve tried not bringing the iPhone along and the experience wasn’t a pleasant one. I kept wondering if I was missing out on something. I was told I looked like I was hopped up on caffeine at 1:00 in the morning. So, not good. Naturally, I didn’t miss out on much. How much novelty can occur on a weekend night between 9:00pm-2:30am, after all? It turns out, not much at all. I excuse myself, go to another space, send a text to my other party saying, “Yeah. I have nothing of substance to say other than, I think I’m Tiger Woods-ing. Relax. The other party(ies) is the iPhone.”

I rarely go anywhere without my iPhone. I don’t do so because I have to know who’s calling, texting, or emaling. I do so because I’ve gotten accustomed to the feeling of comfort I get knowing that I won’t get lost somewhere in Southern California, Eastern Canada, or Central Ohio. The point is, I also bring the iPhone to social gatherings.

I've given this a whole lot of thought and the best thing I could say about such 'chronic conditions' as neophilia is to embrace them, work with them, and find productive ways to incorporate them in quotidianity. It turns out, neophilia is quite a little helper, actually.

So, today, my tip of the hat goes to my favorite chronic condition, neophilia.

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US Population Distribution from 1950-2050: WOW!

I highly recommend you look at this chart. Keep looking it for a few seconds.

You may read/view it here.

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Gadget Mania

This morning as I was running my errands I found myself getting restless by the minute. I wondered why that was as the anxiety was of a distinctly different nature. It was nuanced by a kind of emergency I had yet to experience. I did a run-down of my routine and all seemed in order. All minus one thing, that is.

I had forgotten to bring my iPhone along.

If I'm walking or waiting in line somewhere I use the opportunity to read the news, email, or text and satisfy an array of multi-tasking inclinations. Gadgets like the iPhone succeed in claiming your attention because they are just that well deserving of your attention. They, more often than not, produce the right info. Not only that, they're quick and they don't waste time by producing a litany of 'uhms,' 'you knows,' and 'likes.' How many humans can we say this about, folks?

I was away from it for about ninety minutes today and I don't think I've ever hurried that much to get home. Under other circumstances, I would have checked into the nearest Betty Form clinic for the clinically addicted to iPhones and other such über-cool gadgets. Instead, I realized that I, like millions of others, have long fallen into the unavoidable lap of trickery of the iPhone. For, once a user, always a user.

And yet somehow I didn't try to rectify the problem and get all 'zen.' I suppose I know who I'm dealing with so I gladly give in. Because, after all, I do know that just when I start to think I'm out, it, the gadget, will find a way to pull me right back in.





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Steve Jobs on "Stop-Doing" Strategy

I was talking to one of my best friends last night and I noted that Steve Jobs had been a high-frequency item in a lot of the books I've been reading the past few months. Then I specifically referred to a quote from him as featured in Matthew E. May's very well-written new title In Pursuit of Elegance.

In this context, Jobs was referring to what is called a stop-doing strategy. He observes:

"People think focus means saying yes to the things you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things we have done." (81)

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Science of Sleep

Those who are troubled sleepers value sleep more than those who find themselves in dream-landia two minutes after their head hits the pillow. Why? Well, don't we tend to value the things that come our way with a higher degree of difficulty a tad more?

I also have a theory about general compatibility issues. A troubled sleeper will find her/himself more emotionally comfortable when in relationships with good sleepers than with other malaise-sharers. Misery does not love company, after all. The yang seeks the ying. And so forth. Imo, at least.

Having had sleep troubles since, well, birth, I have an active interest in sleep studies and new research. One of the best gifts I received this past birthday was a computer program called Pzizz. Two of my friends purchased the power nap/sleep program for me and this is a product I heartily recommend.

If you travel a lot as well and find yourselves in different time zones and areas with some measure of consistency, Pzizz will come in handy. It doth work! Turn it on and you will be able to catch a few zzz's. And rather quickly.

The Times had a piece on yet a new sleep-monitoring gadget called Zeo. David Pogue reviewed it and he concludes the piece by noting:

"Just watching the Zeo track your sleep cycles doesn’t do anything to help you sleep better. Plotting your statistics on the Web doesn’t help, either.

But the funny thing is, you do wind up getting better sleep — because of what I call the Personal Trainer Phenomenon. People who hire a personal trainer at the gym wind up attending more workouts than people who are just members. Why? Because after spending that much money and effort, you take the whole thing much more seriously.

In the same way, the Zeo winds up focusing you so much on sleep that you wind up making some of the lifestyle changes that you could have made on your own, but didn’t. (“Otherwise,” a little voice in your head keeps arguing, “you’ve thrown away $400.”)"

Read more here.

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Of iPhones and Cultural Signaling

I'm writing this piece while riding the subway in a different country. Two Indian girls are sitting next to me looking over my left shoulder. Generally, I'd get annoyed but their curiosity is childhood-informed, innocent. In this setting, I don't mind that they have access, albeit limited, to my computer.

The democratization of the internet medium and the flourishing of Web 2.0 have turned online users into potential powerhouses. As my friend Polly noted to me a few days ago in a conversation we had over text messaging, Web 2.0 has enabled average users to a degree never before seen and the reason behind its boom is the immediacy factor. If you have an idea, you can publish it. Granted, some get more traffic than others, but anyone can publish if one so chooses. Naturally, it's also tough to find quality out there as a lot of qualitatively questionable material manages to creep in. Ergo, being able to discern quality is yet another sign of cognitive and experiential maturity.

Julian Sanches asks some interesting questions about the future of cultural signaling and how it informs/relates to sociality and privacy. Obviously, the lines between virtuality and reality are getting blurrier by the day and I'm not even sure that phrases like 'word of mouth' can quite manage to maintain the kind of literal meaning they once did. 'Word of mouth' in this day and age could easily be a text message, a news feed, a 'poke', forwarded email, a recommendation from an iPhone app user to another, and on and on.

Of course, information is out there for the taking and fabulous advancements in technology have expedited the birth of so many incredible applications. And I love so many of them. I rely on many of them daily. For instance, as an iPhone user, I find myself loudly praising its many applications which seem to do everything for me but the dishes and picking of the mail. However, I can't help but think of the private/public lines. I often talk about this in other projects of mine as well as my podcasts and the question I always ask is how do users know when enough information is enough/appropriate?

One of my closest friends sent me a gripping email in which he said that he had run across a personal site of one of his former college flames and despite his many temptations to read through it, out of respect for the person and their privacy, he chose not to.

"It was tough, dude. I really, really wanted to but then I didn't. Somehow, in hindsight, I feel more adult, though."- he writes. He continued to explain that he did so not because he is so much more self-controlled than most or because he suffered a hit of sainthood, (as I tend to say when joking about certain acts of kindness), but because he felt discomfort at the thought of other people out there potentially expressing an interest in his own life and routine when it's none of their business. He ended the email by saying, "...lurkers annoy the crap out of me so I wasn't about to turn into one myself."

Not being able to escape hints of condescension and a small dosage of self-righteousness I said what I've caught myself say a few other times: "There's a reason you're my pal."

Very soon Smart phone users will have access to fellow Smart phone users wherever they happen to find themselves and without knowing the first thing about them, they'll have access to their iPods selections, their most favorite apps and so forth. As much as I like technology, I find this access a tad privacy-evading. Of course, this does not mean that I don't wonder sometimes about what kinds of music people around me are listening to on their iPods, especially if I've already grown tired of my selections.

If I had a dime every time I've rolled my eyes when I hear things like, 'yeah, I know so-and-so, I friended them on MySpace and I read their blog.' Or, 'I know we'll hit it off. We have the same taste in music. I read it in your profile,' I'd have unlimited access to Starbucks. Online communication tends to render one's sight slightly off-focus when it comes to evaluating the true nature/essence of things. It is rather difficult to 'size one up' outside physical reality. As a result, intimacies based on delusion are more easily spawned in virtuality.

Consider what Sanches writes below. The question he raises at the very end is congruent with the questions I've been pondering as well.

"We’re at most a few years off from broad adoption of augmented reality applications in widely-used smartphones, which will have all of us radiating reams of data to anyone in our physical proximity who actually cares. Your Facebook profile will dog you like one of those floating Sims icons. You won’t just know what the girl sitting across the coffee shop is blasting on her iPod, you’ll be able to listen in. All the tech is actually here already, if not in quite the fancy form it’s implemented at the link above. All it would take is for someone to integrate the location-sensitive functions of an app like Loopt into the apps for Facebook or Last.fm, and you’ve got a point-and-profile system. The real question is whether people actually want to signal that much in the physical context. Some of us are chary of giving every stranger in ping-shot a pretext for striking up a conversation."

In sum, just because one has so much access to others' selections, doesn't mean that one place one's self in one's virtual space without being conscious of appropriate boundaries. Or, as a favorite reply sums it up:

"Yes, your iTunes library is comparable to mine and we both like Curtis Hanson, however, interest is still a missing ingredient."

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graph per brisbanetimes

Love, Money, Happiness: Evolutionary Biology

In his book Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller examines what dictates our buying and spending decisions from lipstick to cars, from the texts we read to the music we enjoy.

For this book, Dr. Miller asked his readers to do the following exercise:

List the ten most expensive things (products, services or experiences) that you have ever paid for (including houses, cars, university degrees, marriage ceremonies, divorce settlements and taxes). Then, list the ten items that you have ever bought that gave you the most happiness.

Then he adds: Count how many items appear on both lists.

Here are the things that popped up on both of my lists.

There were five.

1) Travel - It's an indispensable component of my life. While my loved ones joke about my carbon foot-print and I counter that joke by saying, 'oy, I bike hundreds of miles a month. I'm making up for it,' travel has educated me in ways that are indeed incomparable. As I just noted to someone, I like travel because it keeps me honest.

2) Getting a PhD - Graduate work means all kinds of difficult as well as all kinds of happy. My years as a doctoral student were some of the most memorable ones. This is on both lists because, while it is a huge investment, it's also brought me a lot of happiness.

3) Apple gadgets - I'm a Mac-head. I converted over to Mac-ism when I was in college dating a Mac nerd. You've heard the saying, I'm sure, "once you go Mac, you never go back." Now, enlightened and on ship of hip, this is an investment that's yielded both high-frequency use as well as personal happiness. I know. Let it go. It's my list.

4) Indie rock shows. - As if I have to comment on this one! You can blame my interest in it on evolution.

5) Metropolitan Honda scooter - I used it almost as much as I use my Apple gadgets. It made me and mine very happy. Every time.


Which items made it on both of your lists?

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Did You Know?

Tip of the hat to David for the pointer.

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Verdi on High Definition?

Some snobbism is allowed when Verdi's work is at stake. At least, according to many Verdi-informed music lovers. Since I have loved his work since I was able to read, I consider myself worthy of voicing an opinion on the matter.

Incidentally, I am currently reading much about Verdi's impact on Italian/European politics of the 19-century and the more I become involved with the topic, the more I see my admiration for the composer morph into yet another (much deserved!) cognitive appreciation. Experientially, I have always 'gotten' his work. Now it's cognition's turn to catch up.

As a supporter of the arts, I list Verdi as one of the highlights of my upbringing and life. Watching things like Casa Ricordi didn't just give me musical pleasure for the moment, it also taught me concretely about the pragmatic aspect of creative genius. Verdi epitomizes just that. Having overcome an amazing sea of hardships, the composer manages to maintain his stoicism while creating some of the most soul-feeding melodies the West has yet to experience.

Watching a Verdi production live is something that the language cannot adequately contain or explain.
Nabucco, Aida, and Traviata were created to be experienced by sold out audiences and Verdi, like very, very few artists, had the right vision to know that when people would love his work, the would love it in great numbers and with much passion.

I read an interesting bit on the Times today about the use of technology in broadcasting and how it is making an impact on live productions of operas as well. I think Verdi would have been a fan of the notion of allowing many people to experience his works in almost perfect synchronicity.

Something like La Scala times 1000 would have given him pleasure, I think.

The composer produced the kind of music that inspired not only the bona fide music lover but people at large, peasant and nobleman alike.

Would I like to watch Aida on a huge screen in San Francisco when it is being performed live in Milan? Yes.

Would I rather want to watch it at La Scala? Yes.

This scenario strikes me as a rare yes/yes one.

A paragraph says:

"The Teatro Alla Scala in Milan broadcast its gala opening night, a performance of Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” live on Dec. 7. At the New York showing, in the Miller Theater at Columbia University the Milanese glitter of tuxedos, gowns and dripping jewels on the screen contrasted with the bulky sweaters, down jackets and eccentric facial hair of an Upper West Side crowd."

The entire article is here.

And might I treat you with Verdi's "Va Pensiero sull' ali dorate" from his opera Nabucco? This particular production comes from 2001 at the Metropolitan Opera House.

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Colbert Talks Copyright

Sra, I suppose this will especially be of interest to you. Lawrence Lessig's points are not only gripping but also relevant. I will be reviewing Remix, the book he is promoting on the Colbert Report next week.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Lawrence Lessig

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

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