Steve Jobs, CEO or Religious Head?

Almost all of the reactions to Steve Jobs’s demise lie in one edge of the spectrum: the lavish praise to hagiography (worshipful biography) end. Yes, even hagiography. Kind of apt, given that the anticipation for his next, new product always bordered on religious fervor.



Take this byline in one of the articles on Jobs base on Apple’s logo (pic above), “Steve Jobs turned Eve's apple, the symbol of fallen humankind, into a religious icon for true believers in technology. But can salvation be downloaded?”

And it’s not as if only others talk about Jobs that way. Take these lines, for instance:
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

Death? Dogma? Inner voice? Jobs said these lines at the famous Stanford commencement address he made a few years back. I guess that was the Zen Buddhist speaking.

Given how useful and easy to use Apple’s products were (iPod, iPhone, iPad), no wonder Rishad Tobaccowala said that Apple packages the world inside objects of Zen beauty. And so, as Jeff Jarvis wrote, Jobs probably went to iHeaven!

Comments

  1. KumarOctober 8, 2011 at 8:01 PM

    Sure. What Jobs said looks like Zen Buddhist expression to me too. I am glad to read these.

    ReplyDelete

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