Steve Jobs thought different

If there were an epitaph that perfectly describes Steve Jobs' life on earth, it is one that he helped craft himself for the iconic "Think Different" Apple advertising campaign.

"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 ad campaign, created with Chiat/Day, debuted September 28, 1997, just days after Jobs became the "interim" CEO of Apple and 12 years after he was forced out of the company he co-founded in 1977.

Jobs selected some of his heroes and innovators, in stark black and white portraits, for the initial "Think Different" ad: Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon (with Yoko Ono), Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Ghandi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson (and Kermit the Frog), Frank Lloyd Wright and Pablo Picasso.

In typical Jobs fashion he oversaw, tweaked and massaged the text, and chose the images of those who he thought pushed the human race forward and were to represent to the world the reincarnation of the company and the return of a wiser and more experience king of Silicon Valley.

Over the 25 years Jobs worked at Apple, the company was an extension of himself and his vision for computing, industrial design, and a digital lifestyle.

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Jobs more lasting legacy will be his impact on disrupting entire industires, bringing the music business kicking and screaming into the 21st century and transforming the mobile device landscape.

He was not an inventor in the classic sense, tinkering with program code to create the Worldwide Web or tinfoil to reproduce sounds on a phonograph.

Jobs was more of an orchestral conductor, charismatic and dictatorial, assembling the people and pieces of existing and emerging technology to craft an object of desire that reflected his personal aesthetic and vision for how people and machines should interact.

It was an expression of American individualism, buoyed by the kind of self-confidence that insists on pursuing a personal vision regardless of the risk.

Steve Jobs thought different. In his time on earth he pursued with intense focus his vision to create "insanely great" products for what he called "mere mortals." He changed the world and pushed the human race forward.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path."--Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Address, 2005

[dcmille290]

Do me a favor and change the title with correct English. You cannot think "different" but you think "differently." The same is true whether it is thought or think.

As a writer I would think proper English would be as important as your facts.

Thanks,
DC Miller

RIP Steve, you will be missed.

[racemaui]

praising him is like saying that the japanese invented the automobile. everything he made was a rip off...
Mac Computer = IBM
IPOD = Palm Handheld
ITunes = Rhapsody
IPad = Kindle
he was good at being an opportunist.... being able to put out a overpriced so called updated product EVERY YEAR and brainwashing the sheep that it was better and you had to have it(though it was just the same product that they added features that had been developed when the original version came out to keep up the "market share") ..... oh yea and he was good at suing everyone... iphone3 2009, iphone4 2010, iphone4S 2011 and iphone 5 2012 probably....

[txzby]

I am saddened by his death and pray for his family.

However, that being said, I can't say that any of his technology really made the world a better place. There was nothing there that we actually need.

My guess, though, from what I've read from people who knew him is that he was a good person and that's saying a lot.

[credibility2]

I believe it's "differently", not "different"...anyway, Jobs was the type of American that never relied on handouts to get his ideas going, or made excuses to develop his ideas...his sense of entrepreneurship or to participate in our free market capitalistic society. His corporation had employed countless people worldwide in multiple industries. It is these types of corporations the dregs of society are protesting on Wall St. They're clueless about the greatness of someone like Jobs and how his ideas created a revolution in technology, while creating an economy that never existed decades ago. His genius will be missed. We need more Steve Jobs types.

[KnowerseekerReturns]

So... now that Jobs is deceased... does that mean that Apple is going to tank again?

[Truth_Tracker]

I don't own a Mac computer, or iPhone, or iPad, or an iPod. I don't have cable or satellite TV because I have burned-out totally from the incessant non-stop brain-dead simpleton commercials that invariably butcher and obliterate the programs I am trying to enjoy.

But I downloaded this "Think Different" commercial as a keepsake treasure of insight that is worth remembering and re-experiencing, again and again, throughout a lifetime.

Steve Jobs even managed to radically change advertising, pioneering the notion that the most successful ads are NOT based on the mindless pea-brain malevolent notion that ads must be moron-oriented, 'annoying' and repetitive to be effective. In the end, Jobs proved decisively that the most effective ads are 'enduring' messages that inspire the listener with great insight. And this "Think Different" ad is a perfect illustration of that wisdom and genius.

In the wake of Steve Jobs' death, maybe he will inspire others to keep "raising the bar" instead of lowering it as we seem determined to do. We desperately need a media mentality that challenges the brain-dead 'herd mentality' bulge in the population bell curve to ascend the mountaintop, instead of trying to normalize and glorify their position in the barren landscape of mediocrity. That is the lesson and legacy Steve Jobs has gifted to us.

[karlimhof]

Steve Jobs, son of a Syrian immigrant, proved the American dream is alive and well. RIP

[ojossogood]

RIP Mr. Jobs. As to his family, my sincerest condolences on your loss.

I thank Apple for the wonderful gifts they have provided for me. Every one of them has brought me much joy. Each of them has acted much like the Rosetta Stone. They deliver a new experience that was shrouded before my eyes and ears...magically.

You have my unworthy gratitude for these secular gifts!