The Doodads Were Secondary
I spend most of my day staring at Apple products.
That sounds like your usual brand enthusiasm, and brings to mind images of Calvin pissing on a Windows logo in the rear window of my car. It’s that kind of statement that makes your average person view Apple fans as an irrational cult of personality.
Let me attempt to justify myself.
In 2005 I bought an iPod. In 2007 I bought a Macbook Pro. The first one let me know that podcasts were A Thing. The second one let me make them.
It was 2007, and I had just changed majors from Computer Science to Electronic Media. Common sense told me that this was a stupid decision, but the situation was untenable. I hated coding and math, and it took a year of studying those subjects to really figure that out.
I wanted to Make things that people would pay attention to. So I packed my bags in spite of my loved-one’s protesting, and moved over to the other side of the University of Cincinnati to begin my journey toward unemployability.
This move necessitated the purchase of a Macbook Pro, and a commitment to leaving Windows behind.
I was a DJ at the campus radio station, and one of my first exercises for getting acquainted with my new toy was attempting to make a webpage for my show. I loaded up iWeb and took a tour, only to realize that I could turn my radio show into a podcast by using Garage Band and iWeb. It was easier than I could have imagined.
Apple lowered the barrier to entry, which gave me the confidence to start broadcasting myself. I could pay attention to what I was saying, rather than worrying about how I would make it available for others to hear.
I’ve moved on from iWeb and Garageband. I live in Logic Express, and use BBEdit and Wordpress to make the backend stuff happen. Still, every corner has been rounded off.
The design principles that Steve Jobs fostered have genuinely made my life better. It seems like a such a petty thing, and it doesn’t make me any money, but making these shows is a large part of what gets me out of bed in the morning.
It’s possible to make podcasts on Windows, but why would you? In the end, they all go to iTunes, where Apple has given us a platform to share our words with everyone who cares to listen.
That’s my “Apple story”. The passing of Steve Jobs is sad, for sure, but we saw it coming. So it goes.
It’s natural to worry about the company we love. With the captain dead, it’s easy to assume that the ship will drift into the rocks. However, I’ve got faith that Steve’s ideas and vision are strong enough to live on.
The seed never sees the tree.
He was one of the few people who had a tremendous impact on the world without making it a shittier place to live. Newspapers are comparing him to Edison and Ford, but I think he’s Disney. His work was about enriching lives, not making doodads.
The doodads were secondary.
