Jobless Morning

A lot of people have said a lot of things about Steve Jobs. Don't think there's anything left to say. At least for someone who has never seen him or used anything that he helped create. Not even an iPod. But most certainly due to an overwhelming overflow of glorious outpourings and information on him, I can't but think about this man. Who was he? Why was he so popular? Was he a Thomas Edison? Or, a Pablo Picasso? Was he an inventor? Was he an artist? No, no, no. He was a consumerist. The greatest, perhaps. One who knew what exactly a consumer needed.

Sure, Jobs had a great sense of design that  matched any artist. But his direction was diagonally opposite to Picasso's. As an artist, Picasso was after the truth, uncovering the secrets and inner selves of objects he painted. Jobs, as a designer, was after ease of use. hid the secrets and brains of his machines behind sleek interfaces.

And, like Edison, Jobs came up with things that changed the way people did things. But Edison redefined life for the entire humanity, Jobs did it for the consumer.

He was the perfect foil for the I-me-myself consumer that the developed world has become. His inventions are basically the high point of this generation of independent, self-centered individuals who, spoilt for choices in entertainment and comforts, shut themselves out from the rest of humanity to live in their own individual worlds. We see iPad, we hear iPod, we speak on iPhone. That's the ultimate power of this generation—to create and live in one's own individual world. And the greatness of Jobs was to read the mind of this consumer who every businessman in every industry is out to woo.

Post script: Another guy, who did exactly that (reading the consumer's mind) and himself a complete individualist, has began changing the world of individual consumerism. His name: Mark Zuckerberg. His contribution to humanity: Facebook revolution.