For Jobs, innovation was evolution
We originally published this op-ed in The National Post.
He was able to see the world as others couldn’t.
In his 2005 Stanford commencement address, Steve Jobs told an audience of students who had just spent a small fortune on their Ivy League education that he didn’t see the value in getting a degree. He joked that his commencement address that day was the closest he had ever come to graduating. He then gave the students lessons on life and death.
Through these lessons, we can see how eastern philosophy touched his life and affected his work. Jobs had always been a big proponent of karma, fate and following the heart. In his early days, he would travel weekly to the Hare Krishna temple for a meal and some words of wisdom. Later his beliefs would lead him to Buddhism.
Buddhism is considered the most modern form of Hinduism. Gautama Buddha himself was, like Jobs, a controversial figure, teaching that temple, ritual, priests and the entire organizational structure of religion were obsolete. This was radical thinking at the time and challenged the very foundations of the world’s oldest religion.
At the Stanford commencement, Jobs talked about dropping out of college and dropping into classes that appealed to his heart. Among them was a calligraphy class. Jobs later saw how he could bring the beauty of calligraphy to the computer experience through the use of fonts. Today we take for granted this ability to personalize our text. But it only came about because Jobs recognized the innate intelligence of the heart. It is a lesson we could all benefit from learning.
Apple and Steve Jobs created a love affair of their own with the world. Articles written on anything Apple quickly trend to the top of the most-read lists. The launch of any new Apple product becomes a benchmark for the state-of-the-art in the technology industry.
Why is it that we admire Apple and Steve Jobs the way we do? There are many answers to this question, but one is universal: because of his ability to see the world in a way others couldn’t — his ability to innovate. His innovations in computers, digital movies, music and mobile industries were nothing short of historic. And why do we admire innovation? Because it appeals to our very souls, to our fundamental belief in the ability of humankind to evolve, to become better. Innovation is evolution.
This explains our excitement over any great idea. Our admiration for Apple and Steve Jobs emanates from their contributions to the evolution of the human experience. Jobs remarked that the single biggest invention of life is death, that death was life’s change agent and that the old would soon be replaced by the new. Even in death Jobs saw the subtlety of evolution.