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person1955–2011

Steve Jobs

Disciplines:
technology
consumer electronics
apple

Summary

American entrepreneur — co-founder of Apple, NeXT, and Pixar — whose second stint at Apple (1997–2011) produced the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and App Store — widely considered the most consequential product designer in history.

Core Contribution

Creates the integration of liberal arts and technology as a company strategy — Jobs's insistence that Apple products stand at the intersection of technology and the humanities produced the most commercially successful and culturally influential consumer electronics company in history.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Reality distortion field — the documented ability to convince engineers and designers that impossible timelines and specifications were achievable, and to have them achieve them
  • Treated product demos as theater and rehearsed them obsessively — a single Macworld keynote received weeks of preparation
  • Believed deeply that he had a special taste that most people lack and that following conventional market research would corrupt products — 'It's not the consumers' job to know what they want'

Notable Works & Achievements

Steve Jobs

Make Something Wonderful

Numerous product launches as performance

Historical Influences

Edwin Land Bob Dylan Zen Buddhism Jony Ive

Intellectual Lineage

Reed CollegeIndia spiritual journeyHewlett-Packard Edwin Land

Contemporaries & Peers

Bill Gates Larry Ellison John Sculley

Minds Influenced

Consumer electronics Technology industry culture

Intellectual Posterity

iPhone iPadiPodApp Store Pixar Apple retailSteve Jobs biography

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Steve Jobs

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