Fewer Shiny Things

It is very sad that Steve Jobs has died so young - just as it would be for anyone to die at the age of 56 while still very much engaged with life and creativity. 

But the outpourings of various commentators on this 'Creative Genius' seem to me just so much guff.  For example I read somewhere that "It’s not overstating the case to say that Jobs was one of a handful of people who created the world we know today" - Um, well, yes it is overstating the case, and massively so.  I would suggest that the list of mind-boggling, major things created in the last, say, 50 years that changed the World, and with which Mr Jobs had no involvement, is vast indeed.

The Guardian columnists and commentators were particularly prone to this kind of praise during the week - although I was pleased to see a strong reader reaction against all of the eulogies in the letters page.

I should be clear.  I've never owned an i-Mac, i-Pod, i-Phone nor i-Pad.  Nor, come to that, a Sony Walkman.  I once got given an MP3 player but never used it and I don't have (nor want) a Kindle.  My mobile phone is basic and I've had it for five years, refusing 'free' handset upgrades because of the impact on landfill.

Jobs and his company produced computers and gadgets - often underpowered, and frequently (not always) less function-rich than their predecessors.  Just like Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita much earlier, he and his team did sometimes create - or more precisely grow - markets which hadn't really existed in the sme way before.  And unlike them he locked people into proprietary models and technologies (i-Tunes, AppStore, all the upgrades) to add to company revenues.  He did use good designers (often British), and got developers focussed on useability - but that all came at a price.  He made shiny things.

Yet somehow that isn't enough, and to my mind it actually isn't very much at all.  Not enough to justify all the tributes from the MacHeads and i-Heads.  It has been said that because these are the only computers that arts graduates can understand, these are the only ones they will praise - but I don't think that is quite the case.  What does seem true is that they get hooked evangelically into a pro-Apple mindset and can't see the downsides.  Systems that limit developers and make innovation harder if it isn't generating Apple revenues.  A company that is far from green and sustainable.  A nasty, capitalist sales and marketing drive that makes lots of people want to buy stuff they really, really don't need (although to be fair that was hardly Steve Jobs or Apple's invention...)

I would argue that, however good he was at his job, he still didn't touch most people the way that a great musician or writer can.  Or even a raucous belly-laugh at a Saturday night comedy show on the telly.  But then I never really used his gadgets, so maybe I don't know.

He made shiny things I didn't want.