The relentless pursuit of quality… an Apple story!

I found myself awake in the wee hours of the morning recently. As I’ve come to do these days when sleep escapes me, I started scanning news on Twitter. I checked apps for updates on my favorite sports teams. At the same time I made a note to buy that song that's been playing in my head ever since I saw that delightful beauty who caught my eye at the local mall just the other day. It occurred to me that I was able to do all these things at the touch of a button thanks to the amazing feats of technology that one guy had the vision and foresight to make part of our daily lives. That hero is the late Steve Jobs of course. So this then is my tribute to him.

And in a garage the story began..

The Apple story started in a garage. With Steve jobs and his old mate Steve Wozniak fiddling around with electronics and memory chips.  They were both college dropouts of course. Not the ideal sort of model kids that upstanding parents would want their children to mimic. Woz was the gifted engineer, while Jobs was the consummate artist with the vision to design elegant products that “just work”, as he was wont to say during those much anticipated Apple product launches. The company grew in leaps and bounds and over time the Macintosh computer was born. It was a delightful product in its heyday. As befitting the Macintosh, Apple had an award winning commercial made to introduce the Macintosh. In keeping with the rebellious attitude that Apple espoused, the ad was styled after the classic novel by George Orwell (Nineteen Eighty Four), which dramatized the dangers of authoritarianism (Big Brother is watching you!!). The Macintosh was the first modern PC and completely set the trend to be followed by all. It completely defined the PC as we have come to know it. In many ways, the Macintosh changed the world and gave ordinary folks access to a classy device that combined both form and functionality. From the elegant Graphical User Interface, to introducing the use of a mouse, as well as beautiful font typeface, the Macintosh computer brought to the world desktop publishing as we have come to know it today. And seeing as the others just copied Apple anyway (Steve Jobs Stanford commencement speech), the rest of the world got to benefit from Apple.

The ouster from Apple..

Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple. Running a business can get complicated. He was thrown out from the company he founded. To be replaced by business-school-trained corporates, who supposedly understand how to run companies. But they almost ran the company to the ground. So old Steve went a-wandering and got about life as any ousted person would do. He stole some geniuses from Apple. Then formed a company called NeXT, which was eventually bought by Apple of course. So old Steve worked his way back into Apple through the backdoor. And thus followed the most defining moments in the history of the company.  

And now for the second coming – the iCEO!

Thus began the i era. Around that time, technology was driven primarily by profit-chasing geeks. The sort who would start a company and rush to have it listed so they could become paper billionaires. That’s what led to the Dotcom Bubble around 2000. These guys had no taste for quality and had no vision at all. Along came Apple to the rescue, with Steve at the helm.

First out of the woodwork was the iPod. This represented Apple’s entry into a completely new sector altogether – music. It made sense as the PC war had been won handily by Microsoft. And while the technology world was pondering Apple’s new-found mojo, Jobs changed the tune and brought the iPhone – this was a grand entry into another new sector. Other pretenders tried to copy that of course. But as is often the case in life, the copy is never as good as the original. And to this day, the iPhone accounts for well over 50% of Apple’s total revenues. The iPhone is a big cash generator for Apple. And it’s revolutionary. While the world was getting used to the iPhone, Steve Jobs threw in an iPad into the mix. That meant lots of catching up and shameless copying for the rest of the chasing pack. And in the midst of all that, the curtain fell on Old Steve. Much too soon if you ask me. As befitting of heroes. They never live for very long anyway. That is the way of the world. 

A few thoughts to ponder..

Steve was not an engineer. He was a visionary. He drove his engineers to accomplish the seemingly impossible by focusing on quality, beauty, elegance, simplicity.  Of course he harassed them and put them on their toes for the most part. He had his way of defying reality trough his famed reality distortion. He was not exactly your model boss. But that’s often the case with super-achievers; they tend to be intolerant of mediocrity.

It’s not very often that one individual defines everything about a company. Indeed one of the early mottos of Apple was, "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication". There was another slogan called "think differently". And another one that says "the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who actually do". Steve's thinking was woven into all those lines. It's amazing how the life of one person can be so ingrained in the life of a company and its products. It is impossible not to admire this hero. Even if you're not an Apple fan. He had a blemished record as a human being of course (funny tastes and weird food choices, a bit of a rebel who thought normal rules of society did not apply to him, etc.). It is surmised that some of these quirky habits may have led to his demise in the end. But there's no denying what he strove for and accomplished during his tenure. He hated people who settled for less, or those who were unashamedly driven by the  desire to amass money for its own sake. That was never good enough for Steve. Quality and elegant products that "just worked" was his ultimate drive. 

Through diversifying its business to focus on music (the iPod and iTunes), mobile phones (iPhone), and the concept of the iStore (to sell apps and music), Apple defined the new technology space and changed its fortunes. The company was saved from oblivion. It literally set the standards for technology and set the trend for others to follow.

Admittedly, none of the devices that Apple made brought with them any new technologies per se. Old Steve had an eye for taking what existed and making it nifty and neat and intuitive. I bet you many technologies fail to see the light of day simply because there is no one smart enough to simplify them and make them easy for ordinary folks use. Steve wanted to make a dent in the universe. He just did. The world is a much better place today because of him. Today Apple is the biggest company in the world by market capitalization. Apple even toppled Coca Cola off the perch as the coolest brand in the world. Steve is not around anymore, but he laid the foundation and built a successful corporation that will surely last long into the future. 

So there you go. Strive for quality in all you do. The all-knowing universe will reward you immensely. Steve Jobs did. And thanks to him you're reading this - probably on one of the devices he helped bring about. Wouldn't that be fitting? 

Saving the environment or saving ourselves?

Does the environment need saving? Or much better stated, are we better off saving the environment or saving ourselves? You probably get the point of where I’m going with this. I want to zoom in onto that well-worn subject of climate change and natural disasters. About the sacrifices that we supposedly need to make to save the environment (even though in reality we are saving ourselves here). I will outline the matter for you as easily as I can without boring you with trifling details. Of course there is general consensus with regard to where we are, what the causes of climate change are, and what we can do to contain the effects thereof and save our civilization.           

History of climate change 

So it turns out the climate of our little planet has been changing over eons of years long before our species graced this planet. Scientists have amassed plenty of evidence to confirm this (through dating of CO₂ in glaciers). There have been moments when the earth has been much warmer than it currently is, though the current warming seems exacerbated by the human-induced accumulation of greenhouse gases[1]. So the issue is not merely the warming being experienced but the disruptions and associated disasters that have been all too common lately. It seems every year parts of our planet are besieged by hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, record rainfalls, etc. You've seen it in the news of course. The cat, as they say, is already out of the bag!

I remember not that far back reading about climate change predictions and the fact that some of the anticipated effects would be in the form of natural disasters and extreme weather events. Unbeknownst to me at the time, this would happen within my lifetime. Very chilling indeed.

So what is there to do?

The battle is really about reducing the artificially-induced levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere, which come about as a direct result of emissions from our industrial processes. Scientific consensus points in that direction. But the science, as you’ve probably heard it said before, is not perfect on this one. Which is pretty much why we talk of scientific consensus! Thing is, the natural environment is way too complex to be simplified or studied through our famed reductionist approach. That is not to say the information we get is meaningless or useless. But simply that we do not know enough for sure. Or that there is much else we can’t explain. But we ought to do the best we can in any case. Even in the climate of uncertainty in which we operate. Otherwise we can’t wait till the last snow caps have melted. Or the oceans have washed away our coastal cities. That would be tantamount to waiting for hard evidence, while weather phenomena are wreaking havoc and making conditions unbearable for Homo sapiens on this planet.                   

So does Planet Earth need saving?

The planet has carried on fine long before we showed up here. Evolution relentlessly shaped and fashioned natural systems and organisms to adapt to conditions on this planet until such time that conditions were suitable for human habitation. The poor dinosaurs found themselves on the wrong side of climate change and weather disasters, which explains why they are not here anymore. We could be headed the same way ourselves. But life will carry on regardless. Conditions will become suitable for other species. Perhaps another dominant species will  arise and rule the roost. The bacteria will be there in their vast numbers of course. As well as the little microorganisms that take care of the dirty work on our planet (decomposition, recycling, etc.). And out of them, new life will emerge. So this whole  business about saving the planet is nonsense. The planet does not need saving. Human beings and their self-destructive civilizations do. Which brings me to another important point about priorities for saving the planet (or saving ourselves – with apologies to Bjorn Lomborg who made the popular TED Talk video).

Priorities for maintaining human life on Planet Earth

So if we had it in us to solve all the immediate problems that confront human society, where would we start? If we had adequate financial resources (say a mere $50 billion for a start), how would we stack up some of the biggest problems in a way that would most benefit society? Seeing as we can’t possibly solve all problems that face human society  in any case, which would we select to get more bang for our buck? Bjorn Lomborg proposed a neat way to prioritise solutions to problems, which will in turn guide us to focus on those problems we actually can make a difference on. You can watch the video here if you haven’t already – you will enjoy it. The top four problems on the list (the complete list included such popular topics as climate change for instance) are given below: 

• HIV/Aids
• Malnutrition – providing micro-nutrients to improve physiological development 
• Promoting free trade (by removing the market-distorting agricultural subsidies from Developed Countries)
• Malaria (kills millions of Africans every year)

Tackling climate change came last on the list. It may be sexy to tackle problems like climate change through mandatory reductions of greenhouse gases and all that, but it costs a fortune. And in all fairness, we aren't really making that much of a difference doing that. As opposed to solving the most basic problems such as improving human health, nutrition, and education standards. 

So there you have it. Society can make the most tangible difference through doing the basic stuff right. That would be a much better investment. Imagine if the powers that be could just bring themselves to do the right thing for once. Or if African governments could just focus on the right priorities. If you consider that even Mighty Europe itself - which previously was on the forefront of the climate change war - is now scaling back on its commitments, it makes perfect sense to focus on the really basic problems confronting poor countries and dealing with those first. This would benefit the planet in a big way. I take my hat off to Bjorn Lomborg for this really inspiring video. 

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[1] The earth functions like a greenhouse, allowing incoming radiation to enter the earth. The gases in the atmosphere trap the resultant heat and prevent some of it from escaping into space. This results in much warmer average temperatures on earth. The gases are called greenhouse gases (i.e. with carbon-dioxide being the chief culprit).