Franklin 2.0 - Steve Jobs - "He just worked"

Steve Jobs

  February 24, 1955 - October 5, 2011

As should be clear by this posting, I have long admired the eminent Dr. Franklin.  Few people have had his scope of interest, depth of intellect and most importantly the sense of purpose to use that brilliance, to innovate and make his world a better place.  I mentioned in my first post that Jack Bogle, the founder of The Vanguard Group, came as close to anyone I had known who embodied the qualities of our friend B. Franklin.  Today we lost someone whom though I never met, has impacted my life and the world like few others.  A man whose legacy will rival that of our Franklin as one of America's most accomplished figures. A man who simply put, "Just worked".

They both,  "Just worked".

Their biggest difference was Jobs had electricity and silicon chips, Franklin had lighting and moveable type .  Both made the most with the tools at hand.

"It just works."...  This is how Steve Jobs ended all his product introductions.  Perhaps the thing that "Just works" best, was Jobs himself.  He "just worked" for the better part of 40 years, sadly he logged out today for the last time and I'm going to miss him.  I suppose what saddens me most about Steve's passing is his relative youth.  We all saw him 6 months ago pacing the stage like a carny barker, flogging his iPad2 .  In spite of his slight appearance, he still had the same vigor and passion he brought to the market with every product launch.  He looked like he was just hitting his stride for decades more of cool product innovations - I can only hope he left a long to-do list with friends back at Apple.

I wonder if Jobs chose the Apple because it was the "Fruit of Knowledge" or 

Forbidden Fruit? . . . probably too many hours in the garage with Wozniak cranking code listening to the "White Album"

 

. . .  just glad he didn't lift the Rolling Stone's logo.  

 I came to the Jobs' fan club late.  I should have appreciated his genius for recognizing the potential of an emerging technology long before I did.  Steve and I were both sniffing around the same tech sources at about the same time.  I was a student at The Rochester Institute of Technology in 1972.  I also had a part time job working for the school.  One of my first tasks was helping to unload and install the first analog film negative scanners that had been developed by the Kodak Marketing and Research Department (Uncle Sam had a hand in it too.) .  It was about the size of a Steenbeck film editing bench, 5 times as heavy and about million dollars (back when a million meant something). There were only 2 built and they sent one to R.I.T. so that staff, professors and graduate students could help give it a shake down cruise.  It is hard to describe the thrill I felt when I scanned my first color negative and saw it come up on a 12" color CRT.  It was pure magic.  A bit like watching a spark jump from a key hanging from a kite in a thunder storm.  It wasn't long before I felt certain that the chemical film process would soon go the way of the dodo.  Part of this thinking was influenced by the times.  Men were walking on the moon and we were bored by it.  I was waiting for my Jetson space car to be introduced any moment.  Things were changing fast.  The most disruptive technology presented itself when the school was sent a prototype to test of first Sony color 3/4" videocassette recorder that same month. The combination of technologies made me believe that universal access to  HD video was right around the corner.  I was only off by about 30 years.   Kodak never got what they had developed.  Management at Kodak only considered computers as a tool to make their film business more efficient, not replace it.  This may have been the first time I was witness to a company not seeing the future because it didn't reflect their past.   A few months later I was working on a project for RIT/Xerox.  Xerox was developing on a copier that would use icons and touch screens to send instructions to the printer.  8 years later I would see those very same icons used on the first Macintosh computer.  What is ironic is that Xerox had developed the first GUI (Graphic User Interface) system but did not know what to do with it.  They were convinced they were in the paper duplication business, not the communications.  Steve Jobs saw what I had worked with 4 years earlier and saw the future.   That was not the last time Jobs saw something no one else did.

1984 - You either got it or not.  It was a niche Apple would linger in for 20 years.

The day after the 1984 Super Bowl  I found myself sitting in my office when the Senior VP of Advertising and Marketing of Armstrong World Industries came by our department to see what we had thought of the Super Bowl.   I was privileged to be a part of Armstrong's TV/Film department.  My boss was responsible for The Armstrong Circle Theater, one of the live dramas that was a part of the classic age of television in the 50's.   The "old guard" of Armstrong's Advertising Dept., taught the "Mad Men" at the New York ad agencies in the 60's how to drink.  My manager was a true visionary and a hell of an artist.  Our television department was still frothing over the Mac 1984 ad that we all felt was singularly the most monumental game changing commercial ever. period.  We all felt that what ever the Macintosh was it was going to be pretty cool.  So there I was with the a man standing at my door who could make or break my nascent career with a smile or a frown.  This particular senior VP was a tall and distinguised gentleman, tall and distinguished was a highly desireable management quality as all of the Armstrong senior management were well over 6'4"" and distinguished veterans of either of the World Wars, in one instance both.  While this VP had the height, he lacked the market intuitiveness and courage, his predecessor had possessed.  If I had any doubt as to how limited his vision was, it became apparent when he asked if I had seen, that "1984" commercial?    As he stood at my door, a small gathering of  curious bystanders began to gather to see what one of the "tall ones" was doing slumming it in our department.  Fortunately, the tone of his question gave me a hint that he was fishing for something.  I replied, with a non-committal, "It was pretty cool".  He stared gravely and gave me a quizzical, "Really?"  I returned with a weaselly, "Yeah, what'd you think?"   He looked around at the group of writers and producers gathering, and decided it was time to treat us to an impromtu lecture on effective television advertising.  He then solomenly pronounced, "I didn't get it.  Where was the computer?"  He then started to build up steam as he picked at the commercial for violating most established TV conventions.   At the conclusion of the towering old guard's evisceration of the ad, I came to realize two things.  A lot of smart people really didn't get the commercial and that my future at Armstrong was going to be limited.

 

More later . . .

In the meantime you can watch this, it was posted 24 hours after Steve logged out.