Like a lot of people, I was unexpectedly moved by the news of Steve Jobs’ death. In talking to a friend about it on Wednesday evening, I realized that much of my reaction was less about Jobs himself than about my own nostalgia: Apple computers were the frontier of technology when I was younger. I was two years old when we got our first Mac in 1984; innovations in Jobs’ products kept exact pace with my understanding of what was possible from a computer. And there was a more personal element: Thanks to a Mac consultant/tech journalist dad, I grew up pretty well steeped in brand loyalty, before I really even understood what brand loyalty meant. We went to MacWorld once, sometimes twice a year. Lots of promotional tote bags. I’ll leave it at that.
After Jobs died I looked immediately to performer Mike Daisey, whose monologue The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs addresses both Daisey’s sincere admiration for Apple’s products and his outrage at the factory conditions in which those products are made. Yesterday, the New York Times ran an op-ed by Daisey that describes Jobs as an “enemy of nostalgia,” imagining Jobs’ response to the very reaction I found myself having:
It would be fascinating to know what Mr. Jobs would make of the outpouring of grief flooding the developed world after his death on Wednesday. While it’s certain he’d be flattered, his hawk-eyed nature might assert itself: this is a man who once called an engineer at Google over the weekend because the shade of yellow in the second “O” was not precisely correct. This is a man who responded to e-mails sent by strangers with shocking regularity for the world’s most famous C.E.O. His impatience with fools was legendary, and the amount of hagiography now being ladled onto his life with abandon would undoubtedly set his teeth on edge.
Daisey also, of course, reminds us that as visionary as Jobs was, Apple’s successes come at a cost:
Apple’s rise to power in our time directly paralleled the transformation of global manufacturing. As recently as 10 years ago Apple’s computers were assembled in the United States, but today they are built in southern China under appalling labor conditions. Apple, like the vast majority of the electronics industry, skirts labor laws by subcontracting all its manufacturing to companies like Foxconn, a firm made infamous for suicides at its plants, a worker dying after working a 34-hour shift, widespread beatings, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to meet high quotas set by tech companies like Apple.
The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs is scheduled to open next week at New York’s Public Theater. According to the Times’ Arts Beat blog:
While Mr. Daisey said he did not yet know exactly what he would say, he plans to deal with “the culture of deification and the realities of nostalgia, as well as the fact that people have been expressing such tenderness and affection for this human being because of their connection to his devices.”
Well said. I agree. There’s a lot of sentiment over the mans passing (as should be when someone dies). Though it seems most people don’t know the first thing about the guy, other than they like their iDevice. When I heard about his death it reminded me of what I thought about his life: he made sure to complete his authorized biography (up to and including his departure as CEO) before dying. I think people will be studying him for a long time.
don’t forget to leave a sticky note on his memorial at the mall