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This reminds me of Steve Jobs' email to himself. In 2010 he wrote: I grow little of the food I eat, and of the little I do grow I did not breed or perfect the
by legrande 4y ago
This reminds me of Steve Jobs' email to himself. In 2010 he wrote:
I grow little of the food I eat, and of the little I do grow
I did not breed or perfect the seeds.
I do not make any of my own clothing.
I speak a language I did not invent or refine.
I did not discover the mathematics I use.
I am protected by freedoms and laws I did not conceive
of or legislate, and do not enforce or adjudicate.
I am moved by music I did not create myself.
When I needed medical attention, I was helpless
to help myself survive.
I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor,
object oriented programming, or most of the technology
I work with.
I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am
totally dependent on them for my life and well being.
Sent from my iPad
Source: https://stevejobsarchive.com/ https://stevejobsarchive.com/
- vivekv 4y agoThe last line "Sent from my iPad" was quite fitting as a device that he conceptualized :-)
- legrande 4y agoYeah it hits differently after what he said. My first impression after reading the "Sent from my iPad" was it was some sort of tongue-in-cheek joke, but it's the default signature so it was added automatically! It's a good growth hack.
- karmakaze 4y agoNo mention of the shoulders that Apple products stand upon.
- kergonath 4y agoApart from all of the message, yes, no mention of it at all.
- karmakaze 4y agoI was thinking more of things like the "windows, icons, menus, pointer" that Apple tried to sue Microsoft for.
- vineyardmike 4y ago> or most of the technology I work with. No mention of it at all.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y agoThat was actually just the entire message. To cherry-pick a few: > I speak a language I did not invent or refine. > I did not discover the mathematics I use. > I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor, object oriented programming, or most of the technology I work with. > I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being.
- agumonkey 4y agocould have edited it for that particular message with a sent from a derivative of alan kay prototype
- iamacyborg 4y agoDid Jobs conceptualise it or did someone at Apple?
- kergonath 4y agoIt’s fairly well documented that the iPad was what he’d wanted to have for a while, well before the iPhone existed. IIRC biographies put his first concept of what became the iPad around when the iPod was released. The iPhone was just a happy accident, something they decided to do with the cool tech they were playing with when working on the iPad, before it was ready.
- nashashmi 4y agoHad to comment on this! The IPad was described as a glass keyboard when it was still a secret. It was inspired by an argument with a Microsoft employee who argued apple should license the windows tablet OS and make tablets. The whole company was more focused on making a phone however. And three secret internal movements converged into what is the IPhone today. Best thing is it was kept secret from Steve Jobs. But once he saw it, he shelved the iPad and worked on the iPhone. The iPhone's predecessor was the Motorola iTunes phone. Which was a combo of the ipod and phone. A bit of compiled history. Edit: iPad was a development concept because he believed tablets should not have a stylus. And got angry at Microsoft employee for suggesting it should.
- gardenhedge 4y agoNot being snarky but isn't a tablet what everyone wanted and just needed technology to catch up?
- uwagar 4y agokinda spoils it imho. why is it included? he surely didnt intend it.
- vineyardmike 4y agoi don't know, after a list of things he didn't do that he's thankful for, containing something he was responsible for in this way is a subtle nod to what he did create. Its powerful because (a) he probably didn't explicitly add it, and (b) it references his impact on the world and (c) the iPad is obviously important but no where near as important as mathematics or medicine, and its not included on the list, just a helpful nod to its ability to help him reflect on this list.
- kilolima 4y agoThe auto-marketing footer sullies the rest of his letter. The content recognizes all of the great achievements of human civilization and then at the end there is an advertisement. Which relies on it's continued inclusion in emails by stroking the human ego, so not very Buddhist, either.
- uwagar 4y agoits like an youtube ad in the middle of a symphony
- jbverschoor 4y agoNot "to himself", it was for a speech.
- fredoliveira 4y agoNo – to himself. Not a speech. As per the linked site where it reads: > Email from Steve Jobs to himself > 2010 > > Steve often sent himself messages to capture what was on his mind.
- jbverschoor 4y agoSure.. also as per that site, https://stevejobsarchive.com/international-design-conference-in-aspen https://stevejobsarchive.com/international-design-conference... Basically the same stuff. So either prepping a new speech, or recapping his own quotes at the end of his life. If it wasn't for the recording, the whole e-mail sounds like affirmations or someone who who needs to keep his mind straight and humble.
- aaron695 4y ago
- ajkjk 4y ago
- xen2xen1 4y agoMeaning if you see that they just don't have taste?
- ajkjk 4y agoyep.
- Macha 4y agoI think if you work on the iPhone/iPad, (or for that matter, on other email clients or email sending devices), there's probably an exemption from it being as tacky to advertise the device you're using
- echelon 4y agoIt's not unlike wearing a giant designer label. Except that everyone and their uncle, from trailer park to penthouse, has an iPhone.
- Arjuna 4y agoAfter reading this, I am reminded of the Buddhist concept of Pratītyasamutpāda [1]. In essence, existence is interwoven in a complex tapestry of interdependence. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratītyasamutpāda https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratītyasamutpāda
- agumonkey 4y agoI'm surprised how the asian continent had a pervasive notion of holism. They always look very wide.
- runnerup 4y agoSteve Jobs was buddhist.
- pdpi 4y agoThe concept of Ubuntu also occupies the same sort of space. Which makes sense when you consider Mark Shuttleworth is South African. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_philosophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_philosophy
- ThePowerOfFuet 4y agoAnd here I thought Ubuntu was a Swahili word meaning "I don't know how to install Debian".
- falcor84 4y agoThis is probably the most elaborate humblebrag I've ever seen.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y agoI guess because it ends with "Sent from my iPad"? Still seems like an uncharitable interpretation considering that a "humblebrag" is a pretty deliberate thing. Maybe he just wanted to remind himself of these things.
- falcor84 4y agoSteve Jobs was a complex person, yet he was nothing if not deliberate. It is indeed "uncharitable" of me, but I cannot read that "Sent from my iPad" as anything but the punchline that the rest was built around.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- andrepd 4y agoA nice reminder of the absurdity of the narrative of the "self-made man".
- dang 4y agoDiscussed here: Steve Jobs emails himself (2010) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32761060 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32761060 - Sept 2022 (247 comments)