Many companies contributed to making IT what it is today; few IT businesses owe their success to the insights of an autocratic, self willed visionary.
One man doesn’t change society. Steve Jobs, however, put on a really good show – and put me out of work as I dropped the day job to make iOS games. Doing so, I unburied childhood dreams and braced myself against the consequences, filled with hopes and forebodings. I also learned Objective C – a literate programming language if anything – it’s been kinda fun, still is.
I don’t know that IT has an overwhelmingly positive influence on our life. I don’t see all good in a bunch of super-educated primates atrophying their leg muscles while straining their eyes on undersized windows shining irid flatlands back at us. In a society that’s becoming ever increasingly fragmented, social networking isn’t a cure, it’s a symptom – stigmatic of our drift into sodding delusions and encrypted neural blip fantasies – while the home-world is ailing and decaying and beauty rotting plain out of sight.
Yesterday was the end of the iPhone 5 extravaganza. Sour comments trailed every online article I read, denouncing unethical work conditions in iPhone assembly lines. I don’t even think it’s a bad thing. It’s nice to make noise about the bad stuff, so people can take notice and do something about it. It’s also nice to put things into perspective. I have no reason to believe that any of the computer hardware I ever used was fair trade (and for all I know the majority of the so called fair trade stuff is greenwash).
Business is intrinsically unethical and inhuman. It follows the law of the fittest. It is a blind law – so we need local and international regulations.
That, and a man dreaming up computers looking better than nerdy CB tins.
Aside from taking mobile entertainment beyond phatic communication, Apple created a new market for independent developers. Consumers actually started buying small games, utilities and gadgets instead of expecting all our stuff to be free.
For many of us, coping with a somewhat authoritative publisher is simply better than choking down our creativity and imagination while vegetating in top down corporate structures or SMEs. Plus, the app store is fair. Being creative, listening to users and putting in good work is very much the name of the game. A somewhat unique opportunity for any IT guy with talent and motivation, anywhere in the world.
Apple doesn’t please the music industry – they thrill musicians and music lovers; Apple doesn’t please the video games industry; taylorized game factories resent the iPhone and iPad downing video games to a buck; in the meantime the value of my work went up, 1 up! From zero to 1. In all, a binary victory against atavistic materialism – the product of our work is more real than it used to be as we are upgrading from specialized work and mass-consumed individualism to sharing our personal creations.
If I can’t be me when I’m at work, when can I be me?
I feel good about the 3,000+ players that paid two or three bucks for Antistar. That’s 3,000 people that skipped a chocolate bar or a burger and had a little digital fun instead. It’s good for me, it’s good for them and it’s good for the home-world.
Here’s a thought for the man that made this possible.
Beyond Hollywood, silicon isn’t sexy without Apple. 1 up!
