Steve Jobs was famous for creating a “reality distortion field” in which his charisma, words, personality and vision succeeded in making him the most persuasive evangelist in the technology world.
The following is a collection of his quotes on technology and life:
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the ones who think differently. While some may see crazy, we see genius.”
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“That’s been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
“The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network.
We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people - as remarkable as the telephone.”
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“Picasso had a saying, ‘Good artists copy, great artists steal.’ We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas. ... I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, poets, artists, zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world.”
“You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. ... Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
“I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometre. Humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing about a third of the way down the list. ... That didn’t look so good, but then someone at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle and a man on a bicycle blew the condor away. That’s what a computer is to me: The computer is the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.”
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. ... Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, ... that’s what matters to me.”
“We do no market research. We don’t hire consultants. ... We just want to make great products.”
“When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”