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December 05, 2004
The Reality Distortion Field
From the Jargon File:
reality-distortion field: n.
An expression used to describe the persuasive ability of managers like Steve Jobs (the term originated at Apple in the 1980s to describe his peculiar charisma). Those close to these managers become passionately committed to possibly insane projects, without regard to the practicality of their implementation or competitive forces in the marketplace.
The feeling you get when you are around Jobs is really a strange one. He's mesmerizing and dominant and, well, makes you seem like a bumbling idiot all the time. Bill Clinton had that effect on people.
These little tidbits from the Audion Story, reminded me of my own encounter with the man. The first comes after Panic's Cable Sasser gets an e-mail from Jobs:
Whoah.
That's Steve.. as in.. Jobs. Steve Jobs. Steven. P. Jobs. The guy.. who did the thing.. with the Apples and... in my INBOX.. Wozniak.. whoah. And he wants to know if WE are interested in throwing in with THEM? The guy who we basically owe our entire professional existence to, who basically created the very platform we want to hug, the computers we want to crush into little pure plump pieces of joy?
As the kids say, upon seeing some awesome frags and/or gibs: OMFG
And later, when they met with him at 1 Infinite Loop:
Anyway, a few moments later, Steve Jobs himself entered the giant Apple boardroom, threw his feet up on the table, and got to the meat of the matter.
To be honest, my memory is a bit compressed here, as the whole experience was nothing less than surreal and difficult to process. To find ourselves — just two nerdy guys who make Mac shareware — sitting on Apple Campus, in a meeting with all of these brilliant bigwigs, pretty much caused our heads to continually and rapidly explode, humbled to say the least.
This is very much in keeping with the one time I got close to him. It was at MacWorld Boston, when it was rumored that Jobs was going to go from iCEO to just plain CEO. I was sent up there to cover the event as a producer, not really having ever produced professionally before. My camera man, a local hire, turned out to be great. He figured that Jobs had not made it to the hall yet, and asked around. The doorman told him to go around back. While the rest of the media was buzzing out front, hoping to catch a glimpse of him, we took a risk and went to the back door.
A few minutes later Jobs came out of a limo that had pulled up to just where we were. I had not really been prepared to meet him, and was still in shock. I blurted out: "Are you going to say anything interesting, today?"
There was a long sickening silence as he walked away and climbed the stairs to the entrance. He then stopped, smiled and said, "I hope so!"
And, much to my shame, he vanished into the hall. Next time, Steve. Next time.
Posted by Samer at December 5, 2004 07:34 PM
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