The Steve Jobs Legacy: A Poisoned Apple?

Lovers of Apple Inc. technology fell into mourning on October 5 following the loss of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Having been the face of the popular Apple products for the better part of three decades as well as the CEO of Pixar Animation, Jobs himself became an icon in his own right, representing technological and artistic progress. Apple products ushered personal technology into reality; Pixar changed the face of animation forever. Steve Jobs was brilliant and will rightfully be remembered for his impressive accomplishments. In a commencement address at Stanford University, Jobs reminisced about when he first learned to appreciate the beauty in typography. Having dropped out of his program at college, Jobs was free to take any course to which his whims led, and one such course was Calligraphy. Describing calligraphy as “beautiful, historical, [and] artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture,” Jobs conceded that such a course had no practical application in his life at the time, but ten years later would play a prominent role in his design of the first Macintosh computer. This understanding of beauty for the sake of beauty pervades Jobs’ creations. His products are not strictly about efficiency and science, they are about enjoyment and beauty and the value of artistry – this is what captivated the world.

Jobs has been compared to great innovators and visionaries who changed the course of history like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. These men were not merely responsible for flashy new inventions; they changed the very way we live. Thomas Edison gave the world light. Henry Ford put a car in every driveway. Steve Jobs is arguably single-handedly responsible for the creation of the personal computer. In two short decades society has shifted from being virtually computer-less to nigh on everybody having a personal computer in addition to a smart phone. His advancements in technology have affected every aspect of life from medicine to art, science to business. Globalization itself, then, can at least in part be attributed to Jobs. There is no denying that Steve Jobs changed our world.

Facebook and Twitter were rife with commentary following Jobs’ untimely death. The initial comments were those of lamentation, one of the most common being “iSad,” a play on the names of popular Apple products. This widespread reaction is indicative of the globalized, consumerist and connection-obsessed society in which we live. Technology is the “be all and end all” of our time and Jobs was our king. The online commentary among some eventually shifted to the sad truth that the West cared more about the death of a single billionaire than the deaths of the suffering millions around the world.

With iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks aplenty, the West has Jobs to thank for their endless supply of fancy technology. Yes, Jobs changed the world. But what is also almost certainly true is that Jobs could have done much more. With an estimated fortune of well over $8 billion, Jobs had the power and opportunity to do so much more for the world than give it new toys to make social networking more efficient. As was once said to Spiderman, “with great power comes great responsibility” and while Jobs may have missed being bitten by a radioactive spider, the saying is as applicable to him as to any superhero. Bearing the influence and wealth he did, Jobs was in a unique position to change the world beyond his contributions to technology. One of wealthiest men in the world, Jobs notably has a terribly thin history of philanthropic activity. In spite of having amassed a fortune greater than could possibly be spent, Jobs notoriously refused to sign the Giving Pledge (www.givingpledge.org ) which calls on the wealthiest in America to donate at least half of their fortune to charity. By way of context, Jobs’ personal wealth totalled four times the sum of World Vision’s yearly operating budget, an organization that employs over 40,000 people and works for more than 100 million children worldwide to alleviate hunger and injustice. While Jobs was certainly under no obligation to give away every penny he earned to charity, the amount of good that could have been accomplished if had he chosen to invest himself in this way is staggering.

By contrast, Jobs’ competition Bill Gates, former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, is famous for his charitable donations. Gates and his foundation, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given billions upon billions of dollars to health, agricultural and financial development plans. In 2008, Gates went so far as to leave his full-time position with Microsoft in order to be able to spend more time working directly with the foundation. Bill Gates is a man who has found wild success, created a fortune for himself and, in turn, used his influence and power to help millions.

So what is it that people are actually mourning? Is it the passing of a great man, or is it the loss of the person who gave them iPods and Angry Birds? Jobs’ visionary ingenuity cannot be denied and in this he rightfully has a following, but in terms of humanity we might find others more worthy of our emulation. Technology has lost a great visionary but I’m not sure humanity has lost a great man.

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