Twinsight 30 of 50: Find Your Banana Rhythm

I don’t know about you, but I hadn’t thought too much about the impact that Steve Jobs had on our lives until this week. All week we’ve seen and heard so much about his accomplishments and legacy, including the fact he was an adopted child which is near and dear to my heart. It’s astounding to think about how he provided society-changing leadership and innovation that was instrumental in turning our technology from something that was hard, cold and utilitarian into everything about the almighty "i." I loved how Peter Sagal on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me surmised that Steve is probably at the entrance to heaven giving St. Peter design advice - recommending that he use brushed aluminum instead of a pearly finish, and asking him to please drop the word "gates."

When I first entered the work world in 1983, I took a computer science class at the University of Minnesota because I wanted to learn more about computers. The whole experience was cave-like. It wasn’t a very popular class so it was relegated to some dark, dreary room with cinder block walls, and was taught by two caveman-looking, bearded guys who sounded really smart but were super confusing to follow. Although I didn’t  have the foresight to articulate it at the time, I felt frustrated by the coldness of a technology that had so much potential. It's so easy to think, "Hey, I should of thought of that!" when holding an iPhone, right?

So Apple’s already revolutionized the way we interact with technology. Where are we as a society going to take technology next? Maybe none of us will be the next Steve Jobs. But in our little corner of the world, maybe we can do our part to continually innovate and make the world a more personally-connected place. Maybe it's taking Apple concepts and turning them into Bananas.  Maybe we can create devices with a natural curve that hugs our face and our hands. Who knows. Here are the words I've put by my desk to spur me on to get into what I'll call my "banana rhythm"... you know, the groove that takes you outside the ranges of normal.

My Banana Rhythm

Simple

Connected
Innovation

Choose

Faith

Today

Here's what Steve had to say:

Simple – “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clear to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” (Jobs, Business Week, 1998)

Connected – “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. … The reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.” (Jobs, Wired, 1996)

Innovation – “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” (Jobs, Businessweek, 1998)

Choose – "Do you have any advice," Nike CEO Mark Parker asked Jobs. "Well, just one thing, said Jobs. "Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff." (Jobs phone conversation with Parker shortly after Parker became CEO) 

Faith – "Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. … Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle." (Jobs, Stanford commencement address, 2005)

Today – “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share.  No one has escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the best invention of life. It's life's change agent.  It clears out the old to make way for the new. ... Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. ...Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your inner voice."  (Jobs, Stanford commencement address, 2005)

I know this posting is a little off beat. But isn't that where it all starts? What moves you into a creative, "banana rhythm" of life? I'd love to hear your ideas.

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