Was Steve Jobs an Ignatian Educator? Tinkering, Thinking and Transcendent Beauty.. Kevin Gillespie, SJ, Associate Provost.

Was Steve Jobs an Ignatian Educator? Tinkering,

Thinking and Transcendent Beauty..

Kevin Gillespie, SJ, Associate Provost

Isaacson’s Summary Statement

At a time when the United States is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge and when societies around the world are trying to build creative digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness imagination and sustained innovation.

Walter Isaacson (2011) Steve Jobs ,p. xxi.

Isaacson’s Summary Statement

He knew that the best way to create value in the 21st-century was to connect creativity with technology so he built a company where leaps of imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

He and his colleagues at Apple were able to think differently. They developed not merely modest product advances based on focus groups, but whole new devices and services that consumers did not yet know they needed.

Ibid.

Timeline

1955- Born in San Francisco on 24 February

1955, to two university students, Joanne Carole Schieble and Syrian born Abdulfattah "John" Jandali (who were both unmarried at the time

He was adopted at birth by Paul Reinhold Jobs (1922–1993) and Clara Jobs (1924–1986)

His biological parents subsequently married (December 1955), had a second child Mona Simpson in 1957, and divorced in 1962

Youth

As a youth he would enjoy going with his father to junkyards and we tinker over cars with his mechanical father in the family garage. It was from this garage where Jobs launched his computer business.

1972-73-Dropped out and “dropped in” at Reed College

1974- Traveled to India with some friends in search of spiritual enlightenment. He began reading The Autobiography of a Yogi which he read at least once a year.

Apple

In the late 1970s, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak engineered one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. Jobs directed its aesthetic design and marketing along with A.C. "Mike" Markkula, Jr. and others.

In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Apple Lisa .

1984-The Super Bowl Ad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8

NeXT, Pixer

1985- Jobs left Apple after a losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985. He went on to found NeXT, which achieved limited success.

In 1986- he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd, which later became Pixar Animation Studios from which in 1995 came the award winning movie Toy Story.

In 1996, NeXT was acquired by Apple. The deal brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded. Jobs was named Apple advisor in 1996, interim CEO in 1997, and CEO from 2000 until his resignation

2003-

Inventor and Innovator

As of October 9, 2011, Jobs is listed as either primary inventor or co-inventor in 342 United States patents or patent applications related to a range of technologies from actual computer and portable devices to user interfaces (including touch-based), speakers, keyboards, power adapters, staircases, clasps, sleeves, lanyards and packages

Cancer

2003, Jobs was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer.

2005-Gave speech at Stanford university’s commencement. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

2009-Underwent a liver transplant. But health later declined.

2011-In August during his third medical leave, Jobs resigned as CEO, but continued to work for Apple as Chairman of the Board until his death.

On October 5, 2011, he died in his Palo Alto home, aged 56

Make the Best Product

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu0qeb_rJYU&feature=related

Be Passionate…Scout Talent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuNQgln6TL0&feature=related

Marketing is About Values

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVCB1vJWQIE&feature=related

Vision

There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very beginning. And we always will

Design

His design sense was greatly influenced by the Buddhism which he experienced in India while on a seven-month spiritual journey.[92] His sense of intuition was also influenced by the spiritual people with whom he studied.[

Teamwork

When asked about his business model on 60 Minutes, he replied:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=vVCB1vJWQIE&feature=related

My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are never done by one person, they are done by a team of people

Sell Dreams not Products

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbtVvkSnS7A&feature=related

Think Differently

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rco9xujjAak&feature=related

People who are out to change the world…

The Apple Store

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBMR3FUNsD4&feature=related

Even a place for the Genius Bar

Creative Collaboration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60dheI4ARg&feature=related

Trusting that other folks are going to come through with their parts..

Be Not Afraid to Ask

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTf0LmDqKI&feature=related

Sense of Transcendence

According to Simpson, Jobs "looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life's partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them". His last words, spoken hours before his death, were:

"Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow."[107

Evaluating Jobs as an Ignatian Educator

Four Cultures of the West (John O’Malley’s)

PropheticAcademicHumanisticArt and Performance

Jobs and Transformative Education

Walter Ong, S.J. on Digitization

Digits start by being connected to the person

Primary and Secondary Orality

Digitization (Computers) and hermeneutics (Interpretations of the text) serve one another.

Impact and Implications for the Future