By Oh Young-jin
Steve Jobs is one of the most talked-about personas of the current technological era.
Tom Friedman, New York Times columnist, wrote that the U.S. needed more innovators like Jobs to reverse its decline.
In Korea and in other countries, the lack of Jobs-like visionaries is sadly rued and ways of fostering leaders like him are seriously researched.
The instant and immediate cycle of news in the world we live in today has already made the announcement of his resignation as Apple CEO a week ago nearly forgotten but it by no accounts means that we will forget about him. Rather, it is more likely that we will be engaged collectively and individually in a very consistent way of remembering him _ much like when children go into the room of their deceased parents to open family photo albums to relive their precious moments together, if only in memory.
Of course, the pictures in those albums would include Jobs’ iProducts.
His iPod changed the way we listened to music and watched videos.
His iPhone changed the way we communicated, shrinking the world into the size of our palm and making that small world completely accessible. Suddenly, thanks to Jobs, we have turned into Gulliver in the nation of Lilliputians or the Queen of Brobdingnag looking down on the teeny-weeny surgeon castaway from the merchant ship Adventure.
The iPad makes Jobs’ revolution bigger in scale by bringing into the fold those with fat thumbs and fleshier fingers, the last batch of holdouts.
In other words, Jobs’ legacy will certainly outlive him and outlive Apple with the tech world set to appreciate it for many, many years to come.
Just reach out into your pocket or backpacks for your iPhones or iPads, caress their smooth surface and imagine what they can do for you. Without naming the thousands of apps available, look around on any bus, subway, school campus or any other public and private place and see the masses all engrossed in their individual iGadget.
Their attractions border sexual infatuation without being fatal.
Even for people like me who don’t do apps, holding my iPhone or occasionally rubbing it on the arm of my shirt to clean its smooth surface is enough to make me feel part of the hip Apple crowd.
Jobs has also brought a spirit of competition into the industry that no one else has done before. He decimated Nokia, the world’s No. 1 mobile handset maker, forced Motorola to seek the safety of Google’s bosom and took Samsung to the task in this ``sink-or-swim” world of information technology (IT).
The IT seismic change Jobs set into motion now has a force of its own, making it out of the question to predict where it will take us. Don’t forget that a new IT paradigm is and will be one of the defining elements of the world as we know it.
It’s not a secret that Jobs has flaws, many of them being on the flipside of his strengths.
For instance, his dictatorial personality is much mentioned. We all know that he was forced out the door and replaced by the person he brought into Apple in a boardroom coup.
We all know that he was so fiercely competitive that he wanted to suppress Apple’s competitors with this tendency peaking during what turned out to be days leading up to the announcement of his resignation. As a matter of fact, I, in last week’s column before his resignation announcement, said that his patent lawsuits were reaching the point of frivolity and it was likely that such an effort was linked to laying the groundwork for men of mediocrity to succeed him.
Einstein had his predilections; Kissinger-brokered the peace treaty as Vietnam crumbled; Paul Krugman acts a liberal Cassandra telling a disbelieving crowd of the merits of big government and Obama is reviled as a major disappointment.
Whatever their personal flaws may be, it is important to celebrate geniuses if only in the strong hope that more people will compete to outshine Jobs in their fields of expertise and contribute to mankind’s adventure.
Only for that achievement, Jobs deserves recognition at the highest level, from the Nobel committee.
Awarding Steve Jobs would give the Nobel Prize more relevance.
The Nobel Foundation awards those excelling in six fields every year and Jobs may not be included in any of them. In that case, the foundation could create one especially for him, perhaps a lifetime achievement award or, more specifically, one for promoting the best human spirit.
Perhaps, the shrewder and healthier Bill Gates is already preparing himself for a Nobel Peace Prize by engaging in extensive charity work (naughty!).
Jobs would look better among a Nobel crowd of tuxedos and ties than he has on stage in black turtlenecks and snug-fit jeans plugging his latest gadgets.
I wish to see him speak as a Nobel laureate in Stockholm soon.
Before that, I wish him good health and the best of luck. I won’t say that I am going to miss him, although I am one good subject less of things to write columns about.