Farewell to Steve Jobs

By Lee Sang-jin

Lots of geniuses have come and gone. Only a few of them, such as Edison, Einstein and Beethoven are considered true innovators who have put a dent in reshaping people’s lives. Among these giants, Steve Jobs who unfortunately passed away in October should be added to the list of true innovators.

What makes innovators different? Is it their creativity that is unique to them or is it nurtured through education and a proper social system? If skill for creativity can be gained through such training and social systems, what might be the stumbling blocks in pursuing innovative thinking in Korea?

Steve Jobs was not only a technologist but also an artist, who saw the future and brought it to life. He was a risk taker: challenging the status quo and innovating the fragmented IT business into an ecosystem via iTunes, iPhone and iPad. By overthrowing conventional ideas, he boldly changed the world as one of the greatest innovators.

Great innovators require several characteristics. First, Jobs didn’t see things differently from the rest of us, but perceived things differently. Perception is the process of the brain to interpret what we see.

He attended a college calligraphy course and developed multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts for Mac. Jobs successfully connected seemingly unrelated questions or ideas from different fields.

Traveling in India broadened his perspective and expanded his sense of what’s possible. He introduced ground-breaking products and services by associating art, new concepts from others’ products and design.

Jobs’ ability to see things differently seems not to be confined to him. Creativity can be attainable if you do many on-site examinations, change your perception, and ponder what you perceive. Creativity results from an accumulation of experiences and perception. Great innovations hardly come out abruptly.

Start early and fail forward: He was a sponge-brained teenager when he started working with PCs. He was not afraid of failure but rather enjoyed it. When he was kicked out of Apple, he saw that as an opportunity to relieve the heaviness of being successful and to be a beginner again.

It is questionable whether the Korean education system and the organizational culture support people’s creative thinking by allowing in-depth perception and the association of different items and ideas. Elementary and secondary education in Korea is framed with lecture-centered classes and one-way communication.

Typically, Korean students cannot lend their unique and various thoughts to learned subjects. They are good at calculating and solving problem sets by mainly memorizing certain tailored formulas. Though abundant in experiencing either in physical locations or among people to associate with, the hierarchical culture at most workplaces thwarts employees’ attempts to think differently or heterogeneously.

Giving a second chance is not a social norm once you fail in business. Under the current educational and organizational system, drawing on your potential for greater creativity is quite limited in Korea.

Farewell to Steve Jobs in sadness, but to an existing social and cultural system harmful to creativity in hope!

Lee Sang-jin is director general at the Industry Policy Bureau of the Prime Minister’s Office. He is in charge of policies for industry in general, small- and medium-sized enterprise, intellectual property right and broadcasting and telecommunications.