One thing bothers me within so much of the recent coverage of the loss of Apple’s [AAPL] Steve Jobs: the frequent allusion to his so-called ‘reality distortion field.’ What is this myth that’s being propagated as a reality concerning a man who it would be far more appropriate to say had a ‘reality creation field,’ or at least a ‘reality disruption field,'” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld.
“How was leading and motivating a team which helped define the paradigm of desktop computing a reality distortion?” Evans asks. “How was it distortion to develop into the mass market those Xerox Alto-inspired ideas of mouse and keyboard and display-based computing? How was it distortion to develop the GUI notions Microsoft would later use in Windows? Where’s the distortion? All I see is leadership and change.”
“It’s time we dumped the old legend and accept that Jobs’ so-called distorted reality is the one we are in, and that the old guard are deluded to think it is anything else,” Evans writes. “It seems appropriate to me that the myth of the reality distortion field be also laid to rest, in order that we can remember Steve Jobs the man for what he was, without the distortion field some hope to shroud his memory in.”
Read more in the full article here.
Agreed.
i always regarded that moniker, the RDF, the same way: Reality Creation Field. More important than the “one more thing” cookie we always yearned for at Stevenotes, his elegantly portrayed vision of how each shiny new iDevice will dovetail and augment our lives was inspiring. And usually true.
dd
The Reality Distortion Field was created by the main stream press and Windblows addicts, that could not see the Steve’s vision, because they insisted on having their head way up a dark place in the rear of Bill Gates of hell.
The reality distortion field term was coined by the original mac development team.
You can’t change history.
Agreed. It’s remarkable how folks are distorting historical reality to find something to write about.
Right on. The R&D engineers would come to a meeting with Jobs, heads hung low, intending to explain why this or that couldn’t be done. By the time the meeting was over they all were so hung-ho over doing what seemed impossible, that the term “reality distortion field” was coined. Had nothing at all to do with Apple’s customers being lured into an altered reality — unless that altered reality was a thing like the iPhone 4S, or the original Mac.
no it wasn’t.
Correct. It was a few years before that by another Apple employee.
If so, then the sense in which the phrase used is completely different.
Because reality distortion field actually distorts reality, and Apple II, Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad were indeed products that distorted reality.
However, the media uses this thread in the sense “Mind distortion field”, which is incorrect.
RDF has positive and negative meanings.
Apple’s meaning has always been positive. The competitor’s meaning is negative.
When Apple was weak, the competitors rewrote history and the meaning of RDF. They meant it was something outside of ‘reality’–impractical, impossible, unrealistic.
Now that Apple is strong, RDF is restored to Apple’s original meaning. That is, that anything is possible, if you believe and articulate your vision with courage and single-minded conviction.
His extreme enthusiasm over a new product, hardware or software, was contagious.
If you don’t like reality distortion field, call it a feel good, gotta have it, virus.
As you see it, So it becomes. First law of metaphysics….
I liked Jobs’ view of our future…it seemed brighter and more fun…I hope we continue on that path.
Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field is more like a reality perspective field.
For some people, reality is truly illusive.
…and needs distortive perspective to see clearly
I always thought RDF was a tremendous compliment. I guess some people interpret it differently and think it was an insult.
I always thought Steve had a REF, a Reality Enhancing Field. He helped you to see the future more clearly.
Stupid people love to denigrate what they don’t understand. The term “reality distortion” implies that Apple products are not as good as Apple devotees think they are. Actually, the reverse is true: Apple products are much better than Apple haters think they are. They themselves are the ones who are suffering under the influence of a reality distortion field, but they are too ignorant to know it.
Reality Defining Field.
GMTA
Folklore.org has the history of it down, but I’ll link Wikipedia here:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Reality_distortion_field
“Reality distortion field (RDF) is a term coined by Bud Tribble at Apple Computer in 1981, to describe company co-founder Steve Jobs’ charisma and its effects on the developers working on the Mac project. Bud Tribble claimed that the term came from Star Trek. Later the term has also been used to refer to perceptions of his keynote speeches (or “Stevenotes”) by observers and devoted users of Apple computers and products.
“The RDF was said by Andy Hertzfeld to be Steve Jobs’ ability to convince himself and others to believe almost anything with a mix of superficial charm, charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, appeasement, and persistence. RDF was said to distort an audience’s sense of proportion and scales of difficulties and made them believe that the task at hand was possible.”
In other words, it’s real; Steve could be charming and persuasive in demanding the seemingly impossible tasks (i.e. asking someone to get something complicating done in an impractically short amount of time). RDF was something also felt by many of us arguing with our PC counterparts in the early years that how using the lower Hz but RISC implemented Motorola chips, as opposed to the Intel chips, were in par (at least in the speed race) with those pesky beige boxes.
As someone here has already mentioned, RDF has both a positive and negative connotation associated with it. Apple haters ran with it and the mainstream media misused/overused it later. And so now, the author here, Mr. Evans, is also misusing it by using straw men attacks against selective misconceptions only.
Go with the the Folklore, it’s better.
It is ironic how Apple gets accused of a RDF by shipping leading edge products that work, while laggard companies that make sub-standard products and cover their butts with vapourous promises are dismissed for pimping their blatant illusions.
The “Reality Distortion Field” that Steve dealt with wasn’t actually of his own making. All he did was blow away competition that were existing in their own “Reality Distortion Fields” – IE: RIM dared to assert their Blackberries were the best, but the launch of the iPhone showed clearly they were not. It’s not hard to get excited about real advancements when they happen.
Apple redefined DVD creation with (award winning) iDVD
Redefined music creation/lessons with GarageBand
Redefined Web creation with iWeb
Redefined the desktop computer with the iMac
Redefined the music/movie/gaming industry with iTunes
Redefined the Notebook with iPad
The list goes on …
Nobody else comes close.
That’s some RDF!!
How about just “Reality Field” …