“Before reading this, you should know the following: I do not own an iPad, an iPhone, an iPod or a Mac. I abandoned my typewriter only recently,” Robert J. Samuelson writes for The Washington Post. “In short, I have not enlisted in the digital revolution and have kept my involvement to a desktop computer, e-mail and the Internet.”
“Given all this, it’s not surprising that much commentary on Steve Jobs struck me as over the top. In death, he has been lionized as the era’s greatest business leader. Walt Mossberg, the able and influential personal technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, declared Jobs to be a ‘historical figure on the scale of a Thomas Edison or Henry Ford,'” Samuelson writes. “Longtime financial columnist James Stewart, writing in The New York Times, approvingly quoted the head of a design studio: ‘Jobs is a revolutionary character. He shifted the industry and changed our lives through this amalgamation of culture and technology… That is truly revolutionary.'”
Samuelson writes, “By history’s measure, Jobs’s achievements are tiny. Transforming the music industry is not the same as transforming society. There are many technological advances that had a far larger impact on society: antibiotics, air travel, air conditioning and television. By contrast, many of Apple’s products are gadgets, as commentators have noted. Their ultimate social impact may be less than Facebook’s… [Jobs’] more modest legacy will fade with time. A century from now, historians and ordinary Americans will still remember Edison and Ford. Jobs will be a footnote, if that.”
Full article – Think Before You Click™ – here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, what’s The Washington Post going to waste their readers’ time with next, having Stevie Wonder critique the National Gallery’s Picasso exhibition?
We’ve iCal’ed this for our decendents to deploy on October 11, 2111.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
It is better to keep your mouth closed and have people think you may be stupid, than it is to open it and have it confirmed.
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” – Abraham Lincoln
I thought about it and decided not to click.
The power of positive thinking…
The writer has what is known as the the “Old fart Syndrome”, I don’t understand computers, thus why would any one else use them, when my portable Royal typewriter still works fine. Now it Steve Jobs had invented the portable type writer I may reconsider.
Strange that a fellow who shuns modern day electronics is still working for a printed paper. Little does he know that his paper will be gone in the very near future and the technology that spurred its demise came from the inventions and ideas of Steve Jobs and Apple, Inc..
If only he, Samuelson, could understand the scope of his oblivion, he would see that fame and glory span time only for the inventors. Bet he thinks Ford came up with automobile too…
Wash. Post’s Samuelson is a schmuck.
antibiotics, air travel, a/c, tv he lists as more significant than iSteve changing the way 6 industries work.
he’s judging from not touching an Apple product, as he stated. it’s like religious idiots who judged 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ or 2004’s Passion of the Christ, without watching it!! or it’s like my college professor who taught european art history without ever setting foot there – all theoretically. such life has no passion. Samuelson is biased.
as to the bigger significance in:
ANTI-BIOTIC: exactly. it’s ant-nature. it sure helps but the world ran without it for 1000s of years. i never take anti-bios and i’m 44! common sense is health, you don’t need f’g pharma up your rears to cure: they profit from your addictions. modern medicine is not much further along the pharaonic med. it’s still in its infancy. our biggest medical achievement in modern society is chemo, yet modern society & stress has created it; its cure rate is minimal anyway. oh, there’s viagra too, but i rather get off on real women & if i need a pill, well, i have to simply accept natural aging! it’s all so superficial nowadays.
AIRPLANES:
great, but there are ships, trains, autos, bikes, horses etc. humans lived 1000s of years without being air bound. nature made us human not birds of the sky. not that progress isn’t it. but airplanes also destroyed the ether, ozone, and our space shuttles/rockets pollute the orbit. until we invent eco-friendly planes, it’s not so worth it. it is a wonder how a plane can carry tons of weight & fly, yes. live near an airport to really dis-appreciate planes! Zeppelins could work too, they’re eco, more pleasant. just modernize them since wwii. want to impress for speed-travel? finally come up with a silent, eco-friendly spaceship or star-trek-like beam.
AC:
air + conditioning.
use harem-like comforting concepts.
a/c would be much more impressive without the poisonous freon.
again, humans lived without it 1000s of years. our industries are heating up the planet. live on mountains or where there’s a breeze. if you can’t use wind-power or upgrade fans with cooling not just blowing. surely, the industrial & digital revolutions created enough evolution to achieve such an advancement?! we can fly to planet mars, but can’t handle a cool fan?! our priorities are so lofty, yet unrealistic.
TV:
it surely entertains billions. but is it necessary for survival? did the world not function for 1000s of years prior to this? in germany they call tv “Volksverdummung”. the invention is to keep the folk occupied, lazy, brainwashed, lethargic etc. it’s a main function anyway.
STEVE’s advancements:
he takes the ordinary, like TV, music, movies, games, photography, videography, typewriters, software, phones, retail, marketing, advertising, manufacturing, packaging, industrial design, gui, desktop OS, mobile OS etc. and simples it all, giving power to the people, democratizing the world more than any manager ever…
the worthiness of accomplishment or inventiveness, is not
1. who invents 1st
2. comfort
but
1. how you implement inventions, simplify things
2. how you free people
worthiness is philosophical more than materialistic,
it’s intangible, it’s love, passion, vision, excitement,
change, craziness not banality, creativity not standards etc.
steve constantly brought us the NeXT thing. he never sat on his lazy ass by inventing one thing and sucking the life out of his buyers’ purse for the rest of his life like over 90% of corporations.
have some respect Mr. Sam.
get your history right.
get a life.
you are correct though, in that not all new things are better than the past solutions. you’d lose the romance of things.
yet, how is Steve’s or Apple’s changes in society,
if they bring smiles to billions around the globe,
a sin or an error or insignificant?
in other words, give me one other human,
who brought so much happiness.
not just smiles to consumers,
but livening up 1000s of lives with jobs, related directly or indirectly to Apple.
even your article, that you got paid to write in the Wash. Post now,
is writing material thanks to Steve and/or your pc was invented thanks to Steve when Xerox/IBM never believed in the personal computer…
If Steve Jobs had been the one who changed how typewriter had impacted print industry, Samuelson would have hailed Steve Jobs as the greatest man since Adam and Eve because old print is his bread and butter. But he haven’t used the computer as his main tool in his trade, he still uses the typewriter.
But wait, haven’t the computer swept away the typewriter? I think Samuelson has sour grapes syndrome.
If brains were gasoline, this turd wouldn’t have enough to drive an ant sized go-cart, one lap, around the inside of a cheerio.
Next he is going to say….64k is enough memory for anyone.
Oh wait….
Samuelson who?? Never heard of him. And if not for this posting, never would have.
That guy really makes my blood pressure rise.
At least 60 Minutes has found their replacement for Andy Rooney.
And his opinion matters, why? It’s like reading a car review written by someone who doesn’t drive!
Just a contrarian who thinks spewing this crap will get him some hits. Will Jobs be remembered in the same league as Ford or Edison. Hard to say, although the things he has given us are, to me, as revolutionary. But don’t bother clicking. Ignore the old man and his grouchy schtick.
Well, this Samuelson person will not even be a footnote, blip, speck in history. He’ll be nothing, thats right, blank, zippo, nada, invisible nobody in history.
So the GEICO caveman got a job with a newspaper.
What an assmunch!
What a dick.
Question for the editors of the Washington Post. Given this guys admitted background,
Why is this guy writing for you?
So… He’s an admitted Luddite, yet he thinks he has the authority to state where history will take our descendants?? Let’s consider the television, one of his ‘Change the world’ inventions. In fifty years, no one will know what a television (traditional) is. We’ll be getting our info-tainment on screens or something else that’s a direct descendant of today’s ‘gadgets.’ I’d say that’s changing society. Only those with their heads buried in the sand don’t realize this.
This is a luddite critiquing the industrial Revolution and saying it was a blip in history.
Bobby, you’re a putz! The fact alone that even technophobes such as you are able to type and print short pieces of pretentious prose using a personal computer is owed to the vision of the late Mr. Jobs and the Macintosh team.
No, the disclosure is not enough. This guy REALLY doesn’t understand technology. The current form of computing, including the internet is built upon the Mac GUI platform, which included the GUI desktop, the mouse, and the internet this guy is using. So, either this guy doesn’t know technology or he is just out there trying to grab attention to his site.
if this guy really thinks inventing the first true “PC” PERSONAL computer that was affordable/simple enough for mass ownership/use, as opposed to “work stations,” was “tiny” – and not as important as television – he needs to hang ’em up right now. clearly does not grasp the meaning of the word “empowerment” either.
instant laughingstock.
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
Abraham Lincoln
Im going to do two things here. First take his quote out of context than complete agree with him.
“In death, he has been lionized as the era’s greatest business leader” – Samuelson.
Yup I feel that’s absolutely right.
On a side note.
We all know that Apple will be holding a day of remembrance for Steve Jobs on Wednesday October the 19th.
I’m gathering like minded Apple folk to join at the BJ’s brewhouse and pizza bar in the Apple parking lot for honoring Steve’s memory.
I’m figuring drinks, food, laughs, gadgets, gizmos, great apple memories, and raising the celling on how many apple fans/nerds/geeks can squeeze into the cupertino area
Wednesday October 19th BJ’s Brewhouse, in front of Apple Inc. HQ from open to close.
Come join if you can.
http://www.facebook.com/HonoringSteve
This is not spam, just an Apple minded person trying to gather people in honor of a Legend.
Bravo douche