This has me thinking. I wonder if Google would ever start an…

This has me thinking. I wonder if Google would ever start an animation department?

Hmmmmmmm.

waveybrain:

In the 80’s my best friend’s dad worked for Apple.  We learned to surf together. Actually, his dad was so cool that he’d drive inland a couple miles to pick me up so I could surf with them.  One day he brought home an Apple IIe.  That was the first computer I had ever seen.  There was something intriguing about it, but being only 11, I had no idea what it was for.  I do remember a primitive drawing or painting app. When other kids were putting O’neill stickers on their surfboards, my friend proudly had a big rainbow Apple sticker on his.  It looked kind of gay:)  Later, when my engineer uncles both proudly displayed their Commodore 64s, I was wise enough to know that there was something better out there.  Cut to last year when I gave my dad an iPad; he looked at the apple logo and recalled that he was going to work for them in the 80’s were it not for his undermining supervisor at the airline who gave him a bad recommendation, despite  earlier pleading with him not to switch departments because, ‘he was his best worker’-DOE!  How life changing would that have been had he worked for Apple??

I don’t know who I admire more:  Wozniak or Jobs?  One seems kind of oblivious and modest, the other focused and driven.  Both are geniuses, and they seemed to have needed each other equally to give birth to Apple.  I think Job’s genius has been the ability to connect dots and act as the catalyst in forming something substantial of those dots.  That takes vision and charisma.  

I know he made Pixar what it is, but I really think when he made the purchase he acquired two passionate animation junkies:  Ed Catmul and John Lasseter.  From there they brought in more passionate and talented people and created an amazing animation studio.  I wonder how much influence the culture of Pixar has had on Apple’s great resurgence.  They were (presumably) using Apple machines and software and pushing them to the max, which must have driven and informed progress.  Plus, the creatives of Pixar brought new visual and intellectual story-driven inspirations with them…I have a feeling that Pixar had much to do with Apple’s incredible success in the last two plus decades.  I’d love to hear what Job’s thinks about that.  Sadly, Pixar got sucked up by Disney.  I guess it was a shrewd move at the time, but I was very sad that he did that.  Disney had lost it’s way, and Pixar was a great beacon, making it apparent where and why they had lost their way.  Since then, Jobs became an influential Disney board member, which was another shrewd move-given that Apple was becoming more and more a content distributer.  Forming an alliance with Disney was a powerful move for Jobs and Apple.  It gave them tremendous leverage to influence and distribute content.  But, now that whole structure is being shaken. I can only assume that him stepping down is an indication of his health.  Why else would he surrender his position?  I’ve been trying to learn more about Tim Cook, and the only thing I’ve gleaned is that he’s not charismatic like Jobs.  He seems guarded, and calculating-but not spontaneous or exciting.  I think that’s a problem.  The only thing that gives me hope is that the culture of Apple is stronger than ever.  But, on the surface, Cook isn’t the best representation of that.  When I look at what Lasseter and Catmul are doing for Disney/Pixar some flags are also raised.  While they seem to have good instincts, they also seem to have succumbed to the cancerous corporate mantra of “stronger, faster, cheaper”.  I think they’ve lost sight of the core of what made Pixar, Apple and Walt Disney Studios great…vision.  So, now we’re at a deficit of charisma and vision in my opinion.  I think that needs to be restored, or else, here comes Google around the outside.

Whatever happens, I’m sad to see Jobs go.  He’s a great inspiration.

-Waveybrain

dragoni:

Essay: Jobs’s Departure as CEO of Apple Is the End of an Extraordinary Era by Walt Mossberg