The people who invented the twenty-first century were pot-smoking, sandal-wearing hippies from the West Coast like Steve, because they saw differently,” he said. "The hierarchical systems of the East Coast, England, Germany, and Japan do not encourage this different thinking. The sixties produced an anarchic mind-set that is great for imagining a world not yet in existence.
Interpretation
Innovative thinking often comes from those who challenge traditional norms.
This quote suggests that the most transformative ideas of the twenty-first century were generated by free-thinking individuals, often seen as outsiders or rebels against conventional systems. It highlights the value of unconventional perspectives, particularly those that emerged from the counterculture movements of the 1960s, which encouraged a radical reimagining of what the future could look like, contrasting with established hierarchical structures that stifle creativity.
In practice
In a speech about innovation at a tech conference.
I visited Jobs for the last time in his Palo Alto, Calif., home. He had moved to a downstairs bedroom because he was too weak to go up and down stairs. He was curled up in some pain, but his mind was still sharp and his humor vibrant
I've always had an abundance of material about the subjects of my biographies.
Polite and velvety leaders, who take care to avoid bruising others, are generally not as effective at forcing change.
for Steve, less is always more, simpler is always better. Therefore, if you can build a glass box with fewer elements, it’s better, it’s simpler, and it’s at the forefront of technology. That’s where Steve likes to be, in both his products and his stores.
What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.
When there are multiple versions of a story, you really have three ways to go. You can pick the most sensational version. You can try to balance things in your gut to get to what you think is the honest truth. Or you can err on the side of kindness.
There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.
Bring together things that have as yet never been brought together and did not seem predisposed to be so.
If you know what you're looking for, that's all you'll get - what's previously known. But when you're open to what's possible, you get something new - that's creativity.
You don't have to work for Google, or any of the other firms encouraging staff to pursue personal projects on company time, to use slowness to unlock your creativity. Anyone can do it. Start by clearing space in your schedule for rest, daydreaming and serendipity. Take breaks away from your desk, especially when you get stuck on a problem.
We need to make the world safe for creativity and intuition, for it's creativity and intuition that will make the world safe for us.
Share what you do profusely, because it will be remixed by others into something new, rich and strange.
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