lonelysandwich:
Vision
It’s pretty rare we get the opportunity to predict the future based on history having repeated itself so consistently. But Apple, with its string of innovations and pattern of success, makes it pretty easy. At a point, it transcends fanboyism and becomes just storytelling. Which makes denying the technological potential of the iPad tantamount to denying the technological success of the iPhone, the iPod and the Mac before that. It’s myopic, thoughtless and dumb.
But that’s kind of the fun part. Even while others remain disappointed, doubtful and angry, we who enjoy this process of unleashing our imagination, we flourish. And they just get angry. All while history repeats itself.
It’s always surprising, the volume of negativity. But if everyone got it, it wouldn’t be as fun for the rest of us. And I’m having fun. So keep being dumb, dummies. And we’ll keep having fun.
let’s get one thing straight: i wouldn’t be doing this if it didn’t matter. same goes for the rest of you. i spent the week sifting through thousands of personal ephemera that had some very smart people projecting their insecurities onto something that, so deftly, made them want it. cool, fine - totally with that. steve jobs isn’t your BFF. he’s here to get paid. in no tenet of this life does he wake up and desire to be apologetic to the world. i don’t and you shouldn’t either. dude and his company have been a major rudder of human evolution for the past decade. is anyone hating on NASA saying that they’re one rocket short? i didn’t think so.
anyway, adam’s frame of mind here is the proper one. this is fucking it so get on the train and let’s go or, you know what - go do your thing but don’t expect sympathy. in other words, we don’t have control over a whole lot. every day we walk around projecting and attempting with some pretty solid disregard about our attitudes and mindset. they are pretty powerful - MASTER IT. sappy commentary is nice but what happens when you’re done? what happens when i’m done? i’ll tell you later - but really, what happens? 10-1 nothing. 10-1 some amazing, smart people are sulking in a corner looking at their logs and wishing they got a link from someone who doesn’t really know them as a person. that’s lame. that’s part of this whole deal that i’m not into and, i hope, you won’t be either.
back to frame of mind, approach and taking this and running with it - not scraping the walls looking to regress. i picked out four other people - who i don’t know personally but, in this instance, i’m admiring their outlook and focus. kudos to you guys, consider this a virtual buying of a beer.
fraser speirs on future shock (ed: shit’s scary, right?) -
Not the entire world, though. The people whose backs have been broken under the weight of technological complexity and failure immediately understand what’s happening here. Those of us who patiently, day after day, explain to a child or colleague that the reason there’s no Print item in the File menu is because, although the Pages document is filling the screen, Finder is actually the frontmost application and it doesn’t have any windows open, understand what’s happening here.
…
Think of the millions of hours of human effort spent on preventing and recovering from the problems caused by completely open computer systems. Think of the lengths that people have gone to in order to acquire skills that are orthogonal to their core interests and their job, just so they can get their job done.
joanne mcneil on how we use it (ed: OMG I CAN”T PLAY DOOM WHILE CHECKING IN ON MYBLOGLOG?!?!?!) -
The iPad is effectively dividing two experiences: reading and writing. This means actively listening to another person’s words, and having the time to think of what to say before typing. This is better communication. This is the future.
joshua benton collects thoughts (linking to & quoting stephanie clifford which i feature here) on the connection between what joanne talked about and some more people who are going to make the magic happen (ed: in the effusive words of kenny powers, “GET ME PAIID, BITCH!”) -
People who have seen the tablet say Apple will market it not just as a way to read news, books and other material, but also a way for companies to charge for all that content. By marrying its famously slick software and slender designs with the iTunes payment system, Apple could help create a way for media companies to alter the economics and consumer attitudes of the digital era.
quickly, in other words - it’s going to make big boss man own up to the fact that his distro model is broken. no longer are you successful if you’re trying to capitalize or depend on a business model that requires people to be dictated to. not just because there is no longer some homogeneous “consumer blob” but because steve jobs was doing some hustling! can’t hate on a man. he’s just a really smart toll-collector. i digress.
rory marinich gets real and puts it into persepctive (ed: in fact, the world is not ending and oh shit, we can do some amazing things!) -
On a closed system, you can’t do that. You work with what you’ve got. Even if what you have is suboptimal — and guys? We live in the future; suboptimal for us is leagues beyond what the poor savages of 2008 had — when you’re using a device, you have to use it do do something, not just to fuck around.
listen guys, this was great. i’m going to make myself some food because i’m hungry. then i’m going to enjoy the balance of my weekend like a real person - not someone who’s crying over spilt milk that wasn’t theirs to begin with. instead of moping around with a shitty attidue - go do something.
