Apple, A Human Story

Declining health

We all know about the veil of secrecy that Steve Jobs has pulled over the goings-on at Apple. So the elements of surprise and wonder are all the greater, when he launches a new product. He was more forthcoming, however, with the reasons he has had to take one medical leave, after another, in the past few years:  pancreatic cancer. 

Still, when I first saw how heartbreakingly gaunt he looked, I wondered about something else:  AIDS.  (It wasn't, after all.)

Here he is announcing iPad2, in March 2011, while on his recent (current) medical leave. To me, he looked thinner than before, but he seemed more than able to speak to his audience. Then when I saw this photo montage of him, from an article by Raymond van Velzen, that thought pressed itself a bit more in my mind.

Habituating nature

Here’s a graphic, from an article by Erik Mack, which speaks to something fundamental about human nature:

(image credit)

Mack reports, 

The results suggest that Jobs’ previous absences have had an ‘inoculating’ effect that over time has allayed consumer concerns on whether the company could operate at the same level without Steve Jobs at the helm.  

Behavior psychologists observed a particular phenomenon:  Present us with a stimulus, and this elicits as response. Over repeated exposures to that same stimulus, however, we respond less and less. As an example, think about the first few times you wore a new pair of shoes or eyeglasses. You may have felt a bit awkward or self-conscious. Over time, you noticed it less and less, until it felt like hardly anything at all. You got used to it. It’s formally called habituation.

So, in a similar vein, we’ve gotten used to seeing Mr. Jobs take a medical leave and looking gaunt. One way to interpret the graphic above, then, is that people are just as likely to purchase Apple products, now that his resignation is official, as before. What must’ve been a dis-spirited feeling about buying Apple stuff, in light of his absences, has virtually dissipated.

We are mortal

I’m sure many of us don’t spend our days and nights wondering when we’re going to die. Dying may be one of those things we deny so fiercely that we don’t really think it’s going to happen at all. We live healthy, vibrant lives. Not a single gene of illness seems present in our bodies.  Whether he intends to or not, Jobs reminds us otherwise.

His cheeks, more sunken. His customary black shirt, draping over his body more loosely. His pace on stage, slower. Illness or not, Mr. Jobs is what all of us will become.

I pray that his health improves. I hope for many more years of innovation coming out of this gifted man. I wish he could continue as CEO of Apple. But here are two ultimate ironies in life: that dying is very much a part of it, and that death is really the only certainty we know.

Its brilliant technology notwithstanding, Apple is above all a human story. It is our story.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD