Adam and Eve – the power of storytelling
The Biblical story of Adam and Eve eating
the apple – the forbidden fruit – will be well
known to you, whatever your religious
viewpoint. In fact it is one of the best
known stories in the entire world.
Adam and Eve is the story of creation and
sets the tone for God’s relationship with
human kind. It tells the story of our fall
from Grace, is the basis for the Christian
doctrine of Original Sin and forms the basis
of not just one but three of the great
religions of the world.
These are complex theological ideas but
brilliantly delivered in a story (whatever
your view of Biblical truth or allegory) and
one of the best examples in history of the
power of story-telling to get over complex
ideas.
Isaac Newton – this is the modern world
Isaac Newton is widely considered to be
the most influential scientist who has ever
lived and his greatest theories – on which
our entire understanding of the physical
universe is based – are said to all be based
on an apple falling on his head while he sat
under a tree.
Newton laid the foundations for classical
mechanics by describing universal
gravitation and the three laws of motion
which describes how we have understood
the physical universe for over three
centuries. His work forms the basis of the
Physics we learn at school to this day.
He also proved the concept of planetary
motion and established that the earth
circles the sun – not the other way around.
He also takes the credit along with a guy
named Leibniz for the development of
differential and integral calculus.
He did a lot of other clever stuff, was a
theologian, ran the Royal Mint and was an
all round genius.
Put simply, he advanced the scientific
revolution that created the entire modern
world we live in to this day.
Steve Jobs – intuitive beauty
And so to Steve Jobs who sadly died recently.may his soul rest in peace. Steve Jobs is synonymous with
Apple, the company he co-founded and the
company he has led since 1996. In his
innovative drive he has changed so much
about technology and the way we live our
lives today.
He developed one of the first commercially
successful PCs – the Apple II
He created the MacIntosh because he saw
the potential of a mouse driven graphical
user interface – how crap and unintuitive
was computing using the keypad and BBC
Basic command prompts.
He set up Pixar out of Lucasfilm which lead
to the re-birth of film animation and to films
like Toy Story and a Bugs Life.
His revolutionary work at NeXT included a
multi-media email system which could
share voice, image, graphics and video in
email for the first time.
He went back to Apple and turned in upside
down, becoming the completely dominant
figure.
He achieved enormous commercial success
with the iMac based on beautiful design.
He developed the iPod and iTunes digital
software which revolutionised the way we
access, buy and listen to music. MP3s and
digitally sourced music has all but killed CDs
and high street record stores. You are
more likely to listen to your iPod on the bus
or out jogging than listening to music on
the car CD player now.
He then developed the iPhone – the first
smartphone – a multi touch display mobile
phone.
Jobs was an inspirational, charismatic and
highly energetic business leader –
autocratic too. He was also something of a
lifestyle guru. His foresight in setting trends
and in innovations of style and intuitive
usability has shaped much of our day to day
living and the way we use technology in
our lives.
Jobs didn’t do market research. He was a
true market leader, knowing what the
public wanted before they knew it –
understanding the marriage of intuitive
functionality and beautiful design.