As the world continues to mourn the death of Steve Jobs (each in one’s own way), there are more than a few posts about Jobs/Apple on the intertubes.
Over at TechCrunch, MJ Siegler had a tribute of sorts to Jobs (Siegler is an unabashed, unashamed Apple fan-boy), in which he printed out the text of the original “Think Different” commercial.
He also embedded a version of the the ad voiced by Jobs; that was poignant.
However, it was the text that caught my attention:
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
First – great text, and a powerful message.
But reading this – instead of just passively listening to it – I was reminded of a similar quotation from about a century ago.
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
— George Bernard Shaw
People today are not that Shaw-friendly; I’d wager Jobs was.