Was Steve Jobs an Ignatian
Educator? Tinkering,
Thinking and Transcendent
Beauty..
Kevin Gillespie, SJ, Associate Provost

At a time when the United States is
seeking ways to sustain its innovative
edge and when societies around the world
are trying to build creative digital-age
economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate
icon of inventiveness imagination and
sustained innovation.

Walter Isaacson (2011) Steve Jobs ,p. xxi.
Isaacson’s Summary Statement

He knew that the best way to create value in the
21st-century was to connect creativity with
technology so he built a company where leaps of
imagination were combined with remarkable
feats of engineering.

He and his colleagues at Apple were able to
think differently. They developed not merely
modest product advances based on focus groups,
but whole new devices and services that
consumers did not yet know they needed.

Ibid.
Isaacson’s Summary Statement

1955- Born in San Francisco on 24 February

1955, to two university students, Joanne Carole
Schieble and Syrian born Abdulfattah "John"
Jandali (who were both unmarried at the time

He was adopted at birth by Paul Reinhold Jobs
(1922–1993) and Clara Jobs (1924–1986)
His biological parents subsequently married
(December 1955), had a second child Mona
Simpson in 1957, and divorced in 1962

Timeline
As a youth he would enjoy going with his father
to junkyards and we tinker over cars with his
mechanical father in the family garage. It was
from this garage where Jobs launched his
computer business.
1972-73-Dropped out and “dropped in” at Reed
College
1974- Traveled to India with some friends in
search of spiritual enlightenment. He began
reading The Autobiography of a Yogi which he
read at least once a year.
Youth

In the late 1970s, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak
engineered one of the first commercially successful
lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. Jobs
directed its aesthetic design and marketing along with
A.C. "Mike" Markkula, Jr. and others.

In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see
the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mousedriven graphical user interface, which led to the
creation of the Apple Lisa .

1984-The Super Bowl Ad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8
Apple
1985- Jobs left Apple after a losing a power struggle
with the board of directors in 1985. He went on to
found NeXT, which achieved limited success.
 In 1986- he acquired the computer graphics division
of Lucasfilm Ltd, which later became Pixar Animation
Studios from which in 1995 came the award winning
movie Toy Story.
 In 1996, NeXT was acquired by Apple. The deal
brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded.
Jobs was named Apple advisor in 1996, interim CEO
in 1997, and CEO from 2000 until his resignation
 2003
NeXT, Pixer

As of October 9, 2011, Jobs is listed as
either primary inventor or co-inventor in
342 United States patents or patent
applications related to a range of
technologies from actual computer and
portable devices to user interfaces
(including touch-based), speakers,
keyboards, power adapters, staircases,
clasps, sleeves, lanyards and packages
Inventor and Innovator
2003, Jobs was diagnosed with a rare form of
pancreatic cancer.
 2005-Gave speech at Stanford university’s
commencement.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

2009-Underwent a liver transplant. But health later
declined.
 2011-In August during his third medical leave, Jobs
resigned as CEO, but continued to work for Apple as
Chairman of the Board until his death.


On October 5, 2011, he died in his Palo Alto home,
aged 56
Cancer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu0qe
b_rJYU&feature=related
Make the Best Product

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuNQ
gln6TL0&feature=related
Be Passionate…Scout Talent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVCB1
vJWQIE&feature=related
Marketing is About Values

There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I
love. 'I skate to where the puck is going
to be, not where it has been.' And we've
always tried to do that at Apple. Since the
very beginning. And we always will
Vision

His design sense was greatly influenced
by the Buddhism which he experienced in
India while on a seven-month spiritual
journey.[92] His sense of intuition was
also influenced by the spiritual people
with whom he studied.[
Design




When asked about his business model on 60
Minutes, he replied:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVCB1vJWQI
E&feature=related
My model for business is The Beatles: They
were four guys that kept each other's
negative tendencies in check; they balanced
each other. And the total was greater than
the sum of the parts. Great things in
business are never done by one person,
they are done by a team of people
Teamwork

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbtVv
kSnS7A&feature=related
Sell Dreams not Products

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rco9x
ujjAak&feature=related

People who are out to change the world…
Think Differently

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBMR3
FUNsD4&feature=related

Even a place for the Genius Bar
The Apple Store
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60dh
eI4ARg&feature=related
 Trusting that other folks are going to
come through with their parts..

Creative Collaboration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTf0L
mDqKI&feature=related
Be Not Afraid to Ask
According to Simpson, Jobs "looked at his
sister Patty, then for a long time at his
children, then at his life's partner,
Laurene, and then over their shoulders
past them". His last words, spoken hours
before his death, were:
 "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow."[107

Sense of Transcendence





Four Cultures of the West (John
O’Malley’s)
Prophetic
Academic
Humanistic
Art and Performance
Evaluating Jobs as an Ignatian
Educator
Jobs and Transformative
Education

Digits start by being connected to the person

Primary and Secondary Orality

Digitization (Computers) and hermeneutics
(Interpretations of the text) serve one
another.
Walter Ong, S.J. on Digitization
Impact and Implications for the
Future