A Thought on Apple

Ok, I'm a big Apple fan...been using Macs since revision C iMac (for those who may know when that is). And there is much written about Apple these days, especially now that they are so successful. And there's plenty of Apple-centric blogs and things (one of the best being Daring Fireball), so I won't go into them all and all the things people are writing about Apple.

And there are many critics of Apple--from the tight control they exert via the App Store to those who still continue to call their products "toys" as they did back in the pre-OS X days.

But in the era of the iPad, that followed the iPhone and the iPod Touch, think about this one simple question:

Where would the computer industry be today if Apple didn't exist?

For all the criticism, right or wrong, tell me one other company, just one, that pushes innovation forward; that has pushed the industry forward.

Tell me one other company that would do this. What other company, a computer maker no less, would go to London to record soundtracks for a piece of consumer software? How Disney-esque--when Walt would send off his animators to all points across the globe to capture their subject matters in drawings before making their movies.

So, while it's easy for critics to dismiss those who claim Apple is the industry's R&D, please tell me one other company that is pushing boundaries the way Apple is. You may not agree with their direction all the time, (though millions do)--oh, and please don't tell me Google-the company that throws shit against the wall to see what sticks and never has the end user in mind--but they have a vision that goes way beyond and outside what the PC industry can even begin to fathom.

Truth

When younger, I pursued what I thought had to be the "truth" of a subject.  If we were arguing politics, religion or Macs vs. PCs I always figured there had to be one answer that was better, closer to the truth than any other.

I was very political in my youth...still am to some degree, just not as engulfed by it all.  And, to be honest, I liked to argue...not to prove I was right but to prove that what I believed is right, otherwise, if I was wrong, well, how are we to define our lives if what we believe is wrong?

I used to try and equate it to plotting degrees on a map or some destination in space; if off by even one degree, the farther out you went the farther from your destination you would be off course.

At some point, I learned, that to just argue a point, was, in fact, pointless unless you did your homework.  We all tend to express our opinions based on what we think we know or we think is common sense or common belief--opinions held by our peers, on the nightly news or is in the mainstream.

Side note: my belief in the main stream media I'll simply sum up by referring to Noam Chomsky (and his excellent book Manufacturing Consent).

A perfect example is the belief, often expressed in main stream media, that Unions are out of date, or are a cause of whatever problem being discussed.  The auto bailout is an example of this--the first thing everyone typically attacks is unions as being a major cause of the problem.

I believe in unions and used to frequently argue the topic in my youth until one day, in my pursuit of the truth, I decided to actually do some research.  One side or the other had to be right. However, if you think merely doing the research was a simple solution, you'd be surprised.  You really have to be aware that there is good research and bad research and just because someone has done research doesn't make it legitimate.

Without being too arrogant, I think I learned to do good research and to have good judgement when in college and from experience in researching other topics.  I typically look at the sources and notes before buying or reading a book to see if it meets my personal criteria for fair/decent research.  This is one of the reasons I have such a high opinion of Judith Rich Harris' book mentioned in my earlier post on parenting.

So, I did the research on unions and learned that a lot of what we hold as common beliefs are just wrong.

In the end, what I've learned is that some people, most people never want to let go of the common beliefs no matter what you present them with and you end up with an Us vs Them mentality where the truth just doesn't matter.

BTW-I don't necessarily believe that there is a single truth to anything anymore-at 44, I'm not sure what I believe...