Sometimes there’s a certain way that people want to be appreciated. You know, like how you always secretly wish you were good at something. You thought to yourself, hey maybe you were pretty good at it, but then nobody have ever told you so. It seemed that nobody else really ever thought you were good. So eventually you forgot about it. You accepted it, you admitted that you are not that special. Nothing special.
And then suddenly one day somebody just randomly passed by, crossed your path, and told you “you seem to be quite good”. Then they continue on their route, leaving you dumbfound behind.
Time passed, and nothing much changed, really. No this is not one of those stories where a whole life changed completely just because of some comment. Life goes on, and you go on being an ordinary being, without anything special.
But this time, you keep with you a piece of memory where you once momentarily shined.
I rather like Facebook. (I’m talking about the company, not the product)
I like Facebook for their guts. It takes a lot of courage to make radical changes to a social network of this size, and yet they kept doing it. Facebook has evolved so much from the time when it just came out, and it still hasn’t stopped. In my view, Facebook is such a young, fresh and energized company that moves with a terrifying speed. Having the biggest product of its kind, yet the company has no intention to sit back, relax and maintain the status quo. Every time they introduce something new, inevitably there were angry users who reacted aggressively, boycotted them and closed their accounts and whatnot (you just can’t please 800 millions of them all, can you?). Yet nothing could stop the company from making even more changes. I think that’s quite awesome.
The Timeline interface is probably one of their biggest transformations recently. Frankly speaking, it might not be the best way to organize the home page. The “events” keep jumping around when you expand them. Some of the events are hidden, and some are shown, depending on how Facebook see fit. All in all, it is not straight forward and user friendly enough.
But I still like Facebook, for its effort to renew itself. It is a young company, and it’s trying to prevent the product from becoming old and boring. With all these changes happening quite often, I still look forward to new and surprising changes to the social network we all thought we knew so well.
But I’m excited because I’m young and I like to see new things (not to mention that I’m rather vain and like to be the most updated… but that’s beside the point…) When Facebook starts rolling out the new interface by batches, I start seeing my friends complaining about it (more complains than compliments, that is). The problem with Facebook is that it’s not some hip product for a niche audience of young social media enthusiasts. It was built as a product for everyone, and that was how it achieves its status nowadays. Of 800 million users, there are people who don’t like changes, and there are people who are unable to keep up with the pace. Try to explain to my mom how to adjust to the new changes. Or my aunts. Or even my dad.
Conclusion? I think Facebook is having an identity issue (like a teenager). Mark is young, Facebook is young, and their culture is young, but Mark’s vision is for Facebook to become a network for everyone, a product so common and so essential that people just have to use it as part of their everyday’s life. Well obviously not everyone appreciates so many changes to the network that they are so used to.
Well if you were not living in the woods, you would have known all the talks around how Chinese workers are being tortured in China to make Apple products. No doubt, the situation is bad.
However, do you actually think that the only evil culprit here is Apple? Hey I’m not an Apple fan, I don’t own any single Apple products. And yet I’m finding this increasingly ridiculous that everyone is blaming Apple for this.
I’m not saying that Apple doesn’t have to do anything to stop the worker abuse. They should, and they are doing a lot of things to try to prevent it. But it’s not only Apple that is responsible for the issue. How about other electronic companies, you think they don’t try to cut cost by outsourcing their manufacturing to China? If Apple is the only company taking some action, little is going to improve. So while you are pointing your fingers at Apple, shouting at them, other companies are getting away with it. Isn’t it much better if we turn to other companies and demand for some actions, too? Isn’t it gonna be a much bigger pressure on the Chinese manufacturers to change their working conditions, when every company are demanding the same thing, instead of just Apple?
Be angry with Apple all you want, just don’t let others get away so easily.
Windows has never been a symbol of coolness, nor prettiness. That crown belongs to Apple. And yet today I found myself desperately wishing for a Windows phone, simply because the interface was too beautiful to resist.
The interface was so sleek, so elegant, so smooth and most importantly, so damn playful. Every time I swiped the screen, I was taken away by the transition. When I swiped from left to right, the screen didn’t simply move right. It flipped, showing me thin layers of text, beautifully and delicately. It was like dancing, it was like music, with all that swift and gentle movements.
I know the market for Windows phone is limited right now. There won’t be a lot of apps for Windows phone. If I use one, I run the risk of being frustrated for not being able to find some much needed apps. I might have to use some default services, which belong to Windows (thinking about Bing Search and, worse, Bing Map makes me want to kill someone).
But, who cares about functionality if you can be THAT beautiful?!
…
Really…
I’ve been seeing this picture around for quite some time. Now let me ask you this question: do you really really think that all lives are equal?
Technically and morally, yes, the world should be fair. But emotionally, I don’t think so. Think about it, when facing the death of, say, a family member and a total stranger, do you really feel the same? Would you cry for both of them the same way? Be honest. Would you really think that all lives are equal?
Of course that was a very extreme example, but it helps to explain this phenomenon where millions were sad about his death. It’s because we were affected. Steve Jobs might not be our family member, and we might not know him personally. But by his products, he changed our lives. Even though some of us don’t use any his products, it is him that transformed the whole industry, pushing it to innovate even more. Because of Apple I, there was Windows. Because of iPhone, there were Android phones. Because of iPad, there were Android tablets and now Amazon tablet. We all benefited from this whole movement. With his passion, he changed the way people see the world. He inspired millions of people, and hence millions of people will mourn him. That’s how it happened. You might think people are crazy to cry for a total stranger. No they are not. To them, Steve Jobs is not a stranger. They felt they know him, even though not personally.
I’m sorry if I come across as a cold blood monster, but I don’t know why people keep posting this picture. It’s just so irrelevant.
Like seriously, why do people believe in all these stuffs?
Why why why??? It was not the first of its kind, and why do people still fall for this? Gosh, when someone posted it on Facebook and add “is it real?”, I didn’t even bother to respond. I was like, “Isn’t it previous?”
Yet when another person shared the link, I finally realized that PEOPLE REALLY TRULY BELIEVE THIS.
I think this fact is even more surprising and unbelievable than the scam itself. I’m amazed by people’s gullibility, even in this age of information. A simple search would have revealed the whole thing as a scam (Personally, I guess you don’t even need to search to know, but that’s me)
Lastly, to those people who are seeking to exploit his death, I have no suitable words to say to you but I’ll try anyway: “shame on you.”
He knew, he certainly knew.
I’m not an Apple fan. I don’t even own any Apple product, although I’m surrounded by Apple fan boys. I didn’t feel much when he announced his departure from Apple.
However, an SMS arrived this early morning made me so shocked, and then, when the reality sank in, tremendously sad.
A brilliant life, well lived until the last days. When he left Apple just more than one month ago, I didn’t know that this day would come so fast. It felt like over night. Even at the end of his life, while fighting a losing battle against cancer, he didn’t stop working, didn’t stop creating, and didn’t stop surprising the world. In fact, toward the end of this life, he has become even more innovative, with iPhone and iPad, the two products that transformed the whole industry and shook the world. Maybe that was something that made his death seem so sudden, so shocking, even unfair to his fans. It’s hard to believe that such a brilliant person, someone who was still full of passion and energy, someone who was at his peak, had to leave so early. It was like what Mike Arrington has tweeted, “People like Steve Jobs are supposed to live forever”, he was too huge a loss to accept.
Eventually, even he, the extraordinary, the visionary, the revolutionary Steve Jobs, one that changed the world, couldn’t change the hand of nature.
It took so much to have the Steve Jobs that we used to have. It was not only courage, passion and talent. It was also all the dots in his life, his origin, his stories, all the “mistakes” that he made, his being fired from Apple, and, hell, even the very sickness that has killed him:
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.
It is gonna be a long time before another Steve Jobs comes along.
Btw people, if you are looking for some entertaining fiction books, you can read Accidental Billionaires.
However, if you are looking for a serious book that tells more facts than vague guesses and made-up drama of “Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal” *roll eyes*, maybe you can opt for The Facebook Effect.
Yah the guy was a little bit too fascinated with Facebook and and a little bit too charmed by Mark Zuckerberg, but all in all, it’s a well written book. It showed us how Facebook evolved to be one of the major influences on our culture and society. It helped us to once again appreciate the social network that we start to take for granted.
I enjoyed it.
Some people say it’s disappointing, some people say it’s great. But hey, those who say it’s great, you gotta agree that the edginess, the miracle element that used to keep Apple’s fan in awe is somehow missing.
Apple is on its track to be “just another company”, and Tim Cook, “just another CEO”.
Maybe the expectation was too high?
Wondering what would happen if Steve Jobs left earlier, like right before the announcement of the iPhone 4s. Maybe everyone would still be impressed with the iPhone4s and think Apple is doing great?
:P
When did Amazon become such a power in the tech world, same place with giants like Apple and Google?
Well, after Apple announced their first iPad, which was deemed to be a Kindle-killer. Eventually, iPad didn’t kill Kindle. Instead, it prompted Amazon to become even more innovative.
(Still remember my post about the free publicity Kindle received after the 1st iPad was introduced. Less than 2 years, and Amazon has come a long way.
