Steve Jobs Secrets of Life
Silicon Valley Historical Association6 HN recommenders · recommended in 6 months, 2012–2024
interview · general · evergreen · 2012–2024 on HN
A short excerpt from a 1994 interview of Steve Jobs in which he says everything around us was made up by people no smarter than you, and that you can change and shape the world.
Quoted in threads on motivation, agency and regret as an encouraging reminder that the world can be changed.
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12 comments from Hacker News
This reminds me of an old video of Steve Jobs. His idea is simple, but it's really powerful. In short: the world is something you can change, not merely participate in. When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again. And the minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it. I think that’s very important and however, you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again. ▶ this video
Steve Job's book was very inspiring and motivational for me. The way he saw the world was very enlightening. Here's a video of what I thought was really profound for me: ▶ this video
The best thing according to me is to see smile on other people's faces. Atleast on those people's faces who have lost all hope. If I was in your position, I would concentrate on two things. Doing something to provide free(or atleast affordable) best quality - education to everyone, especially under priviledged kids e.g. from poor families and orphans. - healthcare to poor people. Atleast do these two things and the world will be a far better place. Take a break from your comfortable life and go travel to places like asia, africa and south america and you will find your calling. Here is some advice from a well know person: ▶ this video Edit: typo
This ramble made me think of an interview with Steve Jobs - ▶ this video Basically - Everything in life is made up of people who are no smarter than you. And you can help shape reality and improve it.
1st - Change your username. 2nd - I'm positive that If you don't change your mind, the thing you'll regret the most in the coming years will be the way you're thinking right now. There's still a lot that can be done. Lots of people succeeded after their 30's. Hugh Hefner started at 26: link 2 videos for you: - 8 characteristics every sucessfull person has (based on a study) link - Steve Jobs on Life ▶ this video
I think by foolish he implies that all of us in this world were born naked. None of us are omniscient or above the other. Here's a 1-minute interview which embodies the same message ▶ this video
Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact. And that is, everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you (Steve Jobs) - ▶ this video What one man can invent, another can discover. - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (via Sherlock Holmes). There is no prison as strong and unbreakable as the mental prison you choose to build and stay in - Me :-)
The world is run by people. Those people are no smarter than you (person reading this comment right now). I believe this personally and I’m confident Steve Jobs meant this literally. The reason I’m confident is Jobs said this in 1994, when the conventional wisdom was that both he and Apple had failed. Toy Story wouldn’t be released until the next year. iPhone (the device that convinced people Apple was right about Human Centered Design) was 13 years away. NeXT was failing. Here is the link to the original video posted by the Santa Clara Historical Society. ▶ this video Edit: fix video link
I'm admittedly sitting on a winning lottery ticket, no doubt. But it came out of the many impulses I followed when I should have been eating frogs. Other impulses got me all sorts of connections, career boosts and other perks. Some frogs you just have to eat, but I don't think that anyone's denying that. The original article is questioning competitive frog-eating. In my experience, refusing to eat those frogs is how you end up finding other ways. This guy who makes computers put it best: ▶ this video
Jobs wasn't really like that as in "zen and care for personal wellbeing" at the start and then switching to "angry and materialistic". He seemed to combine a fairly consistent zen like focus, more on great objects like the iPhone rather than care for people, and a fairly consistent edge of angry materialism. It didn't really flip from one thing to the other. A well known video of him for example on changing the world ▶ this video He was a complex character
As a serial entrepreneur, and therefore employer of many people, I'm pretty horrified to read this. My immediate thought is that it's a toxic attitude, but totally understandable in what is probably the rule rather than the exception, i.e. a 'regular' company. And that's sad. If you are really feeling as you do, I think it's time to reassess your employment and potentially your life. For instance, I think many startups are different to this, and not only because they are small. More meaning: the genuine opportunity to enact change, I think is the biggest differentiator, alongside better incentives and stock options that in some cases lead to life-changing financial outcomes. There is always risk with this, and it's a higher risk than a larger company, but that's just the mechanics of life, economics, and society. I work incredibly long hours, so i'm always 'busy', but for the most part I love what I do, like a passion project. This is because I'm transfixed by cause and effect. It's an amazing thing that I don't think our brains are wired to appreciate by default. It takes discovering this and then confirming it, illustrating that just one person can have disproportionate impact in the world. It seems the vast majority of us limit ourselves or feel a sense of imposter syndrome in our own skin. The more one realises this and manages to instrument some change, the more positive reinforcement one gets, until one can look back at varying chunks of time in one's life to see the im
I've lived with ADHD for about half of my life. You may or may not have ADHD, but what you're describing sounds pretty similar. Here're a few things I do. 0. Rexamine physical health. In the past two years, I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea and low testosterone (I'm a guy). Having those two treated has been almost miraculous. The ADHD is still very real, but I find I can fight the inattentiveness if I've had a good night's sleep. (And, I guess not coincidentally, a good night's sleep for me is between 6 and 7 hours on a CPAP. I can rarely make it to 8 hours. Again, the ADHD is real.) I've also been examining my diet, my weight, my activity level and other physical changes I can make. 1. Be constructively self-critical and responsible for your actions, but not self-destructive. I shouldn't accept failure from myself due to lack of attentiveness/motivation, but that's not a license to tell myself that I'm an intrinsically, irredeemably bad person. This may be a cliche in SV, but with ADHD or the feelings you're describing, every failure really is a learning opportunity. Your feelings of lack of motivation are not anyone else's fault, but they're not yours either. However, only you can take the initiative to make the situation better. 2. Think through the activities you do where you actually do have quite a bit of clarity and focus. I'm guessing there's something you do that just makes time seem to melt away. See if there's a way to harness what interests you in that activi