while I like the idea expressed by the quote, I don't like the overall judgemental sentiment that "if you don't mold the world around you, you live a poor version of life". It reminds me of something that could be said by a cultist person coach. Nothing wrong or worse I think with living a simple life.

It's hard not to reflect on Steve Job's quotes like that and think about how Apple manufactures it's phones. What a reality they've created for the foxcon workers.

You do know that Foxconn has over 800k employees around the world? And that they manufacture a huge amount of the electronics we all use every day.

For some reason the notion of Foxcon == Apple manufacturer has stuck in the public consciousness, mostly because it brings in the sweet sweet clicks just by having "Apple manufacturer <bad thing>" in there.

The reality that they have created for Foxconn workers is that they have a job that they would die than quit. It's that important to them.

Why do you assume that it has to be Apple's fault that China is fucked up?

> they have a job that they would die than quit. It's that important to them.

Or maybe simply quitting would be even worse than taking their own lives, somehow. And Foxconn might be part of making that situation a reality.

One could argue they’re just following local laws. Though it won’t make any difference because their brand carries such weight and status that I find it will be almost impossible to vote it out with our wallets. We’d better shut up and just accept the new truth from our self appointed feudal masters.

> One could argue they’re just following local laws.

One couldn't argue that as they knew about Chinese labor law violations at Foxconn & Pegatron.

Do you seriously think China has laws that mandate abuse of workers?

Replace “laws” with “customs” and the sentence works. The Chinese leadership doesn’t care about its citizenry as long as $$$ keeps flowing. They are hardly unique in that, of course, but they’re more blatant than others.

I honestly think that's a simplistic view that allows us in the West to feel better about how terribly we're taking care of our own people.

Just look at the U.S. handling of COVID and how there's still no universal healthcare. China did a much better job here even if you think their figures aren't exact, (most likely true, but so is the case in places like Florida etc.)

I don't think they're somehow uniquely more corrupt that here in the West, they're however much younger, (convenient how we disregard our meddling there for centuries), they're trying to match the West in as short timespan as possible and of course they're going to line up their pockets along the way, as almost everyone with enough power and access does when given the chance, sadly. But they've also massively expanded the middle class and lifted people from poverty.

Remember the U.S. had slavery and yes it is appropriate to compare that since the U.S. had the same government then than it does now, China didn't.

As China grows in strength and prosperity so do its laws become more worker friendly as it transitions from a factory for the world to a more knowledge based economy. In other words it follows a fairly standard development trajectory, just on a much shorter timeframe so the abuses are more visible and less spread out, unlike in the West. Plus there's more technology to document it all.

I'm not much into Steve Jobs, never been an Apple user, but I get the impression that Steve Jobs was a very judgmental person, also on behalf of others.

Having said that, I personally also think that it would better if the non-molding was a conscious choice, and not due to lack of thought. I personally often see people suffer due to lack of possible molding.

On a fundamental level, living any kind of life, “simple” or not, is a fruitless attempt to discover the ideal way a life should be spent. There is no single, truthful answer to that question. It is entirely possible to live a simple life and adhere to the standard Steve set here - perhaps the simplicity of your lifestyle is the thing that will change the world.

It is unhelpful to most people on two levels - firstly, about half of us are below median intelligence. Secondly, not everyone can change the world all at once. There are too many people and too few things to change for that to be feasible. By the numbers, most people are going to have to be satisfied with having no real impact.

I think you are severely underestimating the local effect an individual can have by influencing life, albeit on a smaller scale. Not everything has to be on a world-scale. In my case, I love watching movies and discussing them, but never applied that in any way to my environment – until I started a small, local film club, which has given me a real sense of having a bit of influence.

I also like the general idea of the quote and I'm against calling someone's way if life "less", but I think the value to be had is from the realization and everyone should have that realization.

> everything around you (...) was made up by people that were no smarter than you

The audacity of this guy! So he starts from the assumption that he's just as smart as everybody else that lives or has ever lived. Then he works from there.

Or equally that we're all just as dumb. O:-)

Everyone around you who has ever lived or will ever lived are just grown up kids like you, muddling their way through life just like you.

That is up to and including (but not limited to) your Mom, your Dad, your Teachers and Professors, the Mayor, Prime Minister or President, and even the Secretary General of the United Nations!

Possibly this might even apply to people like Einstein, The Pope, and Steve Jobs, though the jury is out on that one.

I no longer agree with my previous mentality that "anyone can do it if they try" and "everyone is capable". It was an innocent, non-judgmental, perspective that I'm glad I had because it helped prevent some sort of inflated ego. But, the older I get, the more people I meet, and a mini stroke later that knocked down my IQ some very noticeable points, I've realized that I'm incredibly lucky to be above average intelligence (in certain areas). It has made life relatively easy. Having the somewhat rare perspective of experiencing an instantaneous drop in intelligence, I would never agree with you that we are all like Einstein. I firmly believe that the "obviousness" that a more intelligent mind sees cannot be learned. It's seeing things that aren't there, that others can't see at all, or take much too long to see. For this reason, I believe there is a very real difference in the range of what people are capable of. I think everyone here should be thankful for their roll of the dice.

I'm sorry to hear that!

And I'm actually coming from the other direction: I'm arguing we shouldn't put anyone too much on a pedestal.

While he definitely made some awesome contributions; in the end even Einstein was a mortal man who will have struggled with life, and he likely had his own setbacks and made his own share of mistakes just as much as anyone else.

> I'm arguing we shouldn't put anyone too much on a pedestal.

I don't want to think that I'm saying we should. I think each person can achieve great things, but only some will be able to achieve great things in the realm of theoretical physics. And some will achieve mediocrity with less effort. I don't know if that warrants a pedestal or not since one mans greatness very well could be another mans mediocrity.

I want to say that it would be nice if society would recognize and be comfortable with the innate differences in all of us, since we are all just humans with spectrum for all things related to our biology, but I don't know what that society would end up looking like.

> Or equally that we're all just as dumb.

Sure, but it depends from where you start your reasoning from. I guess my upbringing was just the opposite as that of arrogant people like Jobs. My parents taught me to assume that most things are the way they are probably because a lot of people smarter than me set them up that way. This leaves you in a perennially grateful, happy state. When you find something that does not work in an optimal way, you become sad and try to fix it for the better, but only after you have thoroughly understood how it works. How is life like for an arrogant asshole? Do they become happy only when they "gotcha" the failings of less smart people? Won't they unconsciously find errors in many things they don't understand? It must be a living hell to be like that.

It could well be Steve Jobs was arrogant in general. I haven't studied him that much.

But I don't read "everything around you (...) was made up by people that were no smarter than you" as necessarily arrogant.

It could also be read as recognizing that we are all equally frail human beings. (Possibly my own bias is showing too)

I think the message to take from that was not one of Jobs’ narcissism, but that the world was shaped by ordinary people, and that you and I (or him for that matter) can do the same.

And that's why the iPhone is an open and hackable platform! Oh, wait..

Well Steve Jobs molded it according to his vision of end to end control.

But... how to learn it? How to truly internalize that you can "change" the world?

You don't have to internalize anything. Just start small with whatever cause is important to you. Try to get people to join your efforts. Set some goals or an end point where you'd feel satisfied with what you've done and can move on to something else without guilt.

Don't forget that Steve Jobs is not an all-knowing oracle. He was human, and in many ways a product of his time. His '60s hippie ideals certainly influenced Apple I's marketing and story (taking on 'the man', IBM). But in his personal life, he denied paternity of his daughter for years, well past the point where he was a multi-millionaire and could have afforded to support her.

The concept is generally known as "agency".

Isn't it essencially Karl Marx XIth thesis? "Philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways. What is crucial, however, is to change it."