Steve Jobs

After reading about the life of the great Steve Jobs, one of the two founders of Apple, my perspective on technology has taken a major shift.  I used to hate computers and technology but I have come to realize that we have so many resources that are made available to us that we should take advantage of.  I think that most people think of Jobs as clean, calm, collected, and appreciative person when really it is quite the opposite.  Jobs was one of the most charismatic people of his generation.  He strived for success and lived somewhat of an intense and crazy life.  As a young adult he got into drugs such as LSD which he said was one of the most enlightening and important experiences of his life.  He was always smart and witty and sometimes had trouble fitting in with people at the time.  Technology had not yet taken off and it was hard to find others that were as passionate about it as he was.  He was also hard to get a long with a lot of the time because he pulled so many pranks and angered so many people, but he didn't care.  Soon enough he found someone who was just as much into tech and pranks as he was.  his name was Steve Wazniak.  They later came to found Apple in a garage neat Pal;o Alto California.  It has developed into one of the largest and most successful companies to have ever been made.

Although Jobs most notably known for founding Apple the company that he first took pride in was the animation studio known as Pixar.  He helped to create movies such as Toy Story and Monsters Inc.  he saw this company as one of his biggest accomplishments.

Something that made Jobs different from every other CEO in the world was his passion for what he did.  He stated, "It's never about the profit but instead about the product."  He was one of the most meticulous and controlling person you would ever meat.  Everything mattered to him.  He stressed for hours, days, and weeks over things as simple as how rounded the corners of the iPhone should be or what kind of lighting he should use when he presents a new product.  One of his most notable qualities was his passion for simplicity.  He felt that phones such as the Android were to complicated for users.  He once tested the ipad by giving it two a four year old and watched him.  Soon enough the kid was downloading games and playing them without his help.  If a four year old can do it then anyone can.  His lust for control and quality is what shaped Apple into what it is today. 

Jobs had a very unique character about him.  A lot of times people at Apple hated working with him but they always came to appreciate what he did.  he pushed people to their limits and if they didn't preform they were fired and not in a nice way.  He would often walk into a meeting were a team of engineers would give him a demo of the new product and he would scream at them saying that it sucked and that the were all screw ups and that if they didn't do better the whole company would be in ruins.  Jobs believed in complete control.  he designed the way that stores look today with the sleek looking glass entry ways. He wanted to guide the complete consumer experience so that they know exactly what they are getting.  The entire Apple company is built around making the consumer feel like they are a part of something big and important.  He even stressed over how the products were shipped and what the box looked like and what appears after you open it.  If you didn't notice every Apple product is packaged the same way, you open the box and their is or beautiful new iPhone with its slender tone yet dominant presence.  His demand for the best quality and presentation always gave him an edge over his competition.

Something that many people may not know about Jobs is that he followed a very strict and simple life style.  He believed in Zen Buddhism and followed strict dieting regimens that sometimes included not eating for almost a week.  He was famous for knowing the best vegetarian and vegan restaurants around the world.  He especially loved Japan which was the only place he ate real food, mostly sushi.  For most of his life he believed that if he ate only fruit and nothing else that he would remain clean even without the refreshment of showers.  Even though many of his co-workers often said he was rude, angry, and he stinks like pig poop he still believed in it whole hearted.  Every year Jobs read the book, The Life of The Yogi, so as to refresh his memory on what he was trying to accomplish. he often walked around barefoot and entered meetings with big business managers smelly and oddly dressed.  He truly believed in simplicity, even when it cam to money. 

"It's not about the profit but the product."  Jobs was true to his words.  He never cared about the money, he simply didn't need it or want it. he already had a lot and didn't to be seen as someone like Bill Gates who was in it for the money.  Although Gates was a large competitor of Jobs he fully appreciated his character and beliefs about the importance of the product.  Jobs had so much pride when it came to new products.  almost every time something new came out he said it was the best thing he had ever created.  He lived to push technology to new grounds and he most definitely accomplished it.

He also had an interesting view on education.  He believed that kids should first of all not have to pay for it and second that the system we have in place today is crap.  he did not believe in power points and suggested that if you have to use a power point to teach something then you have know idea what you are teaching because you are just reading whats on the screen.  He believed in discussion and debate over what should be done.  He wanted ideas, thoughts and plans to develop through constant questioning.  He once had a meeting with Obama, that his wife set up and that he did not want to go to, but never the less ended up going against his own will.  He torched Obama about education and told him how everything was wrong with it and that it sucked.  He had no fear in telling the president of the United States that he was doing a sucky job at the time.  He also developed the idea of transferring textbooks onto the ipad which is supposedly coming soon. 

It is a tragedy that Steve Jobs is no longer with us.  He lost the battle to cancer but because of his own stubbornness to not eat the foods he needed in order to stay alive.  He was very strict about his dieting.  Still he left us with an empire of great technology and wisdom that should be seen as a learning tool.  His story has inspired me to become more involved with technology and his passion has inspired those who were around him to carry on his legacy.  I think that one of his best quotes to take away from his life story is this, "If your not busy being born, your busy dieing."  There is nothing more simple and true than that statement.

Refined Big Question

How does an adolexcent create a sense of identity through which others come to know him and he comes to know himself?

A.J. Franklin
Period 2

Self search

I searched A.J. Franklin on a couple different sites and didn't really get anything that I thought was that good except for their is a guy who is a good singer.  So instead I searched my real name which is Alex Franklin and found that their is a popular basketball player named Alex Franklin and he took up pretty much all of the search sites I went to. There wasn't much else except for stuff about this basketball player.

A.J. Franklin
Period 2

Thinking Outside the Box

Plato and Sartre both created a story that are very similar to one another.  Both express the idea of self entrapment due to lack of knowledge or not realizing what reality truly is.  They convey this message through their stories which can be seen as extended metaphors.  Plato uses the idea of the cave and the men in shackles to show that they believe what they see is reality but in fact all they are seeing is a representation of what is real.  In Sartre's "No Exit" he describes the idea of a living hell through the experiences of the three people being put in a room together who all in a sense hate each other.  I think that an important point to take away from both stories is that in order to fix this problem of the unknown everyone needs to be willing to share and teach the knowledge that they have.  I think a great example is our own class.  We have created a huge network of students who are sharing their knowledge with each other and it helps those who can't quite see reality get a little closer to the truth.  An example of this would come from Plato's story in the cave.  One of the prisoners is set free and leaves the cave and sees reality.  He then goes back to the cave and tells the others who haven't seen reality what is is about and what it looks like.  At first they don't believe him because they believe that they are in reality because it's all that they have seen.  But soon enough they come to realize that he is right and that there is so much more to what you can learn and come to know than what you all ready have.

A.j. Franklin
Period 2

AP Lit Term: Analysis

Analysis: A method in which a work or idea is separated into its parts, and those parts given rigorous and detailed scrutiny.
I like to think of analysis as breaking something down into its original components so that you can see the basics. One example that came to me as I was thinking about analysis was when we talked in class about how it is important to be able to analyze information that is given to you on the web. You can't just believe that everything you read is from a credible source so it is important to know how to spot those sights that are credible, and those that are not.

A.J. Franklin
Period 2

The Big Question

What defines a person? Is it the way they dress or who they hang out with at school? Is it defined by the way they talk to others through media such as facebook or anywhere online? Is it the way they act around their parents, or their friends?

A.J. Franklin
Period 2

Hamlet Essay #2

In many stories you here about the epic hero saving the day over and over again but eventually they are faced with the challenge of their own self destruction.  Along with the hero comes his flaw or downfall which he himself can’t seem to realize he has. What makes Hamlet so different from a character like Beowulf is that he is so concerned with himself and the choices he is making that he is his biggest self critique.  The way that he presents his thoughts to us in passages such as his soliloquy of To Be or not to be, shows us that he is looking for mistakes he has made and is looking for a way to fix them and fix future ones.

            Throughout the story Hamlet is constantly questioning his own decisions and thinking.  He plays through the events that have unfolded before him and asks him if he is following the right path.  He might not have chosen the right one since his choices eventually lead to his death but the way he presents his thoughts fives us a good idea of what he intends to do.  In stories such as Beowulf and Julius Caesar the hero of the story has no idea what is happening because of their own inner flaws.   They never show us what they are thinking about, only the actions that are currently taking place.  Hamlet uses a unique style of language in that he is constantly thinking about his own thinking.

            Another aspect of Hamlet’s use of language is that he never holds anything back from the reader.  You constantly know what he intends to do with his next move and how he is going to execute it.  He provides a lot of dramatic irony because only himself and the reader know what is going on but the other characters have no idea.  His language even differentiates him from other characters within the play.  Other characters don’t provide you with what they know like Hamlet is able to and it makes him a very unique character among many.

            Hamlet’s character utilizes his own self reflection to overcome his flaws and in the end he may have been killed but he accomplished his overall goal.  His use of language provides the reader with the experience of his own thoughts about himself and not others.  This is what makes Hamlet so different from other epic heroes.

A.J. Franklin
Period2