In The Steve Jobs’ Genius World: Reality Distortion Field - Create Your Own Reality
Steve Jobs, for some, the embodiment of a genius and role model, for others, an immoral man for whom other people didn’t count. There are certainly two things that cannot be denied - he was highly devoted to his visions and was able to influence other people. Like no one else, he knew how to "distort" or change the reality in which others live.
Bill Gates once said in an interview that Steve Jobs' skill of spelling cast was what turned Apple's fortunes and made them change the direction in which they were irrevocably going - deadly stagnation:
“I was like a minor wizard because he would be casting spells, and I would see people mesmerized, but because I'm a minor wizard, the spells don't work on me”
Reality Distortion Field (RDF) is a term used by Bud Tribble in 1981 to describe Steve Jobs' charism and its effects on the developers working on the Macintosh project. Steve used a mix of hyperbole, persistence, bravado, passion, charm, and marketing skills to convince not only himself to believe anything, but also others. It felt like reality is not fixed, but fluid and he could shape it by his ideas.
RDF is not a mythical thing that only a few selected people can create, it's a state that can be trained, mainly through a highly unusual mix of skills. Which, together with self-confidence and the right attitude, can create an aura around the person where the burdens of impossible and possible are going to blur. People experienced such a state during the speeches of Steve Jobs, famously known as "Stevenotes".
Jobs had a great gift for picking great talents and getting the best out of them. Steve Jobs and Wozniak worked on Apple computers of the 2nd series, Jobs needed help with marketing in the personal computer market. So he turned to the then president of Pepsi - John Sculley, who initially turned down the offer, after which Jobs uttered these famous words:
"Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?”
After these famous words, John Scully became the CEO of Apple. Unfortunately, it did not end well for Jobs himself, who fell out with Sculley. John Sculley, with the support of the board, had Jobs forcibly fired from the company he founded
In 1997, however, Steve Jobs returned to Apple and took over as CEO. Jobs re-started the spelling cast mentioned by Bill Gates and saved the company from near bankruptcy. The epitome of his return was a brilliant ad campaign "Think Different" that started a golden age for Apple, known for its remarkable growth, extraordinary innovations, and many “Stevenotes”. There will be more about it later.
How does Reality Distortion Field work?
A lot of imaginary terms have arisen around the issue of RDF, which has left many people confused, and the term “Reality Distortion Field” itself has become more associated with metaphysical practices. However, this is about nothing else than:
“if you give yourself 30 days to clean your home, it will take 30 days. But if you give yourself 3 hours, it will take 3 hours. The same applies to your goals, ambitions, and plans.” - Elon Musk
Many people try to see a magical quality in Reality Distortion Field, but I'd like to clarify this point with two statements.
First, RDF doesn't change the reality itself. There is no such thing as the art of enchanting reality. It's all about filters you put on the reality, to be shorter: the way you see the reality.
Second, be open-minded. RDF is simply about shifting perspective, so don’t seek manipulation. You rather be peaceful with yourself than manipulative with others, use it productively and positively!
Changing the filters we look at reality it’s enough for us to feel the difference because we don’t look at reality as it is, but we look through our filters that already have a package of beliefs, ideas, social standards, and so on. Shifting the filters from counter-productive to more positive, productive, and challenging is actually how we should use the RDF.
Here’s a great example of the use of the Reality Distortion Field:
“One day Jobs marched into the cubicle of Larry Kenyon, the engineer who was working on the Macintosh operating system, and complained that it was taking too long to boot up. Kenyon started to explain why reducing the boot-up time wasn’t possible, but Jobs cut him off. “If it would save a person’s life, could you find a way to shave 10 seconds off the boot time?” he asked. Kenyon allowed that he probably could. Jobs went to a whiteboard and showed that if five million people were using the Mac and it took 10 seconds extra to turn it on every day, that added up to 300 million or so hours a year—the equivalent of at least 100 lifetimes a year. After a few weeks Kenyon had the machine booting up 28 seconds faster.” (source: hbr)
They both were working on Macintosh in the same reality, but the filters through they looked were different, and it was what made a huge difference.
2. How to Create Your Own Reality Distortion Field?
RDF is more down-to-earth than you can imagine. It's a kind-of-technical thing, which means we can be trained in creating our own reality. You don't have to be born with talent, or some sort of skills that have "magical" features. And the best thing to create your own reality is to build your talent stack.
Steve Jobs' talent stock was highly extraordinary, valuable, and rare. It consists of knowledge from design, technical knowledge, business, psychology, marketing, public speaking, and on top of that personal skills that built his genius persona like charism, persuasion, and being passionate.
Such a talent stack made Steve Jobs stand out in the world of specialized people and built his high self-esteem. Thanks to that he was more likely to believe in his own version of reality.
Reality Distortion Field can be described as the art of shaping expectations with a mix of specific knowledge, social skills, and personal attitudes, such as charism, passion, and persistence.
3. Apple’s Comeback - Innovations and “Stevenotes”
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” - Steve Jobs, from “Think Different” ad campaign, 1997
As I previously mentioned Steve Jobs in the years of 1985-1997 was out of Apple and the company was lacking innovation and was near bankruptcy. Steve Jobs returned to the company with no further vision and lack of perspective. So the challenge he was facing as a CEO was at least ungrateful.
The years of 1997 - 2011 were characterized by high growth, consistent vision, and lots of “Stevenotes” introducing innovations.
The way Steve introduces his new products is called "Stevenotes," which is the colloquial term for his keynote speeches. They were highly effective, persuasive and showed the full range of Apple's CEO skills. These were speeches, in which the action took place in the reality of Steve Jobs, in which anything is possible. His passion, charisma, and way of describing new functionalities had a highly convincing effect. In 1998, the company introduced the first iMac, a personal computer with a neatly finished look and a user-friendly interface. This greatly improved the company's situation, and the presentation of iMac by Steve Jobs is considered the first "Stevenote" after his return.
Employees at Apple gained motivation and meaning of work again. And people could not believe that a year ago this company was close to bankruptcy.
One could say that the period of its return was crowned with the presentation of the first iPhone in 2007. People who were in the conference room at the time, influenced by Steve Jobs' mixture of skills, experienced a state where there was no visible line between the real and the possible and the impossible and the unreal. They felt as if they had seen a device out of this world, an unthinkable invention.
He was shaping people's expectations describing how the world used to work and how he's going to change it. He was showing people the bigger picture, connecting the dots, and presenting new qualities with a highly persuasive attitude. That’s how he distorted our reality. There’s no magic in it, but a well-developed mix of skills.
Summary:
Reality Distortion Field is a personal refusal to accept the fixed filters on reality and replace them with more productive and positive ones. The filters we shifting should be supported by a highly valuable and rare talent stack with personal skills, such as charisma, passionate attitude, and persuasion.
The more valuable and unique your talent stack is, the more self-confidence you become. So you’re more likely to trust yourself and support beliefs that refuse limitations.
RDF doesn’t change the reality, it’s changing the filters we look at reality, but for us, it changes everything. Because we look at reality through filters, not the objective way.
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