Creativity

This week Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, died from pancreatic cancer. The outpouring of feeling and thoughts around his death was, as you might imagine unless you have been living under a rock for the past decade or so, huge. Here was someone whose impact on the fabric of life was clearly evident.

One of the tributes circling around electronically is an early commercial narrated by Richard Dreyfus called “Think”. It is fitting because the things that Jobs designed and built make us think – often in ways we have not thought or related before. The iPod, the Mac, the iPad. Apple TV. These are not just functional. They don’t just help us do things faster. They help us share and interact and be creative more easily. They have completely changed entire markets – hello music industry.

Steve Jobs and Apple have moved us to think.

Who else? When I stopped to think about those who opened up some of the scary closets in our minds and caused us to say “whoa! that’s a different way to think about things”, here’s my short list (including Jobs).

Steve Jobs. More so than Bill Gates. Gates automated the everyday. Jobs changed the everyday.

Jim Henson. The interplay between reality and fantasy has only increased.

Google. Anytime you replace and become the norm you are a linchpin. We no longer say “let’s look that up”, we Google things. And if we do say “let’s look that up”, we really mean “let’s Google that”.

Billy Collins. Poetry accessible. For a variety of reasons.

I know the are others – a lot of others. Remember this is a short list, after all it is Friday. Who’s on your list?