Legacy and Obsolescence

August 28, 2019    quotes steve-jobs

In 1994, Steve Jobs was interviewed by the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association. In the footage, Steve talks about his values, advice to entrepreneurs and his thoughts on how to best live life.

“All the work that I have done in my life will be obsolete by the time I’m 50…Apple II is obsolete now, Apple Is were obsolete many years ago. The Macintosh is on the verge of becoming obsolete in the next few years.

“This is a field where one does not write a Principia which holds up for 200 years. This is not a field where one paints a painting that will be looked at for centuries or builds a church that will be admired and looked at in astonishment for centuries. No, this is a field where one does one’s work and in 10 years it’s obsolete and really will not be usable in 10 or 20 years.

“It’s sort of like sediment of rocks. … You’re building up a mountain and you get to contribute your little layer of sedimentary rock to make the mountain that much higher, but no one on the surface, unless they have X-ray vision, will see your sediment. They’ll stand on it, it’ll be appreciated by that rare geologist, but no, it’s not like the Renaissance at all. It’s very different”