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Sunday, 09 October 2011 11:33

Written by Carl Kurlander

Walking to temple on Yom Kippur, a neighbor and friend who is a physicist at CMU commented that he was surprised by the outpouring over the death of Steve Jobs—not that he wasn’t a man of great achievement—but that it was as if the Pope had died.   And there has been something religious about the way Steve Jobs passing—too short—has resonated with us all. 

I had mentioned to my friend the someone comedic headline from the Onion: “The last American who knew what the %^*& he was doing is dead.”   And my friend said, well of course.   Because one of the few things we make these days is entertainment and that is the one thing we can’t seem to outsource.  (I have written before about the intersection between entertainment and technology and more and more that overlap is being taken for granted.) 

Later that day, I was asked by the Rabbi of our temple to give a Midrash (or teaching talk) during the day of fast on “how Pittsburgh conquered polio and what will we conquer next?” and spoke about Jonas Salk and his team at the University of Pittsburgh who developed the first polio vaccine.

Like Jobs, Jonas Salk was an innovator who had achieved great success at a young age, and became world famous from it.   Both men had great teams behind them and were testaments to what the American imagination can achieve.

America at its best makes things.  That is why we are all forlorned at the decline of manufacturing in this country.  (In truth, even our Ipods, Ipads, and Iphones are made elsewhere—but they convey American made entertainment content which we are still largely produced in this country.)

And we are at a time when we are wondering if America has anything left to make for the world.   Perhaps part of the frustration fueling “Occupy Wall Street” is the fact that the storied Wall Street firms—while at times drivers of great companies—now seem to be more producing financial products that have no obvious contribution to the world.  Capital is essential when it drives business—even the great 90s tech bubble at least was thinking about new and better ways we could innovate.   But the credit default swaps and episodes like Enron and the Wall Street bail out of the last decade, seemed often like just moving money from one place to the next and taking large commissions.   And so, we as a society seem to be questioning the great spirit of American innovation.

On the other hand, every day I see as a teacher at the University of Pittsburgh and the executive producer of a non-profit, Steeltown Entertainment Project, great reason to be optimistic that the next Steve Jobs and Jonas Salks are on their way.   As Steve Jobs saw the future of computing and beyond, there is a new generation of digital natives with the ability to access information like never before and the “connected-ness” to believe that one person can make a difference in the world.

Jesse Schell, another CMU professor and visionary leader of Schell Games, told me once how when he was 15, he was interested in electronics.  And so he asked someone who put him in touch with someone else who eventually got him some books on the subject.  But he pointed out, any 7 year old with the same curiousity, could now instantly access all that information.   But, he warned, the less curious kid, who is not using technology, each year falls behind.

Perhaps we can use the passing of Steve Jobs to ask ourselves how we can take the lessons of his life and make sure we are nurturing a new generation of creative innovators who are not afraid to follow their hearts.

Last year, the Steeltown Entertainment Project sponsored a digital media contest called “Take A Shot At Changing the World” and we were inspired by the 265 middle school and high school students who made 79 videos about how the development of the Salk vaccine tied to present day efforts by the Gates Foundation and Rotary International’s efforts to eradicate polio from the world.   This year we are launching “Take A Shot At Changing The World: The Sequel” to widen that lens and have students remind us how Pittsburgh has changed the world in the past (from aluminum to the first gas station; from Andy Warhol to August Wilson; from the polio vaccine to becoming the transplant capital of the world) and ask students what they would do to change their world today.   We can't wait to see what they will come up with.   We are even partnering with the national Jefferson Award which is sponsoring a $2500 prize to help kids start changing the world and offering them mentorship.  (See www.takeashotcontest.org)

Steve Job’s speech at Stanford’s graduation has been much replayed these days and particularly the line he quoted from the Whole Earth Catalogue about “Stay hungry, Stay Foolish.”  During that speech, what really came across was how much Steve was able to nurture his own curiosity.   And how much he celebrated living the authentic life that is our own.  During it, I thought once again of another Pittsburgh innovator, Fred Rogers, who utilized the new technology of his day, television, to inspire generations of young people to find what it was within themselves that was special 

Sometimes it is hard to see innovators and innovation until they have passed.  But Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish religion, is a time when we are asked to look more closely at this universe and see all that surrounds us and work more diligently to dedicate our lives to meaningful pursuits.

As I think back on the life of Steve Jobs (and Jonas Salk and Fred Rogers) and look forward to the new generation who may follow in their footsteps, I have to hope the Onion headline is wrong, and that our best days are still ahead.  

Below is the "Crazy Ones" Think Different ad narrated by Steve Jobs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rwsuXHA7RA&feature=youtu.be

‎"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

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