Steve Jobs: "insanely great"?

The legend of Steve Jobs continues to grow. The boundless possibilities of a prematurely-ended ended life are now his legacy’s to enjoy: if Apple continues to succeed as it has so spectacularly since the late 90s, then he will receive the lion’s share of the credit as the man who made it happen. If it fails, the absence of his greatness will be the primary reason cited. That’s a win-win for a legacy, not that it matters to Jobs himself anymore.

Beyond the endless rumours, reviews and fawning frenzies that Apple encourages, quotes from his biography regularly appear in my Twitter timeline intended as mini-inspirations, and his commencement speech to the graduates of Stanford University in 2005 is cited as motivational material, the testimony of a man who knew how to live. Though an Apple customer, I’ve found all this a little hard to swallow.

Jobs perpetuated a circle of self-congratulation, insisting that his products were “insanely great” (reviewers usually agreed, though you’ve never seen an Apple advert containing anyone’s opinion but Apple’s, have you?) and therefore that those who used them were also superior to the rest of humanity. People happily bought into this, their lives enhanced and gilded by a shiny thing in their pocket or on their desk. That is foolishness. And whilst he was famously neurotic about the quality of the products he sold, Jobs was seemingly less bothered about the quality of the lives involved in that process, from those who lost their careers in his quick-tempered offices in California to those who lost their lives in Chinese factories. That is worse than foolishness. To go even further, whilst the philanthropy of Bill Gates is investing massively in projects to end polio, malaria, and other mass killers, Apple has stock-piled $100 billion.

And yet his customers don’t mind because he made sending email a slightly nicer experience. OK, our iProducts can do a few more things than that, but haven't they got to do a lot more to catch up with the human cost of their production?

Should we alter our buying habits? Is it even possible to find an ethically-made piece of technology? Apple may even be better than others but in reality not enough people care for equitable working conditions to be implemented across the world. Many of us prefer to be dazzled by a cheaper, newer toy than to think hard about its consequences. Questions are being asked (carefully and thoughtfully here), and campaigns do exist but they are still in the minority, overwhelmed by the same self-centred greed that so many participated in before the financial disasters of 2008 onwards, the responsibility for which we now glibly lay at the door of bankers. Will our response be the same when called to account for how our phones were made, and will that be a satisfactory answer?

Apple now seems to be dealing with the kind of scrutiny that other market leaders such as McDonald’s and Nike endured, pushing them to at least improve their practices whilst less-famous competitors didn't. This customer-driven correction is the get-out for free-market champions but it seems a little late in the day to me. It certainly is for Jobs, and for many of his factory workers.

At the ballet

Learn something new about your wife. Remember it. Act on it. “I love watching dancing, ballet,” she said as we accidentally watched Strictly in September. Happy Christmas.

So to Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre in January for my ballet-watching debut. Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty, interpreted and performed by Scottish Ballet. I have a general understanding of what I’m going to see (dancing) but not much more. My ignorance must be obvious to the rest of the audience because I’m a man – there are about ten of us present and some look like they’re here because they lost an argument.

Looking through the programme I read the plot synopsis, which adds up to little more than a warning not to invite fairies of any sort to your child’s christening, and a hundred-year slumber for all the Russian royal family, which both spares them from the Bolshevik Revolution and two world wars, and allows for more costume changes. It also means that the story ends in London, 1946, which just so happens to have been when this ballet was first performed on these shores. I like intertextuality, even when I don’t understand it.

What the programme’s photos promised, the performance delivered: a constant flow of movement and rich colours. They are a vibrant, mesmerising combination, most captivating in the duets and ensembles where the complication and harmonisation of the choreography was staggering. How two people could unite so perfectly, how a crowd could move in so many different ways simultaneously without disaster. The most impressive aspect of an individual performance, except for the ongoing mysteries of how their heads moved when they spun round and how they kept moving on their toes, was that of the (mostly non) Sleeping Beauty herself. Moving through the air seemed as natural to her as treading the boards, and the transition from one to the other disappeared.

All of this led to an initial sense in my mind of separation that was greater than the orchestra pit between me and the stage. Anyone who has seen me on a dance floor or football pitch will know that I’m less balletic and more Balotelli trying to put on a bib. I’m much more comfortable with words in one form or other, which isn’t really ballet’s style. But as the performers moved across the stage and through the air, I searched for metaphors to speak about their power and grace, and the sum of what they were doing. Nature failed me again and again. Their limbs had the sinewy strength of plants, their speed of movement was like that of birds, but that wasn't enough. Maybe my imagination failed me but the ludicrous beauty of it all, how wonderfully unnecessary the whole event was, led me to the conclusion that this was too human a thing to be described and comprehended in terms of anything else on earth. I couldn't join them on stage any more than I could help Rembrandt in his studio, I might not understand them as well as I could a poem or game of football, but I could smile and applaud with unexpected affinity.

Review: Good To Grow

This time five years ago, I moved to Catford in south-east London to spend six months on an internship with Steve Tibbert, the leader of King’s Church. I’m so grateful to Steve for investing in me (getting next to nothing in return) as this was a key moment in my life. I grew up considerably as a result of being outside of my comfort zone for the first time in years, and I learnt a lot about church and leadership – some of which I had instinctively thought before but couldn’t articulate because of my inexperience. I continue to lead and think in ways that were shaped by this time, and expect that I always will.

Many of the stories I heard and saw, and the leadership values I watched Steve live by, are now contained in a book, Good To Grow, which describes the fifteen years in which he has led King’s from a dispirited group of 200 to a church that well over a thousand attend every week, and had 2,700 at its carol services this Christmas. It is a remarkable story of a remarkable leader’s co-operation with God.

The complexity of church leadership is highlighted by the large number of issues Steve addresses as the story goes on: everything from the leader’s relationship with God and his family, to building and rebuilding teams, to  financing multi-million pound property deals. It is both daunting and exciting: I really enjoyed reading the story to see what God would do next, and wondering how I would have coped with it!

Co-writer Val Taylor has managed to retain Steve’s personal style: honest, self-deprecating but confident, passionate about God and His purposes. The book is easy to read but is full of big challenges, and hard questions. Steve’s conviction that church growth is hindered primarily by wrong priorities among leaders will be unsettling to many. He repeatedly tries to demonstrate principles rather than prescribe practice, acknowledging the diversity in God’s methods, but his convictions have borne fruit. King’s Church is ‘ahead’ of many churches, experiencing God’s favour in ways that others of us long for; Good To Grow is a great encouragement and tool to help us get there.

Ten years of truth

Of all the unlikely things to remember, I’m sure I can recall exactly where I was when it dawned on me that I needed to start reading the Bible. Really reading it, that is, as a part of my life more pronounced than the last resort. I was sitting in bed near the beginning of a year, feeling rubbish for several reasons. In that moment, I was convicted that one of my fundamental problems was the lack of God’s truth in me and that action was required to change this. On December 31st I finished the whole thing, my life having been altered, accelerated even, over the course of the year.

I’ve just realised with a shock that this happened a decade ago. Regular Bible reading has been an essential part of me for ten years. What is less surprising, given that fact, is how much God has done in me and even through me over that time. All of life has been illuminated. I have known God’s company. Truth and love reside in me in unprecedented ways, treasures to savour and share.

Being a Christian and not reading the Bible is like being hungry and not eating a feast put before you, like feeling lonely and not calling a friend. Like anything that really matters, it involves effort; like anything that’s really important there are questions and frustrations along the way, but it can change you for good like nothing else in the world.

Maybe 2012 is the year that you take hold of this great gift, the best news.

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A paper copy of the Bible is available for just £1.99, many others are also available. BibleGateway and YouVersion have plenty of resources to help you get started and keeping going, most importantly free online access to the text. I use a reading plan by Robert Murray M’Cheyne, going at half speed, which means two chapters a day – easier to digest and to catch up when I've missed a day. A printable version of that is available, and you can follow it with comments by D.A. Carson.

Trails for 2012

There are many important things to look forward to and prepare for in the coming year, but I'm a sucker for movie trailers and I'm excited about two of 2012's blockbusters in particular...

The Dark Knight Rises



This will be the concluding part of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, a series that raised the bar for what to expect in a big box office movie, though I haven't found it completely satisfying. This teaser suggests that Occupy Gotham could be one its many concerns ("There’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne… when it hits, you’re all going to wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us.”). Along with dizzying IMAX sequences, a strong cast of characters, a director keen to ask hard questions and a master of menace, I'm looking forward to seeing how the psychology of Bruce Wayne / Batman will be explored further. You can check out Empire Magazine's detailed breakdown of the trailer here.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey



Yes, children's stories are involved again, but that's an issue for a more thoughtful post. The Lord of The Rings trilogy are my favourite films, they've ruined me for most other movies, certainly anything that attempts the epic. The attention to detail, the love of story-telling, the boldness of the ambition, the beauty of the cinematography... and on and on I go. Director Peter Jackson has decided to go on with the story, stretching The Hobbit over two films, and presumably filling in a lot of the gaps that are hinted at in the book and many of Tolkien's other writings. Close-up emotional shots of Sir Ian McKellen's Gandalf gave The Fellowship of the Ring in particular much of its emotional depth and, as Aragorn doesn't seem to be involved in this production, the long story of the Grey Pilgrim's great triumph over evil looks like being key to the heart of these prequels too. Jackson continues his generosity with ongoing production videos on his Facebook page, and Empire has seen fit to explore this trailer in minute detail too. Gets the hairs on my head (and toes) tingling.