Apple, Inc has announced the death of co-founder Steve Jobs.

He was controversial.  He was innovative.  Some say he was a madman, while others call him a perfectionist.  The truth is that great people defy description because of the polarities that goes into forging an indomitable will.

Best wishes to the Apple Community and to Steve's family.  He was a true innovator and he will be missed.

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Michael said, "You mention the "New Thought" movement. From what I know, though, "New Thought" officially got started in the late 1800's and early 1900's." 

Uh, huh.  I had said, "This was a time when transcendentalism was evolving into "New Thought," I wasn't establishing start-dates, just the evident movemnet in the early Apple/micro-computer industry age.  It [actually], extended into the 1970's, probably because none of us kids got the memo.

Michael said, "The "est" movement of Werner Erhard, which I'm somewhat familiar with, was part of the "Personal Growth" movement of the 70's. Erhard drew from "New Thought" and Zen and other traditions. As you well know, it was controversial, but everyone I knew that took the training said they had benefited in some fashion from it."

 

Great.  "Got it."  I did not benefit, I was brain-washing. 

Michael said, "It's interesting you say that est eventually "destroyed" your company. That's not exactly clear to me, though I can speculate on why and how. But, I'm getting outside the perview of this forum."

 

It destroyed more than a company, it destroyed an industry.  When $Billions are at play, and $Millions are funneled into EST, [someone] had to pay that money.  This might give  your speculation some new tidbits to ponder.

Michael said, "Back to Steve Jobs: You say he only took a salary of $1.00, but he had a family and didn't live like a pauper. There were stock holdings and other benefits he had that paid him a handsome residual income, right?"

 

He was one to two people who owned the stock, basic premise for any corporation (though there was a third who sold his shares for a song).  That stock eventually became worth something, $billions actually .  Thus, the two stockholders investment in time, genuis and effort, although not remunerated, were worth something as they were the founders.  Again, basic business.

Michael said, "...he had a family and didn't live like a pauper."

He had a cool stereo.

 

Reminds me of Bill Gates, never being able to part with his Cromemco, regardless the lightyears of improvements in technology in computers, all of which ran the Microsoft OS.  I kind of miss the first few microcomputers off the kit assemblies, with their LEDs and toggle switches ... it was a fun way to program, and the only way a few years earlier in the mini-world.  There weren't a lot of teletypes to go around early-on.  Paper tape was our USB drive.  There were no mass storage devices in the beginning, but cassettes were all the rage.  Can you imagine. 

Christian, I haven't thought about est for a long while. In the mid-70's I knew a few people in Santa Cruz, California who'd taken the seminars. They'd done it early on and got trained by Erhard himself before other facilitators did most of them. They were sophisticated in matters metaphysical/spiritual and never became cheer leaders for the organization. They did think it had some positive things for them at the time.

Later, in the early 80's in L.A., I knew some more folks involved with it. They liked it, but got turned off by the "messianic cult" it had become by then. That's what turned me off to taking it to begin with.

I've long been out of touch with these people and don't know how they would evaluate the experience now.

Like I said, it was controversial. There were accusations by many graduates and ex-members of the est organization itself that it involved a kind of "brain washing." Your feelings now that you were brain washed wouldn't be out of line with that of many others.

I'm not going to defend the group at all, and it's just as well it was dissolved in 1984.



Christian von Lahr said:

Michael said, "The "est" movement of Werner Erhard, which I'm somewhat familiar with, was part of the "Personal Growth" movement of the 70's. Erhard drew from "New Thought" and Zen and other traditions. As you well know, it was controversial, but everyone I knew that took the training said they had benefited in some fashion from it."

 

Great.  "Got it."  I did not benefit, I was brain-washing. 

I'm not clear on how est could have destroyed an "Industry." Are you referring to the "High Tech Industry" in Silicon Valley? That appears to have prospered very well, over all, although as you say, many companies went belly up over the years.

I ask this in relation to "Zen and business," as a review of Werner Erhard on wikipedia says he based it mostly on his studies of Zen, which he did under the tutelage of Alan Watts.

Are you saying that the Zen teachings in the training "brain washed" enough employees and employers as to make them incompetent and undermine their companies?

Or, are you saying that the est organization itself sapped millions in donations from these companies, causing them to fold?



Christian von Lahr said:

Michael said, "It's interesting you say that est eventually "destroyed" your company. That's not exactly clear to me, though I can speculate on why and how. But, I'm getting outside the perview of this forum."

 

It destroyed more than a company, it destroyed an industry.  When $Billions are at play, and $Millions are funneled into EST, [someone] had to pay that money.  This might give  your speculation some new tidbits to ponder.

I'll put these two comments together:

(1) You said, "I'm not clear on how est could have destroyed an "Industry." Are you referring to the "High Tech Industry" in Silicon Valley? That appears to have prospered very well, over all, although as you say, many companies went belly up over the years."

(2) And, "Or, are you saying that the est organization itself sapped millions in donations from these companies, causing them to fold?"
It's a fact, a multi-billion dollar fiasco.  Yet the latter (last) comment is not true, in a directly evidentiary way, only through high-level collusion.

However, I don't know that this Thread is useful for an exposé, when this does not speak to the honoring of Steven Jobs. It was solely speaking to the background environment within which the others aspects of this Thread occurred in.

“High Tech Industry” would be a misleading, since there would be industries within it. And one of those WAS quintessential to Steven Job's success.  One of them DID come to an end, and due in significant part to the inference above.

As regards Steven Jobs in all of this background, he was an admirable guy.  I do not connect him with this particular intrigue. 


 

It was getting off topic a little for this forum, so thanks, again, Christian, for sharing your insights and experience concerning Steve Jobs and that particular era you knew in.

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