Steve Jobs and Zen

   Do you know what is “Zen”? Zen is a kind of religion that began in China. After that it spread to Japan in the Kamakura period (around 1183-1333) and developed in a different way than in China. One of the characters of Zen is “simple”. In addition, Zen developed in the Muromachi period (1336-1573), because Zen was popular among the powerful people at that time. Because of this, Zen affected the culture at that time. We can say that Zen culture influenced the way to think of “Wabi” and “Sabi”, which are aesthetic sense in Japan, mean quiet simplicity and subdued refinement.

   As we know, Zen strongly affected Jobs’ thinking. There are parts of Zen belief took up in the video and that connect with Steve Jobs’ idea. In the movie, Suzuki talked about what the beginner’s mind is and Zen belief, explaining with some examples.

 The part is connected with Jobs’ life itself. He didn’t look back on past affairs and failures. For example, we can look at what he did after he was dismissed from Apple. After his dismissal, he established two companies, NeXT and Pixar. He always had a strong will and thought he would change the world. In fact, he said the same thing when he gave a speech at a graduation ceremony at Stanford.

   In addition, Job’s personality and management ideas are also connected with Zen. Jobs was unwilling to change his style especially when he was a young. For example, his friends advised him to change his appearance. After he established his company, he often said clearly “this is sucks” when he disliked something and didn’t hear others’ opinions. In other words, he absolutely trusted himself in both a good and bad sense. Due to these ideas, Jobs could invent the iMac, iPhone and iPod. These products changed the world. Moreover, as a result, Apple became one of the most successful companies.

     Apple products reflect Zen culture, because their designs are yet simple and sophisticated. The picture below is one of the famous Zen temples, Ryoanji. This is the  garden in the temple, very simple and calm design.