It has been over 10 years since I started using Ye Byeong-il's Economy Notes mailing service.
It hasn't changed.
Hoping even a few more people come to know this channel, I'm sharing today's mailing.
(Ye Byeong-il's Economy Notes)
Jobs learned from his father that a key trait of passionate craftsmanship is being thorough enough to make even the hidden parts beautiful. The most extreme and striking example of this philosophy in practice was when Jobs rigorously inspected the printed circuit board that the chips and other parts would be attached to — the board that would go deep inside the Macintosh.
No consumer would ever see it. But Jobs began critiquing the circuit board on aesthetic grounds. "That part is really pretty. But look at those memory chips. So ugly. The lines are too crammed together."
One of the new engineers chimed in and asked why it mattered. "What matters is how well it works. What consumer is going to be peeking inside a PC circuit board?"
From Walter Isaacson's "Steve Jobs" (Minumsa)
Lately, the overwhelming reputation Apple once had feels diminished. Come to think of it, Steve Jobs passed away in October 2011 — it's already been 7 and a half years.
In the previous Economy Note "Da Vinci's Fierce Note-Taking" I spoke about Da Vinci via Walter Isaacson's biography of Leonardo da Vinci, and Jobs had named him as one of his heroes.
Remembering Isaacson's biography of Jobs published in October 2011 when Jobs passed away, I pulled it off the shelf. Whether he had learned Da Vinci's fierceness or not, Jobs was excessively fierce and thorough.
"A key trait of passionate craftsmanship is being thorough enough to make even the hidden parts beautiful."
Jobs tried to make even the PCB inside the PC "as beautiful as possible." Most consumers wouldn't care, but Jobs thought differently.
"We have to make it as beautiful as possible. Even if it's inside the box. A fine carpenter won't use cheap wood on the back of a cabinet just because no one sees it."
"A carpenter who makes a beautiful chest of drawers doesn't use cheap plywood on the back just because the back faces the wall and nobody sees it. The carpenter knows, so beautiful wood has to be used on the back too. To sleep well at night, you have to pursue beauty and dignity all the way through."
Thanks to the outstanding writer Walter Isaacson, I get to think about Leonardo da Vinci, and after a long while, Steve Jobs again.
