[OSList] Steve Jobs & Open Space

Mon Dec 5 14:16:55 PST 2011

Skye:  You said "Each being/entity is self-directed and a closed system."  I
believe that there in fact is no such thing as a closed system - we may try
with sense of "purpose" to make a good container, but everything, every
entity interacts with its environment as it "concresses (sp?)" - comes into
being (Whitehead).  I do believe in the power of "purpose" to affect
material reality.  I've just started reading Deacon's "Incomplete Nature:
How mind emerged from matter" which tries to understand purpose and
direction from a scientific perspective.  Don't know where its going yet but
Jeff Aitkin said it was good and he is on a very interesting healing
journey.

I have only read novels for two years so this journey is interesting to me.

Wozniak tried to give the Apple mother board away to open  systems - Jobs
said "no way" and created a company that has become the biggest financially
in the world.

Interesting.

Larry

From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Skye Hirst
Sent: December-03-11 4:13 PM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] Steve Jobs & Open Space

Larry, Thanks so much for that overview of the Jobs biography.  I'd like to
explore your question of how does what he did in  his self-centered ways,
lead to such productivity and quality of result?  Where is the Open Space
and self-organization?    Each being/entity is self-directed and a closed
system. (with the exception of energy consumption) Jobs could only be
himself.  His "subjective aim"  was in focus for him within himself and he
and he alone could know if what was being created was coherent with that
vision.  There is an intensity that comes with "being on purpose"  and it is
contagious I believe.  it also acts as inspiration for others to act in ways
that call out "being on purpose/true to  yourself"  insisting on what is
truth for your being nature.  But there is an even deeper nature that
provides coherence for this process and that's just being discovered - there
are laws of living/creative coherence - I believe that's what Harrison and
so many here speak and point to that they experience through Open Space
processes. 

When people are called together under these conditions,  something wonderful
can happen as "the many become one and are increased by one" in the words of
Whitehead.  This is the creative process of life becoming = it connects us
to our aliveness, we find meaning and fulfillment when we act in concert
with our purpose and even more meaning when that purpose can be joined with
others doing the same. The personal purpose within a greater purpose that
has meaning, worthiness and even urgency which one could see in the Apple
environment, provides deep satisfaction for each participant in the vision.
If you look up the word compete, it means to "seek together."  There is a
value sense of  satisfaction as we fulfill our own uniqueness of being and
sense the connection to a greater whole.  Any environment that creates such
conditions for life - is as Harrison says, "how life works if we let it."  

Help! Sorry for the language - we are exploring a realm that needs new
language and so we work here at Autognomics to find new ways of talking
about these emerging discoveries of life, living processes and how life
creates, knows itself - Open Space and Open Spacers are pointing out
beautifully  that "process IS reality"  - a value sensing process and as we
share our own inner experiencing of this process we discover hopefully the
bigger picture and ways of Life-itself, it's self-organizing and
connectedness.  Thanks for reading this far, Skye

On Dec 3, 2011, at 10:00 AM, Larry Peterson wrote:

I just finished reading Walter Isaacson's book "Steve Jobs". The last
chapter has an interesting summary of some of the issues that his successful
life raises particularly with regard to open versus closed IT product
systems.

Jobs chose to drive towards integrated, high quality, creative design and
mostly closed products and systems. The openness is primarily for app
developers who can count on a consistent operating system across products.
This makes it easier to develop high quality applications that you know will
work on phones iPad or iPod my son says. 

Jobs did not believe in market research because his ideas were beyond
anyone's expectations and he believed that this vision would create the
products that people would want. He pushed his engineers and the details of
his vision mercilessly. Even Isaacson saw that the technical term assh*le
applied to him quite often. He was a self centered Zen Buddhist who did not
appropriate the more subtle qualities of a caring person. He was open to
learning as long as it came to be his idea.

His vision "opened space" for those who would work at their top level to
realize it.  When they didn't he was mean and spiteful. And many didn't
understand his view of good design together with good technology.  He was
used to getting what he wanted, even as a child, and this provided the
hubris to move forward.  The space of silicon valley with its nutrient rich
environment of engineers and garages and good schools made it possible for
Apple to get going.  His personal Zen Buddist journey provided the self
development, but did not make him self aware, just confident in his own
vision.

People around the world got engaged in his visionary leadership and became
followers of Apple as a counter culture product, even when it stumbled. It
certainly has worked in the market place to integrate superior products that
then set the model for the others to come.  Will Google and Microsoft be
able to catch up?   

As a PC person, I now find the products are quite amazing and the
integration makes it easy for me to connect my iPad with my iPhone and
project pictures on Apple TV with out enormous effort and technical
know-how. The products and the integration are fun even if they are more
costly. I think the book is a great read .

So where is the Open Space and the self-organization, other than at the
beginning - maybe that was enough for real, committed if crazy leadership to
emerge?  

Larry

Larry Peterson & Associates in Transformation

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

larry at spiritedorg.com   416.653.4829 http://www.spiritedorg.com
<http://www.spiritedorg.com/> 

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Skye Hirst, PhD

The Autognomics Institute

A Living World-view; the nature of reality

skyeh at autognomics.org

www.autognomics.org

Twitter @autognomics

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