Steve Jobs RIP

So, Steve jobs died today.  I was at a concert and the opening act mentioned it - something about Steve Jobs being the only reason he had been able to do the things he did.  At first I thought it was a poorly thought out joke, I turned to my buddy that I was with, and he said: "Is that true?  Cause if so I would expect that my phone (iPhone) would be blowing up..."

I googled it.

It was true.

Let me say here that when a guy dies in the prime of his life (professional life in this case) it's unnerving.  Jobs was a guy who changed the tech industry.  He fostered the release of products that literally changed the way we communicate.  A friend, and coworker, of mine has on her email signature from her phone "iphoned".  Super cute and gets down to the fact that the iPhone (among Apple's many other innovations) was a game changer, and in this case a verb unto itself.  So I think anyone would be remiss in not recognizing that Steve Jobs was a cultural icon that will be sorely missed by investment bankers and hipsters alike.  Kudos to him.

What I take issue with in the story - and you know I need to take issue with something - is that throughout my twitter feed I saw comparisons of Jobs and Edison....ya, the Edison who invented the lightbulb.  Now, as I have said above, Jobs was a giant of a CEO in the tech industry and was likely a driving force behind the smartphone revolution.  But, what we miss from this, and are misled into thinking by comments comparing him to Edison is that he didn't INVENT these innovations, just helped them through the corporate red tape to bring them to the market.

Are we so blinded by business success that we confuse CEOs with inventors?  There are very few CEOs who have invented something of use in modern society.  The people who invent new products and create groundbreaking innovations are frequently engineers and scientists who are grossly underpaid and under appreciated.  Businesses help to provide the funding and bring visionaries together to create new products, subsequently they own the rights to the patents for those products, but PLEASE, let's not forget, the Steve's Jobs of the world (or Eric Schmit's) don't create innovative products, they work with people who do.

Something to keep in mind while setting up your shrine to Jobs this week.

Life In Mexico

Now, I know what you are thinking.  Mexico, as a travel destination who gives a crap.  I'm not super interested in girls going wild, nor am I interested in drinking myself into a come on tequila.  More sympathetic, I could not be.  As anyone who knows me can attest I usually prefer my travels to be a little more cultural...or at least I like to be able to tell myself I am pursuing culture while I get wasted in far flung lands.  So, when the wife suggested Mexico I stifled a chuckle.

Well, she explained to me how a beautiful migration takes place into the gulf just off Cancun.  Not only do scantily clad ladies show up and shake their bits for attention but other foes of life also show up and make a much subtler exposition.  The whalesharks show up in the waters off Cancun in the summer and drive a whole industry of nature lovers to brave the waves off of party central.

I guess I should explain that normally when I travel I like nature.  I am a real fan of going and checking out landscape.  I love to go to places that look nothing like anywhere I have been and just soak it in.  I have never been the hugest wildlife watcher.  I have seen whales in the pacific and grizzlies in Yellowstone, but it has never really been something I sought out.  But I have, for a few years, wanted to swim with whalesharks...something about the "gentle giants" - 30 - 40 ft fish that would swim by without a care in the world always attracted me.

So, we set off to Mexico, with a  few good friends in tow, and had a look.

I can safely say that swimming with the whalesharks was the #1 travel highlight of my life.  There is something about a creature the size of a bus swimming by you and feeling completely safe that, for lack of a better word, blows your mind.  These fish are easily big enough to tip the boat over that you showed up in, but are so uninterested in you that it leaves you with a sense of awe....sort of like how a person wouldn't be interested if there were 5 or 6 squirrels hanging around them while they had lunch.

Living in the city you are constantly surrounded by things that are dead - the sidewalk, the street, every building you see - and there is something really refreshing about being surrounded by life.  If you are lucky enough to be surrounded by 10 tonnes of fish, who want nothing more than to enjoy a snack with or without an audience, you may get a sense of why nature, and life is so special.  And hopefully, it will give you just the tiniest sense of wonder.

Earthquakes and the Mayans

Ok, so we just felt a minor earthquake here in Toronto. Buildings shook a bit, and people got a little nervous. Which is fair. We had a similar earthquake last year, which was a bit stronger, but again just a minor earthquake...more of a tremor really. When these earthquakes happen in Toronto (and I suspect anywhere that earthquakes aren't common) people start in with the whole 2012 nonsense. To which I love to point out that nobody listens to any Mexicans predictions on the future but for some reason a lot of people get wrapped up in the predictions of a long dead society.

Now, I just got back from Mexico and checked out a bunch of the Mayan ruins with my wife and our friends. The buildings were nice, and the bas reliefs were cool. But, while we were there I couldn't help thinking that if the Mayans were able to predict the future, why didn't they see their own demise coming? I mean, I think a couple of people in central America speak Mayan still, but no one would claim they are a thriving culture anymore. But once someone (I have no idea who by the way) starts talking about how the Mayans predicted in 2012 that the world would end, a bunch of people totally bought into it.

Earthquakes happen. They happen all over the world. Ditto for tornadoes, volcanoes and mudslides. They are not more common then they ever were (although there is evidence to suggest that tornadoes might be, which could be associated with climate change, but since that is a hoax, it must be a Mayan apocalypse) but with the increasing amount of connectivity amoung people now we are more aware of them. Don't believe, check out your Facebook feed today - the Eastern Seaboard is alight with #earthquakes.

Just a little food for thought.

Mel Brooks

Is it just me our is this guy not that funny?  I'm watching "dracula: dead and loving it" and it's just not that good.  I mean comedy is not easy and I'm not saying that there is nothing funny about what he has done, but I just think beyond involvement in the simpsons he really hadn't done anything that great.

I might be wrong here but is he overrated?

The Majority of Canadians Are About to Get What They Asked For

Here we have it. The long dreaded/anticipated Conservative majority. Canadians have gone to the polls and given Harper the mandate that he so desperately wanted. He did a lot of things right: great attack ads, hammered on the economy, and mined Toronto for seats. All of which helped push him passed the post.

I am not overly surprised (although very disappointed) that the Conservatives won.

I do a lot of talking about politics with friends and family. I find it very interesting to hear other people's points of view and their reasons for why they support different parties. I have a few really good friends who are really smart people who vote Conservative, and they do so normally for the following reasons: lower taxes, economic uncertainty and probably most often, lack of what they see as a strong leader in the other parties. Now, I know that people like Jack Layton, and they see him as a strong option but even with this huge gain in this election it's tough to believe that the NDP could ever win an election in Canada. And this makes me as a far lefty in Canada wonder what kind of country Canadians want. I've always assumed that Canadians were proud of their heritage, their universal healthcare and social programs. It seems that this is no longer the case; lots of Canadians would prefer to lean into the American style of healthcare and a militarization of the economy.

I joked with one of my colleagues over Facebook that we should transfer, and I was only half joking.

This brings me to an interesting documentary I watched recently about the political divide in the US and how in general the coasts are liberal and the centre is conservative. The director's conclusion was that there wasn't something about these places that make a person either conservative or liberal, but that people of these different world views tend to move into these areas - like attracts like. With this in mind, it makes me wonder if Canada is attracting more conservative (note the lack of capitalization) immigrants. I don't have any research, which I should look up but I'm too lethargic after watching the election, but it feels like in places that are heavy immigrant areas have skewed Conservative (Brampton, Scarborough etc.). Certainly Canadians of all stripes are voting for the Conservatives, as this majority proves, and I think that maybe this shows that Canadians, whether born here, or new Canadians really want a Conservative government. But what is a lefty to do?

Is moving to a country that is more inline with one's political view acceptable or is it giving up on your home? Can one use politics as a reason for emigrating? Can I claim political asylum in Sweden? These are questions that I half jokingly ask....but only HALF jokingly.

For now, there is a real change coming to Canada and I don't know if we will recognize the country by 2015, and I don't know if we (even those who voted for Harper) will be happy with the result.

Road trip

First off,i don't know whether it should be one word or two, but either way it raises a lot of thoughts and ambitions in any traveler.  I have participated in a road trip or two in my day, a couple of times across the country and a couple of times into America.  I was just out tonight with a good friend of mine with whom I've been on a couple of these trips and I have to say, it might be the purest form of travel.

So last summer we went to yellowstone park.  There were a few of us, and we decided to drive from toronto.  That basically took 35 hours of driving, fueled by redbull, snacks.and lots of coffee.  We loved the whole trip and the journey was definitely as important as the destination.

The thing about traveling by car is that you feel the distance between your origin and your destination.  When you hop into a plane and fall asleep and wake up in Italy, you don't get a sense of how far it is.   But when you sit behind the wheel and trade off with a good friend on driving shifts you get an idea of just how far you've come.

We went through the badlands of north dakota which was awesome.  We went through the grizzly bear, path which was snowcapped in july.  And we finally ended up on yellowstone.

Yellowstine is amazing, I dare say one of the best places I've been.  The geysers and the hot springs are astounding, and you can travel the world trying to see better but will likely come uo short.  The people were helpful, and hospitable , we were served burgers by a girl from prague jn s small town in montana where et stayed.  But what made it amazing and truly unforgettable was the 70 hour roundtrip with my wife and 2 of my good friends.  And the audio copy of catch 22 didn't hurt either.  It was a real feather in my cap.

Notes on a scandal

Just surfing the tech press and am really put off by the news that both apple and google are storing or locational info.  I mean, as an ad guy I get the desire for more consumer data, you can never get enough.  It's every marketers dream to know exactly what your consumers want so you can sell it to them where they want it, when they want it.  But I always wonder if steve jobs and guy kawasaki get versions of the hardware without these privacy invading add ons.  Because let's face it for all the info I want on the consumers I am targeting, I don't want the marketers targeting me to get my info.

I read that an apple customer actually wrote jobs an electronic mail asking jobs to explain the software and mentioning that he would really hate to have to change to android because they don't "track my location" (which we know now to be untrue).  Jobs' only response: "yes they do".  Cool, great info steve, but what's your reason?

I wonder when exactly, or how a guy like jobs decides to completely sell his soul to corporate success.  Gates, totally get, and now he is atoning by trying to cure diseases and feed the hungry...but jobs seemed like he was the nice guy who you would want to have a beer with.  But while having that beer I never wanted steve's shareholders to know exactly where we were tipping those pints...