10 Ideas to Create Your Own Reality Distortion Field
This is a list of ideas that came to me as I read Walter Isaacson's biography on Steve Jobs earlier this year. One of the concepts that struct out the most to me as I read Job's biography was the Reality Distortion Field. The term was coined by Apple engineer, Andy Hertzfeld to describe the manner in which Jobs convinced himself and everyone around him to believe in almost anything. You can read Hertzfeld's account here ( https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Reality_Distortion_Field.txt ).
Please be aware that I never met Steve Jobs and that everything I write below may be a gross misinterpretation of 2nd hand accounts.
1. Be Able to Communicate Your Vision in a Way That Will Inspire Others (And Yourself)
Have a clear vision that you can easily explain in as few words as possible. The iPod wasn't the first mp3 player on the market, but it was the most popular selling 450 million units before it was discontinued. Aside from being a well-engineered device, and having a flashy advertising campaign, it had a simple slogan:
"1,000 songs in your pocket."
2. Master Eye Contact
Specifically holding it long enough to intimidate people.
3. Use Emotion to Make Seemingly Impossible Tasks Not Only Possible, but of the Utmost Importance and Urgency
This goes back to the Macintosh's development back in 1984 when Steve Jobs asked engineer, Larry Kenyon to reduce the Mac's boot time by 10 seconds. When Kenyon said it wasn't possible to reduce the boot time, Jobs told him, "If it would save a person’s life, could you find a way to shave 10 seconds off the boot time?" When Kenyon replied that he could, Jobs went to a whiteboard and demonstrated that 100 lifetimes could be saved if 5 million people around the world used the Mac and didn't have to wait the extra 10 seconds, saving an estimated total of 300 million hours a year. After a few weeks, Kenyon shaved 28 seconds off the Mac's boot time.
4. Be Comfortable With Manipulating People With a Balance of Seduction and Insults
Jobs was known for showering praise on people he considered geniuses. Conversely, he was also notorious for berating anyone who didn't meet his standards as an idiot, even if they were objectively brilliant people. Jobs was a master of balancing insults and seduction in a way that made people want to prove themselves to him rather than drive them away.
5. Know Your Capabilities and Those of Others
Live on the edge of your capability and always push outward. Encourage others to live on the edge of their ability and push that ability outward.
If you work, do it wholeheartedly and keep pushing yourself everyday. If you need to relax, go all out (legally). The logic is if you're seen as someone who is passionate and continuously holds themselves to high standards, the more willingly other people will listen when you tell them to have high standards for themselves as well.
6. Be a Showman
Tell compelling stories, relevant jokes, whatever is needed to elicit the desired emotional response from whomever you're working with.
7. Make Connections Between What You Know and What Can Be Possible
Everything is connected in nature. The visionaries of the world see connections the rest of us either ignore or can't see.
8. Embrace Ego
This might be a controversial point since the common moral and self-help advice out there tells us to suppress our egos and be humble. I argue too much humility will lower your confidence and make your hesitate at the first sign of resistance when you try to express your vision to others. That said, don't be delusional and take note of genuine and constructive criticism.
9. Be Aware of the Reality and Know How to Bend It to Your Will
To distort reality, you need to at least be somewhat aware of what it is.
10. Know the Details of What You Want
When you know exactly what you want, you will be better able to set events in motion to attain it.
11. Always Be Aware That While You May Distort Reality for a Time, It Has a Way of Reasserting Itself Violently
As celebrated as Steve Jobs's early career was, he ousted from Apple, the company he helped found in 1985. While the reasons for this are complicated, a major part was that the employees were fed up with the Jobs's manipulative and autocratic management style.
Steve Jobs also tried using the reality distortion field on himself instead of seeing what the reality really was. Jobs convinced himself that he could eschew needed medical procedures in favor of natural cures for his pancreatic cancer until it was too late and ended up dying an early death.
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