Imagine walking through Vienna and stumbling upon a display of iPhones. And not precisely because it’s in front of an Apple Store, but because a cultural curator has deemed the iPhone one of the most important technological, social, and cultural artifacts of the century. Pulling on the thread, I stumbled upon little stories, design secrets… and a book. A book-magazine protected under bulletproof glass that marked the life of Steve Jobs.
Within the University of Applied Arts Vienna we can find rooms and exhibition halls with sculptures of all kinds of pop, from the first Nike tennis shoes, the classics of 1972, to different industrially produced materials. Art made of concrete, plastic or copper rubs shoulders with hockey sticks and regional dresses. Artists such as Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka were professors there. It is also known as the academy from which Adolf Hitler was rejected. But what caught my attention was this wonderful book.
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The “Whole Earth Catalog” is Steve Jobs’ intellectual decalogue
For those who don’t know, the “Whole Earth Catalog” is a countercultural book-magazine first published in 1968 by Stewart Brand. The name refers to the cover, which shows one of the first images of the “whole Earth.” And it was a kind of guide to tools, books, ideas and products oriented towards autonomy, ecology and personal development.
The catalogue covers topics as diverse as sustainable agriculture, the use of alternative technologies, self-constructioneducation and life philosophies. In the pre-Internet era, the “Whole Earth Catalog” provided a platform that connected people interested in finding tools and ideas for living a more conscious and empowered life.
And what does Steve Jobs have to do with all this? He mentioned it in several interviews, including his famous commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005. For Jobs, this catalog was a source of inspiration for several reasons:
- Countercultural spirit. During his early years, Jobs lived with hippies – his first girlfriend and mother of his first daughter, but nothing more – and inherited this influence from the 60s towards innovation and unconventional thinking. Jobs admired this “alternative” approach to life, where sustainability and self-sufficiency were essential. It is not for nothing that Jobs wore hemp sandals for years, made 100% by hand.
- Access to tools. If the catalog’s mission was to provide “access to tools,” The book served as a springboard for Jobs to connect with his own philosophical resonances.. He has always valued access to the best tools to create the best technological products and solutions. The first iPhone with a super-resistant screen is the living image of this. And the way of repeating the same idea, the same. Because if we look at the first Macintosh, we can already see this maxim of simplifying and making accessible what in other products was a constant technological headache.
- Attitude of curiosity and optimism. Hoay who confuses the Stanford speech with a pessimistic vision. Jobs mentioned that the Whole Earth Catalog was a kind of “Google on paper”. This led to “Stay hungry, stay stupid,” a phrase that Jobs adopted as a kind of personal mantra. The phrase reflects your constant desire to learn, grow, and take risks. And why risk? Because you have nothing to lose:
Remembering that we are going to die soon is the most important tool I have found for making the most important decisions in my life. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Nowadays, it is very easy to find the free PDF of the Whole Earth catalog and media outlets like Wired essays have been dedicated to him to commemorate his importance. This book is not an “eco-terrorist pamphlet,” as it has been called, nor does it simply advocate geodesic domes, but rather summarizes how the world was understood in 1970. Oddly enough, it rhymes with today’s Apple and how it wants to focus on being a carbon-neutral company. Fifty years have passed, but many challenges remain regarding the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
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