alt Hacker NewsIt’s interesting that for how successful Jobs was, there really aren’t many young people who seem to emulate his life path. The guy went to an extremely unorthodox college, took some “impractical” courses like typography, dropped out, and basically lived a hippie-esque existence until Apple worked out.
This seems to me like the opposite of the typical ambitious young person’s plan today, over filled with extracurriculars, prestigious degrees, and well-worn paths to success. You’d think that Jobs’ success would lead to more people trying to emulate his roundabout path, at least superficially.
Maybe you could make the argument that Jobs was just too unique to serve as a role model for everyone else. And the labor market is a lot different today vs. back then. But I do think that his apparent lack of institutional hyper-optimization contributed to his success in a fundamental way.
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I think perhaps more people are attempting this path then back in the late 60s through 70s. However, as opposed to the mainstream vs counterculture, we have influencer culture mixed in, e.g. vanlife or travel bloggers.
It's sort of conceptually hard to be an independent thinker/doer, and also emulate others, even if emulating someone like Steve. For all those that drop out of the mainstream yet still let themselves be known via social media, probably even fewer probably drop out completely; I suspect there are still many. I hunt for obscure artists on Spotify/Youtube, and if I find a small concert, this sort of community still seems within reach.
Ultimately, it's the devices Steve had a hand in innovating that are obscuring aspects of the old school vibes of being off the grid in the present. However, perhaps our current variation of hippie vibes will feel event more quaint to those looking back from 2060 or so.
It was probably the opposite of an ambitious person back then. Become a surgeon or top dog on wall st or start a large fast food franchise. Always been well worn paths. If you have a million hippies some will get rich!
Can't make pasta with a cookie cutter
There might be a selection bias - off all the people who take that roundabout route; few achieve Jobs’ level of success. We never hear about them.