“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
-Steve Jobs at Stanford’s Commencement Address in 2005
It’s not hard to believe that a 21st century visionary genius makes it easier to study the 11th century. As medievalists most of our time is spent in dusty old books reading about events that happened centuries ago. But without Steve Jobs we would still be doing it at the library, on a microfiche machine!
Steve Jobs didn’t invent podcasting but he made it easier to find the content all in one place. In 2001 he introduced iTunes and the iPod. The vast majority, over 90%, of the Medieval Archives podcast downloads come from iTunes.
Six years after the iPod the iPhone was introduced and changed the world. When I send out medieval tweets, update Facebook or answer your questions via email it is all done on my iPhone. Steve Jobs made it easy for a medievalist in the Rocky Mountains to connect with other medievalists across the globe!
It is no exaggeration to say that Steve Jobs made the Medieval Archives podcast possible.
RIP Steve Jobs
