It is no longer just engineers who dominate our technology leadership, because it is no longer the case that computers are so mysterious that only engineers can understand what they are capable of. There is an industry-wide shift toward more "product thinking" in leadership--leaders who understand the social and cultural contexts in which our technologies are deployed.

Products must appeal to human beings, and a rigorously cultivated humanistic sensibility is a valued asset for this challenge. That is perhaps why a technology leader of the highest status--Steve Jobs--recently credited an appreciation for the liberal arts as key to his company's tremendous success with their various i-gadgets.

So, your kids must love the iPad?” I asked Mr. [Steve] Jobs, trying to change the subject. The company’s first tablet was just hitting the shelves. “They haven’t used it,” he told me. “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.”
(Nytimes article, Sept. 10, 2014)

Стив считал: в гениальном компьютере аппаратное и программное обеспечение должны быть тесно связаны. Если же на компьютер можно было установить программы, совместимые с другими компьютерами, в конечном счете пришлось бы пожертвовать частью его функциональности. Лучшими продуктами Джобс считал те, что продуманы от начала до конца и созданы цельными; программное обеспечение для таких компьютеров создано с учетом аппаратного, и наоборот. Это отличало тактику Macintosh, операционная система которого была совместима только с родным железом, от тактики Microsoft, операционную систему которой можно было использовать на железе, произведенном многими другими компаниями.

Steve Jobs thus became the greatest business executive of our era, the one most certain to be remembered a century from now. History will place him in the pantheon right next to Edison and Ford. More than anyone else of this time, he made products that were completely innovative, combining the power of poetry and processors. With a ferocity that could make working with him as unsettling as it was inspiring, he also built the world's most creative company. And he was able to infuse into its DNA the design sensibilities, perfectionism, and imagination that make it likely to be, even decades from now, the company that thrives best at the intersection of artistry and technology.

I discovered that the best innovation is sometimes the company, the way you organize a company.

Steve Jobs was the only person capable of presenting a bug as a feature.