About The Perfect Thing..

It's not what you are underneath, but what you do, that defines you. -Batman Begins

Just finished reading Steven Levy's The Perfect Thing (Many thanks to Charuta for lending it to me). The book is about iPod, how it came to be, the extent of its influence and its effects on society. Or maybe I should give you the tagline, which says it better, How the iPod shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness.

To be honest, the beginning bored me somewhat, especially the first chapter, which depicts the obsession of junta with the iPod. Like duels with strangers involving comparison of iPod playlists, and the social humiliation that would result if you happen to have uncool songs on yours. Just confirms what Einstein said of stupidity! But the later chapters more than make up. We get to know how iPod, which was just a part of Apple's Digital Hub project (meant to sweeten the iMac deal) went on to redefine industry. But iPod matters not only because it's a great product, but also because what it did, things like enabling podcasting or creating a market for legal music downloads via iTunes, the overall effect matters. (Hence the quote). [The book will also serve as good marketing material for Apple. After all these years of staying clear of the bandwagon, at some point it made me want one of those :)]. Another thing I liked was the portrayal of Steve Jobs in a more positive light, someone who has only read iCon might very well think that the guy did nothing but steal credit. There is also a chapter investigating cool, uncool, and what makes them so. But the most important lesson (in my humble opinion) comes from the coolest of them all, SJ. When asked by an interviewer, "Did you try to make the iPod cool?", he said, "No, we try to make it great". And that applies not just to products.

[Being a book about Culture, names of composers, singers etc keep coming up all the time. The funny thing is, I have never listened to any of their creations. Not one mentioned in the book. Time to expand my horizons, I guess ;-)]