Whole Earth Catalogue: Here's To The Crazy Ones.

My first impressions of looking at the first issue of the Whole Earth Catalogue, dated Fall 1968, is that it seems - and perhaps this is not the best way to put it - the ramblings of a madman (or men, since the catalogue had multiple contributors). That's probably not the impression that the catalogue wants to give, but it linked me immediately to a lot of the comments that were usually made about Jobs' new ideas of endeavors: within Isaacson's autobiography, there are many times in which Jobs proposes an idea to his board of directors, to which they say, "You're crazy - that'll ruin Apple." The most recent example in my reading is that of the Apple Stores, which people said would surely be a failure in light of the Gateway Stores, which had been a disaster. But Jobs stuck with the idea and forced it through, and ended up revolutionizing the way consumers by computers, let alone anything. When I go to technology stores now, a lot of them end up mirroring Jobs' vision of a pristine, immaculate, minimalistic store. Anyway, this relates to my immediate ideas about the Whole Earth Catalogue, and makes me see an immediate comparison between Jobs and the magazine.

Looking inside, you get what seems to be a grab bag of ideas and "tools," as they would call them: pictures of different geographical settings from high above, a book about "Ideas and Integrities," some notes on the music of John Cage, and a section about Tantric Art. The catalogue seems to be about what the future might hold for people - moving into a new generation, as technology was beginning to burst, the catalogue seems to offer tools to become part of this movement, albeit in an somewhat scattered way. It seems like a catalogue designed for someone like Jobs: many small bits of information about many different things, all working towards on unified goal of progression and artistic achievement. The Whole Earth Catalogue provides so much information about so many things that it's really unlike any other magazine, which usually focuses on a subject matter - this magazine focuses on an idea, and that idea is giving you the necessary tools, which is what Jobs' product is all about.

If I had to relate that to religion, I would say that it follows that ideology of personal religion, and that you have the tools to become an individual contributing to society. Past religions seemed to be about communal ideology, not very much focused on the human, whereas modern religion and the Whole Earth Catalogue seem very involved with the individual - which is also what Jobs was all about. There seems to be an inexplicable link between the personal religion that now seems so prevalent, and the personal technology that has exploded ever since Apple came onto the scene - and the Whole Earth Catalogue serves as the foundation for the themes that Jobs would eventually try to develop in his company.