The Art of Living: Reflections on Life's Great Adventure

As I sit here reflecting on life, I am reminded that it's a journey we all embark upon with hope and optimism. We set out with dreams and aspirations, eager to make our mark on the world. But as we navigate the twists and turns of life, we often find ourselves facing choices that can either propel us forward or hold us back. In this article, I'll share three personal stories that have taught me valuable lessons about living a fulfilling life.

One of my earliest lessons in life came from a simple quote: "If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you will most certainly be right." I was 17 at the time, and this phrase struck a chord within me. Since then, for the past 33 years, I have made it a habit to ask myself every morning, "Today, would I want to do what I'm about to do if today were my last day?" This daily reflection has helped me prioritize my actions and make conscious choices that align with my values.

Over time, I've come to realize that this simple exercise is one of the most powerful tools I possess. When faced with decisions or challenges, remembering that death is inevitable can be a profound motivator. It's a reminder that almost everything else in life – external expectations, pride, fear of embarrassment, and failure – becomes irrelevant when compared to the value of our own lives. By acknowledging my mortality, I've been able to break free from the constraints of others' opinions and forge my own path.

A recent experience reinforced this lesson for me. A year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer, and my life was turned upside down. The initial diagnosis was grim – I had a rare form of pancreatic cancer that was incurable and expected to live no longer than three to six months. But fate has a way of surprising us. After a series of tests and biopsies, it was revealed that the tumor was curable with surgery. This experience taught me the value of living in the present moment and being open to new possibilities.

The days leading up to my surgery were filled with uncertainty and anxiety. I had to confront my own mortality and make amends with those closest to me. My wife, who had been by my side throughout this ordeal, told me that when the doctor viewed the cells under a microscope, he started crying because it turned out to be a rare form of pancreatic cancer. This moment was a poignant reminder that life is full of surprises, and sometimes, our greatest challenges can become opportunities for growth.

In the end, I am grateful for this experience and the lessons it taught me about living with intention and purpose. I've learned that life is precious, and every day is a gift to be cherished. As I look back on my journey so far, I realize that the biggest regrets often come from not taking risks or pursuing our passions.

One of my favorite publications from my youth was The Whole Earth Catalog. Created by Stuart Brand in the late 1960s, it was a bible for my generation – a collection of inspiring stories, innovative ideas, and practical tips for living a more meaningful life. The catalog's motto, "Stay hungry. Stay foolish," became a guiding philosophy for me. It reminded me to remain curious, stay open-minded, and never settle for the status quo.

As I look back on my own journey, I realize that this mantra has been both empowering and humbling. There have been moments when I've felt like I was on the right path, only to find myself lost or uncertain. But through it all, I've tried to stay true to my core values and follow my heart.

And so, as you embark on your own journey, I offer these words of wisdom: don't waste your time living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma or afraid to challenge the status quo. Stay hungry. Stay foolish. Remember that death is an inevitable part of life, but it's also a reminder to live each day with intention and purpose.

In the end, it's not about achieving some sort of external success or validation; it's about living a life that's authentic, meaningful, and true to who you are. As I look out at the world around me, I'm filled with hope for what the future holds. And I know that no matter where life takes us, we'll always be on an incredible adventure – one that's full of twists, turns, and surprises.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enum I got back to Apple along with several other people uh two and a half years ago uh what we found was uh a great company that needed a little bit of help and um during this time I've been the interim CEO but I'm uh pleased to announce today that I'm going to drop the interim title hello and welcome to the cast the best 30 plus minute Apple conversation you're going to hear all week long my name is arifan Elijah and I'm joined by two to three of the sexiest members of the international ribboning dance troop Leander kany is here welcome Leander the ribboning leader himself uh Buster K is here Buster good good afternoon and at any moment at any moment Alex exceler Heath will be joining us he is busy restarting his router cuz his audio sounded like poop so he'll be joining in any moment welcome to the cult cast everybody lots of stuff to talk about this week we're going to be talking about Steve Jobs hit the uh anniversary of his death is October 5th can you guys believe it's already been almost three years it feels like it just happened um so I would thought we would start with a cool little uh bit about him and uh how he helped train out to deal with situations like benate which has been crazier than I think anyone has ever expected and uh we're also going to be talking about another new addition to Apple and I finally have my hands on an iPhone 6 Plus and I've been using it for a week and I want to give you guys uh my uh Impressions and I want to hear what you guys think now that you've been using yours for a couple weeks now uh before we hop into the show though I want to thank back Blaze for supporting this episode back Blaze Online Backup five bucks a month it's MACC native unlimited unthrottled uncomplicated setup takes about one minute and you can try it for free at back blaze.com cultcast here's the thing about back Blaze Leander I know you use it I've been using it for quite a while it's just totally uncomplicated you you get it set up the app works great on your Mac because it's built for a Mac and there's no throttling they don't measure your you can back up whatever you want your computer hard drive your external hard drives as many hard drives as you have laying around the house you can back it all up and it's only $5 a month five bucks a month for unlimited backup can you believe it stop me Leander stop me it's offsite and it's and like I say it's dead easy it's um it's really I've been paying for it for a couple of years and it's been great yeah it it you know like it's it's a super it's cheap for the pieace of Mind exactly exactly and I always tell people if you're not backing up you're dingling right I that should be back that should be back blaz this new new model you're dingling if you don't back up because if something goes wrong if your friend comes over to your house Buster and sits on your Mac with his big ARS cheeks and breaks it in half you're screwed you're screwed you you need to have your data backed up offsite and I even have a time machine backup that I have uh at my house but I don't even do just that because guess what house could burn down if a crook breaks in and steals my time machine there goes my backup you got to have a plan to keep your data safe all your pictures that you have all your work items that you have head on over to back blaze.com try it out for free they'll give you a two-e free trial they don't even need your credit card number and it's a totally unlimited trial it's just like the real product that you would pay for I want to thank back Blaze for supporting this episode hey did we just lose someone I don't know oh we lost Alex okay okay we're going to do it without Alex okay which quite honestly would be my personal preference God thank God h i called Comcast and asked if they could throttle his connection so we could do it without him they happily obliged yeah um so let's just jump right into it guys since Alex isn't going to be here it's been three years since Steve Jobs passed away it was October 5th 2011 and with all the benate stuff stuff happening lately I thought this was an interesting story so a former Apple ad guy Ken seagull who we've had on the show before uh he wrote A Blog a blog post about how Steve Jobs constructed Apple to deal with situations like Ben gate which by the way was it not totally I mean did it not blow up even more hugely than any of us expected that video that uh Lewis help tger posted is close to 49 million views right now can you guys believe it I mean it's like one of the biggest videos on YouTube so I want to read you this little blurb from Ken seagull about how how Apple deals with stuff like this and how Steve Jobs prepped the company to deal with situations like this he says if you're familiar with this blog you've probably heard me talk about the importance of Steve the importance Steve Jobs placed on getting customers to love apple he wanted every part of the customer experience to strengthen that love from the advertis to the inore experience to the unboxing to enjoying the product and getting support when needed and by doing so he ensured that customers would a buy more stuff B evangelize to others I'm guilty on both these and C stick with apple when unforeseen problems arise he understood that such things were inevitable even for a company like apple and I thought about what Ken wrote here and I think it's very true I have a love for apple as a company and I would guess correct me if I'm wrong that you guys share that at least to some degree where we kind of have this implicit trust to them and when there's a problem like this I mean I go right to their defense but I don't feel like it's a blind love which is something we get accused of a lot from people who are fans of Android and Windows like I feel like I love Apple because they create an excellent customer experience excellent products even the packaging is great Leander what do you think yeah well you know people say that you know um we're members of a cult and uh you're talking about apple right right yeah exactly well we play it up as a as a joke you know it's the oldest cliche in the book about Apple you know apple apple uses Apple Fans she mindless yeah mindless zombies will buy and anything take and takes these word which I think is horse crap I don't think that's true at all there's elements of it I think you know there's definitely there's a little bit of you know fire there to go with the smoke I think that's you know some people can people can get really irrational about this stuff and it is has a sort kind of religious sort of well the feelings people are very very strongly um connected to their devices and they CH the platform and you can just definitely see this when you get into a conversation with Android users you know and and when um they debate the differences you know and but you know for for a thing like Ben gate though I think you know like Lewis I mean stoked that far there was there was a thing on Mac rumors and then he made this video and it was like oh my god look it it he made it look like it was really easy to do this and um you know it it really did take that was like Consumer Reports jumping in into the antenna Gate scandal I mean Apple stock price dropped 2% right after that whole thing went live I mean this was this was Global News oh absolutely yeah but you know as but but you know the funny thing is it it's a media phenomenon right it's a media storm and they Apple gets built up it benefits it benefited from this insane attention to the iPhone 6 rumors and the launch and then um you know whenever it's inevitable there's always a problem there's been a problem with every single Apple product going back you know as far as I can remember to you know the original Mac the original Mac was called a toy it was like a Fisher Price toy and the tech press you know dismissed it as a as this ridiculous um toy likee computer that wasn't suitable for real work and then you know the iPod it was the the the um the fact that you couldn't replace the battery the first iPhone was the fact that you couldn't replace the battery the iMac was because it didn't have a floppy Drive remember that people said that the iMac was doomed no one would buy the iMac because it didn't have a floppy drive in it right that was the that was the Ben gate for the iMac that was and I remember that distinctly that was a huge mainstream story because the iMac got so much attention you know in the buildup to it when it was launched and they were like oh look at this crazy Jetson's computer and then the Press picked up you know a week later on the fact that it you know that it was it was it was basically a doomed a beautiful but doomed product just just like Marilyn Monroe jeez did they say that so yeah that's mean and it's been for every major product since then there's always been some huge problem but this one definitely went you know massively globally viral but I think that has a lot to do with the interest in the product itself I mean you know the iPhone 6 is a massive Global product the biggest product that's been launched all year maybe for you know since the last iPhone I mean I think that might be true yeah what are the products even though you know uh cars don't get this attention nothing else gets this kind of attention I can't think of anything even you you know like this is why you two is like trying to Hitch their wagon to it I mean it used to be cultural products right movies games games maybe so um yeah I would argue that games still do that to a certain level but not nearly as big as this product was no movies don't it used to be movies and it used to be albums right you know like the Beatles album whatever or the latest um album from whatever you know Beyonce right so maybe Beyonce gets this kind of attention but I you know it's right it's I think it's bigger than that for sure oh I do too people lining up people didn't line up for Beyonce's album I would say the the last thing that I remember being this big was that Robin thick cut um I can't remember I can't remember lines yeah but that's a great example that's a great analogy because that was also accompanied by huge controversy wasn't it yeah because they had that model in it or they had they did that music video where all the girls were topless right and actually didn't even realize for many many weeks and that that was why that song had gotten uh so popular of course it's it's a sweet cut I mean there's that there's that too right let me take us back to the whole idea of blinded Apple love because this this is what really always annoys me when people talk about how Apple Fans are sheep which I think I I think is bull I think that we're very Discerning of things of high quality and value and we're willing to pay a higher price for things that um you know deliver in those two areas and I don't think that we just buy whatever Apple releases I consider myself a very Discerning it consumer if something sucks I won't purchase it I don't care if Apple releases it I don't care if Microsoft releases it um you know may I have a little bit of blindness towards Apple yeah I think that I probably do I might trust them a little bit more I might more willingly go into an Impulse purchased on an Apple product but I feel like the reason I love their products so much is because they're they're they're always such of consistent high quality that I'm like okay I know that I'm going to get something that I really like and I'm not just buying it cuz Apple put puts craps it out and I'm like okay here's another thousand bucks thanks Apple yeah I don't believe in what to that that's all just rationalizing your you know your your brand loyalty no no no because even even the even the Apple watch I and Buster you and I have had this conversation I think even on the show like I'm going to buy one but I am apprehensive about it because I still don't know what the purpose of this product is and why I should want to wear one but I am still going to buy one sing and you just done exactly what you said you won't do M said you were gonna buy one and then you said I don't think I really need it and I don't really know what I'm going to use it for but I'm going to figure that out afterwards okay but hold on I'm doing this because we're on a podcast we need to we need to have experience with the watch if I wasn't on this show I would probably not purchase it and I would listen to somebody else's podcast who had bought one and was reviewing it right okay so there you go I let someone else waste the money I've done this loads of times like I remember that I bought a Macbook you know years ago and and and I did it on the quiet I put on this like credit card that we barely use and I was thinking oh my God what am I'm gonna tell Tracy hit me with a frying P I like that you're telling the story on the podcast by the way yeah so then I was like oh I know you know like I'm supposed to be writing a book so I'll tell her I had to buy it so I could work on the book at a cafe right because we didn't have any Portables we didn't have a notebook at the time so I turned out this whole rationalization and then I sort of like came to believe it myself and then that became the reason I bought it when really I just did it because I was lusting after it I was drooling over it I just wanted it and immediately it was a total you know super expensive impulse but I just had to have it which which uh MacBook was it I you know it was probably one of the early like the G4S or something no they were they were too pricey it was like I think one of the first like um uh you know um aluminum MacBooks MacBooks I don't even remember oh yeah those things were yeah it was like a power book it was so hot those things sexy as hell yeah I just had the hearts for it so bad was like cheating on Tracy it was like I really I had impure thoughts about it I really really really uh and I had to keep it secret it was like a you know like you were having an affair yeah right yeah and then I had to f up all these reasons afterwards to try to you know to explain it to rationalize it but I definitely like that you know like the minute I see the new iPhone I just you know I I I got to have it and then I rationalized afterwards all the reasons why I need it I need the bigger screen I got L te but those are those I know this they're rationalizations they it's like uh it's like why we always end up buying the bigger phone like the like the six plus we talked about in previous shows how we were all we we were like we we don't have a choice we know we're going to get the six plus even though it's more expensive even though it's it's bigger and we don't think we necessarily need the big screen we have to have it because Apple says it's the best that they make so that's that's all we have to buy yeah I had you know like I used to uh people should some friends had a Samsung you know I remember when one guy showed me a Samsung and I was like uh first time I'd seen a big screen phone like that now oh my God I really had um you know screen Envy real bad uhuh but you know then you turn it over and it's kind of clunky and it's ugly as all hack and it has like that fake that fake stitching in the plastic itself to make it look like leather yeah you know it was just it was and and and and immediately you know my interest in it just just was you know like it was I didn't like it at all it was it put me off it was you know it was it was repulsive exactly it has like the appearance of of high quality and then you go to use it my friend was just showing me his uh Galaxy Notes and has a huge screen same exact impression that you have I started playing around with it I looked at the UI and the UI was hideous absolutely hideous there were icons puked all over this thing it had no it had no discernable style it was just a bunch of hodg podge of icons dumped onto one screen it was just a totally different experience right but and but what's important is you're a otal reaction right and you go from oh that's interesting to this kind of you know yeah I was disgusted I was like get this away from me pushed it at him I know you sound like the worst kind of apple snar but you are we both are we are we're exactly what you know why you know you know why we we don't go for Android devices cuz we have impeccable taste we have impeccable taste and I think that people that really love Apple stuff share that value yeah right we have very high quality standards and and you see this you see this if you go down the Apple Store everyone is fondling the products it's kind of gross because you imagine all those goodies on well especially when you use that word gez yeah but even with the MacBooks and stuff like that you know like people don't just sit there and type on it they're picking it up and they're caressing the thing yeah it's very very um tactile and um physical you know there's definitely this kind of physical um you know it has to have that physical ATT and I think that's what Apple has brought to his products forever is that is that physical attractiveness that that that kicks in that emotive you know lust Factor the drool you know that the the the got to Habit this insane kind of crazy like being in love you can't eat you can't sleep all you can think about is that new Macbook you know what's funny is I I can I can actually say with all honesty I have had that feeling about several Apple products it's like when you're touching it and you you're F you're filled with like this sense of Desire it's kind of weird but it's very true and I remember my first uh Power book that I ever had that's exactly how I felt in fact I felt so strongly that way that I ended up writing a blog post about it to express myself I probably wrote like some poetry about it or something it's probably it's probably around here somewhere yeah but you're very right that's exactly what what a response I have to these devices right it's like falling in love it's very very emotional emotional and that's what a lot of te companies I mean the only other people that do this are like fashion companies and car companies people have these feelings about cars but not about any other technology I don't think I can't think of anything anyway I kind of get the same sense of uh of that same sense of Amore when I when I'm around BMWs like really nice BMWs like I feel like they have that same kind of fashion sense to them right so do I but you know what you know what though I can't stand BMW drivers you know you're not the first person that has said that to me why is that cuz I'm thinking about becoming one too I love cars I just can't bear to become one of those people you mean extremely elitist and kind of snobby I'm I'm sure that wouldn't happen to us say things like they have impeccable taste on public podcast hey I was joking wink wink I was totally kidding yeah wink wink wink Um well hey before we move on I just want to say in honor of Steve Jobs passing away we did this last year uh we're going to do again this year I have um gotten permission to broadcast his 2005 commencement address from um Stanford University it's I think probably one of his best talks that I've heard and I've listened to a lot of Steve Job talks it's right after he had found out that he had cancer and at the time he thought that he had been cured of cancer and just a really remarkable talk where he talks about what's important to life uh you know his his sense about Apple and things that he's learned from his life life and from building a company so we're going to be broadcasting that talk in its entirety at the very end of the show if you're interested in hearing it do stick around please I listen to it several times a year it's a very inspirational piece of audio for me so I I really love sharing it with people um let's we we already talked about Ben gate a little bit well did Buster have Buster didn't you have some interesting things to say about um how Apple PR handled Ben Gates how they handled it yeah you know by by you know the the um you know first of all saying it was like you know very limited and then inviting the press in to see the testing procedures yeah I didn't have anything interesting to say about it I don't think but I mean about anything unting it interesting how they how about just anything yeah I mean they were very quiet on it for you know like three days and then they did only let you know like maybe five Outlets come in to like see the testing process and everything um but exactly what they did with um the antenna gate though right it was like first minimize it and then show um the Press you know that they that they had already anticipated this stuff or they they try to test for it yeah exactly but I when you look at their test they don't really do necessarily the same kind of test that Lewis did with like the three-point test right at the volume button either so I mean I think there is probably something to be said said about like the cases weakness and I don't think they really addressed like oh here's the structural flaw that everybody seemed to found find you know right there was an interesting post that you did right about where they um there was a weakness of the at the volume buttons or right weakness yeah like the structural reinforcement there like it doesn't you know come past like the volume button so it's just really weak weak at that one spot which is exactly how Lewis was bending it in his video but Apple's machines they kind of bend it more like straight on in the middle so I think to what you're saying Buster I mean Lewis's point was if you bend it in this specific po spot which is you know where where the volume buttons are it has a weakness and and it will bend now whether or not it will bend in your pocket I think is the real question because obviously right smashing it with your thumbs you're going to be able to bend just about anything in your house yeah yeah you if you applying a force like you know his hands are red and you see like those kids going to the Apple Store and breaking them and like they're like shaking trying to break oh my gosh by the way Buster's speaking about the two biggest idiots on Earth they are they are the biggest idiots on Earth I think they went into an Apple store but before they did now me and my friend Danny what's going on man yo what's up man yeah basically we went into the Apple Store and we actually bent the iPhone 6 plus they broadcasted themselves with their faces and they give their names and they're like we don't believe that these things are going to bend so we're going to go and improve it and they go into an Apple store and start bending the iPhones in the store and then they posted the video on YouTube Just So defiantly and then they're just like oh well it's Apple's fault at these beds yes and they said it was Apple's fault Ian they're teenagers they're going to learn you just can't you can't film yourself on YouTube I'm sure there tons of people doing that over the weekends you know just go just tested it a little bit Yeah there probably were but they weren't they weren't uh so ingenious as to broadcast their face and their first and last names and then post it on YouTube I mean they did like $2,500 worth of damage those two idiots did I didn't I didn't actually watch the video but they didn't get nicked they didn't get security didn't clamp a big meaty pole on their shoulders I don't think so Apple the Apple store policy is pretty nonivasive like you're not supposed to you know kick people out from what I understand talking to former Geniuses unless you know like there's a Ser destroying they destroying equipment unless there's fire involved they just let it they just let it go oh mad yeah because we were done at the Apple Store at the weekend and the guy said y yeah everyone's coming in they're trying to bend it but they're not doing it seriously they're just sort of you know gently flexing it if they can I cannot show my iPhone to somebody without them asking if it's bent every single person I've showed it to is asked me that question it's unbelievable people that didn't even know that apple had released a new iPhone are asking me that question my mom asked me that question you know my mom may not even know have have ever heard what an iPhone was and yet she's asking me if it's if it's if I've had any problems with it bending I mean this video I so I've been talking to Lou kind of um on and off ever since this whole thing happened and my impression is I mean he's just as surprised as anyone else this video has gotten like 50 million views and he was on every major national you know press program and it's it sucks to see that people are kind of churning on him now and kind of calling him a fraud for doing this my personal belief is I think he was just following his nose he saw there might have been a problem he decided to test it and he you know he's got good instincts and he made a video and and you know the video exploded I don't think he was doing anything to to make money there's no way you could architect a video this big like yeah there's just no way so I think that he he's on to something I think there probably is a legitimate problem in in a very small case of situations and uh we're going to be talking about the iPhone 6 in just a sec because now that I have one and um I'm using it in my pockets and stuff I can definitely see if you have skinny jeans or you have pockets that are not like Mom jean size uh forgive apologies forgiveness all the mom Jean wearing there hey what do you hey sorry Leander I know that you love mom jeans cuz you love comfort and that's fine but if you're not wearing those jeans then the the phone definitely sits in your pocket in kind of a weird way in fact I've kind of noticed that I often just don't even want to keep it in my pocket because it's just too huge actually before we hop into that so I want to talk about my Impressions with iPhone 6 Plus and I want to hear what you guys think now that you've been using it for a couple weeks before we do that I want to thank very desk for supporting this episode that's V ies.com Buster you and I talked about varesk before they make these really Nifty standup desks that you can use on top of your existing desk and they're completely adjustable and you can lift them from a sitting position to a standing position in just about 3 seconds I am a standing desk convert I'm I understand this totally genuinely authentically I think that moving to a standing desk is probably one of the best decisions I've ever made in my entire life um you know when you sit all day long you just get lethargic it your metabolism slows way down you turn into a big old chunk and you just don't feel good and you know in in today's modern age when you're sitting down a lot it's it's really good to stand up stretch you know and get some exercise but the great thing about standing desks is they increase your metabolism and they help you burn calories even when you're not doing anything really active just by the act of standing you are burning far more calories than you would be sitting down and you do get tired which is one of the reasons why you want it to be adjustable and why it's great that very desk adjusts so fast because eventually your legs are going to get tired your calves are going going to get tired and you're going to want to sit down you don't want to be standing all day that's going to be kind of excessive but when you do that you're definitely going to notice an improvement I mean I have way more energy now I've have lost some weights I mean I was already in pretty much perfect shape before Buster you know that but my my sixpack ABS have transformed into eight pack abs now D and my biceps are just even more delineated in my arms and and I just look I look great I wish I I should post a picture of myself online so you guys can see but I count that hugely to to switching to a standing desk yeah right cool we saw one at Cs and they were I was really impressed you know the key is to keep you moving right so keeps on uh it it it makes us you know stand up if you've been sitting down for exct set so it'll it'll it'll make you stand up and it's not you know it's not all standing all the time because that's actually kind of hard when I started standing up I found it like you know I felt like a you know some poor shop girl um you know with really bad varicose veins and and it was just killing me it took me a couple of weeks to get to get used to it um it wasn't actually that Pleasant to begin with so the very desk you know eases you into that because it allows you to sort of sit for a while but then it makes you stand up want doing sitting all the time is it that's or standing all the time yeah you don't want to do either really because either one is not healthy you kind of want to mix it up and I've gotten to a point now where when I sit too long I notice you know I start to get antsy and then when I stand too long my my calves start hurting so um in any case VAR desk is great because most Denny desks are like $1,500 plus dollars VAR desks start at 275 you don't need a ton of space like a normal desk because you can just use it on your existing desk go check it out at varidesk.com VA a rides.com they have four models that you can choose from and uh if you decide to make a purchase I know some of you out there have because you've been tweeting me about about them um please use the code uh cultcast in the how did You Hear About Us section so they know that we sent you guys um that helps us and um we'll make them hopefully you know continue sponsoring the show so we want to thank vares for their support Buster breathing into that mic oh shoot let me get away from it my bad you were doing that earlier too I was like oo someone's tired too much standing time to take a seat Buster too much fa desk um so guys let me ask you this I've got my giant surfboard here AKA my six plus and I'll be honest I'm a weak in with it and people have been asking me what I think and I kind of compare it to dancing with a supermodel it's a great experience it's very beautiful but she's taller than me and the whole thing's a little awkward and I'm not really sure where to put put my hands I'm a little embarrassed that she's so much taller than me that's kind of my experience with the 6 Plus so far it's it's a great phone I love it but it's so huge I can barely fit into my pocket and because the the edges are so round I find that I that I have a hard time picking it up off flat surfaces cuz the phone is kind of heavy and there's nothing to really to grab on to it's just like so it's so round um sounds like a cervix A lot I can't believe it's so round it's like out there I mean gross got back so round and big I'll be serious Buster I mean just look at it too much baller I like big okay um are you guys feeling this way are you guys sharing my sentiment here I I felt a little bit of that like the first two days cuz it's a little awkward and here's the thing is I feel like the iPhone 6 Plus is a two-handed device so it is a two-handed device differently than your iPhone 5s and like after two weeks I have has it been two weeks yet almost I I I don't think I would go back to like the 5S size ever again it's just like way too tiny like what about like what about the six would you consider going back to the six or you are you sold like you love the i' consider it but I think Apple needs to do is not necessarily uh Chang the size of the screen I think they need to get rid of the uh the bezel slim it down a little bit because I went to Best Buy over the weekend and held like uh the LG 5.5 in screen and one of the uh Samsungs and they're like just a little bit smaller not as thin but you know uh not as tall as the iPhone 6 I think that would help a little bit think you're absolutely right yeah and the screen is I mean there's a good inch on top of the screen you know on both sides they could definitely shrink that down it's going to be edge to edge the screen is going to be edge to edge yeah I think that is what they need to do well L what do you what do you think I mean do you ever feel like is it is it too big for you I mean I kind of find like I I can never feel like it's secure in my hand I'm always worried I'm going to drop it like Buster said there's no way you can use this thing one-handed I mean I find FaceTime calls to be a little awkward what do you think no no you can totally use it one hand um because I got like unnaturally long Chicken F you must have mutant hands because I have big hands too it's you got to get used to it like you know the way you normally you know you've got to it if you use it one hand it tends to get a bit unbalanced right because it's it sticks at the top so you've got to kind of move your hand you got to move it down your hand so that it's it's it's balanced in it um and but you can totally use it one hand I use it one hand all the time I mean you can't you know it's not like uh you sometimes you have to hold it to go to the far left corner with your other hand but you can do a lot of things onehanded especially if you're using you know reachability feature yeah and the reachability just to reach those furthest icons but you know a lot of a lot of the action goes on at the bottom of the screen anyway so I found I can use it one handed I did have to adjust the grip a little bit and get used to that get used to the size so I think it's you know it's kind of like a muscle memory thing it's just you know it's like playing tennis with a bigger racket or whatever like a giant clown racket you know I've got used to it like like Buster says and now the older phones seem ridiculously small I know my five seems like a child's toy right I know it's funny and then plus you know the pocket thing I mean I I you know I guess I don't wear the Titus jeans any longer but uh I I've been keeping it in my back pocket and every single day I sit on it in the car or on the couch wow and I go oh no my fat 200 pound ass is just of pure muscle has probably damaged my phone is what you think you know and I get that horrible sinking feeling and I quickly panick reach for it uh and because it's totally fine and I you know I feel like an idiot because I do this every single day and it's like oh my god when am I ever going to like you know uh learn not to do this but I'm so used to keeping in my back pocket but but you know I don't think I think the whole bent thing is overblown because I sell it pretty hard like a couple times in the car um and the car's kind of low down you know so you know when you get in you kind of fall in yeah and then whack down on the thing and uh it hasn't of course I'm sitting on a seat right I'm not sitting on a wall or anything hard um the seats you know has some think it has anything to do with like how maybe spongy and Mal malleable your rear end cheeks might be so they just totally conform yeah it's like pressing it between two giant soft pillows exactly it's like trying to press on it from both sides with a pillow and trying to bend it that might have something to do with Buster you you do you keep the phone in your pocket cuz here's the other thing that I have kind of um been thinking about so the phone is so big and so heavy that I find that when it's in my pocket I notice and it's heavier than my last phone is so I I feel like it's pulling my pants down so and then and then my pants are going to come down in front of all the kids and they're all going to laugh at me wores don't invest in the belt you know honestly I have I've had I have had start I can't I can't speak I have started wearing a belt more often because of that exact problem and you can get one of those belt holsters for the iPhone 6 Plus really cool at the mall and stuff yeah I even know that was an option I think I might need to look into that maybe you should get some milk and Mindy suspenders too you get a wardrobe mil function so the problem here is myard yanked down but Buster I find that I don't want to carry it in my pocket because it's so big and you know when you don't carry in your pocket you don't get the advantage of the motion co-processor tracking your steps because it's not with you so like the health app can't really track your steps as well because you're not carrying the phone are you you carrying this phone in your pocket as much as you wear your last phone uh like when I'm in my house I usually kind of set it on the desk and to there and that's but that's cool and I think once the Apple watch comes out I think it kind of solves a lot of it will solve a lot of like the portability problems with like the 6 Plus where like the 6 Plus will just be like your main portable computer that you leave everywhere and then your I watch or Apple watch will be how you interact with it you know I think it actually might be an apple conspiracy theory like they released a phone that was so big that they knew you were going to have to buy an accessory device to actually use your phone cuz you're never going to have it with you so they released the Apple watch so that you could actually do all the things on your wrist that you were not doing on your phone anymore because it was never actually in your pocket yeah I I don't have a problem carrying it in the pocket though you know so uh and when it's in your pocket do you ever when you sit down and stuff do you ever notied that's there cuz I'll be honest I can barely put my socks on cuz when I lift my leg up this freaking thing presses into my junk area and it doesn't feel very nice so I have to like bend over like a grandpa and put my socks on maybe you should put your phone on last first hey don't tell me how to dress although is that the way Apple recommends cuz actually I think that's in the iPhone 6 Plus user manual please put socks on first before putting phone in pocket I never really noticed it I mean well I do notice it but I just don't let it bother I guess well I got to say out of all that um the phone is sexy so sexy display is just amazing the display is the best display I have ever seen on any device ever I know that sounds like hyperbole but it's not I really I really feel that way it's an unbelievable phone and and I love how how the edges of the phone are rounded off like when you're swiping and stuff on like mail box and stuff it just kind of like yeah it's like it's like you just your finger just floats off the phone floats off the phone there's not a single edge on this thing and the buttons are so wonderfully clicky can you hear it I'm doing it right now hear it yeah you can hear it there you go so I guess it's just me you guys love your phones and well I think problem for a lot of people I think the six actually is the best phone for most people cuz I do think the 6 Plus is just kind of like enormously huge so I think unless you're willing to like make some compromises I think most people should go with the six I agree and we've talked about this on previous shows I it's not a phone for everyone I really don't believe that I the six is a great phone I think it's probably suited for most people the six plus Buster you said this before and I totally agree now that I've been using this for a week is this phone isn't a tablet and it's not a phone either it's a whole new device and I'm kind of learning how to interact with it right now um and so far I really like the experience but it's it's been a little bumpy what well you know one of the things I think they might do is uh look at making I changing iOS for bigger screens I think so too yeah I think yeah creating a whole new user experience for a larger screen yeah I think that's a great idea yeah I think sorry well no go on bu I just think they need some different tools for the six plus like you have all this like extra pixels like 2 million more pixels or something but it just all the same tools are there and so I don't think it really takes advantage of like the big display as much as it could I don't either I don't either you know what's going to be interesting all the jailbreakers I'd love to see some jailbreakers do like especially if they're taking cuys from the Apple watch like I thought the Apple watch UI looked gorgeous and like you know the old grid of um icons it would be cool if you if you had a if you had like a much more responsive um icon grid that was that you could move around you know with your thumb at the bottom and pull icons down towards you like the Apple watch yeah possibly even one that uh intelligently adapts to like your most used apps and kind of rearranges stuff for you like it looks like the Apple watch kind of does that a little bit I don't know I think that would be useful I'm kind of tired of the uh the the squares on the screen interface now yeah I would love to I I would love to see them become dynamic in some way yeah you know I hate to say this but like the Windows phone does it I obviously don't want it to look like the Windows phone but that functionality is a good idea yeah live tile so they're a little bit more Dynamic yeah ex it's expansive you you know you have like four different options for each app you know I think that would be great and give developers the option to build functionality in into their icons so they can you know have them do something instead of just be you know a pretty static picture yeah of the icon itself um so there you go uh for those of you who have been asking about my iPhone 6 Plus but wait before we move on the camera on this phone is Gorge unbelievable so we've had with hearts on U famous instagrammer I've been noticing his pictures um have just taken they've been they've been taken to a whole new level and the D dnamic range on them has increased which is the ability to show um you know different shades of light in one picture without something being too dark and something else being too bright and his pictures have just gotten creamier so I I pinged him and I'm like hey you know you're using the six plus how do you like like it and he was just like yeah it's an unbelievable camera and uh I've been playing around with it and I've noticed the dynamic range on this camera is just unbelievable it's it's the best I've ever seen on a on a phone have you been using the manual controls didn't oh played around a little bit with them but I haven't played around with them a ton Buster what were you going to say have you used uh the app manual no it's uh it gives you like full control of like you know shutter speed ISO aperture everything it's like super awesome app and it works really great with like the six plus cuz you have extra room for like the extra buttons on the screen you know if somebody's looking to like put like the six plus to like the full like Max potential I think you should try that app manual looking at it right now uh two bucks yeah it's I think it's worth it I'm going to try it out I want to have control over the aperture it basically puts like DSLR controls on your iPhone don't some of the other camera apps do that as well though they're probably all building in because it's it's new in iosa right that they can control that stuff yeah this is the first one that I think has really nailed it really well though like all the tools are just right there at your fingertips and everything manual it sounds exactly how or it's spelled exactly how it sounds check it out um before we wrap up guys let's talk about Mark new so you guys kind of made fun of me a little bit and said this is old news which is true it's a it's a couple weeks old but with all the Apple announcements happening we weren't able to really talk about how Apple has hired a new industrial designer and I think this is kind of Def I think it's definitely newsworthy and feel free to pipe in here at any time so Mark news is a famous industrial designer he has been a friend of John I for quite a long time they've collaborated on um some apple projects together they've also more recently collaborated on some project red product designs for Leica cameras and they made a table together or a desk together that they sold at auction for Bono's red charity and they raised like you know millions of dollars and he's recently been hired by Apple and I thought this was really cool because speaking of Steve Jobs since we were talking about in this episode so he was kind of Johnny IV's collaborator and you know Leander you feel free to to add any additional information here since you wrote both the books about Steve Jobs and Johnny I but you know Steve Jobs was famously very involved in product creation and I know that Tim Cook said in that New York Times um article that they wrote about him that he really wasn't so much involved in the day-to-day creation of new products that's not really his Forte and it seemed to me like Johnny has been operating for the last three years without that counterpart in design and if that were me I think that that would be really tough you know you're used to collaborating with someone and he you know passes away and you don't have that partner anymore and now he has Mark new with him I think this could be really big for Apple right I think it's I think it's a super interesting Theory and I think um you know the TR is that they haven't really given any insight into how how they're working together and in fact Apple today I mean they were the European press was trying to ask Mark news what he was you know what Apple hide him to do and what he's been working on and the PR department was keeping really tight um uh rain on him and and tight leash and and and refusing and not letting him answer any questions like are you working on the Apple watch well I'm afraid I can't say that well what are you working on well I can't really say that either you know so um uh you know he it's difficult to know exactly in what capacity he's been working I was pretty sure that he's been working on the watch I mean Killian did a great gallery of all the det of how the Apple watch was very much like new's watch designs over the years and all the straps uh you know new some designed for what was it called icopod which is his Swiss watch company so he'd already solved a whole bunch of design problems oh so you think that he was already very involved on the Apple watch Project yeah he's been working on it for more than a year so you think this just kind of cemented it it's like okay he's already been working here let's just make it official yeah a lot of the the Apple watch details look like some of his icopod uh designs too mhh right yeah yeah yeah exactly and I think you know he has experience in a whole bunch of different products he has a ton of fashion experience um he's a really good public you know figurehead he's a good person to help sort of share those kind of you know design PR duties with with Johnny who who who I know isn't for you know who's is uncomfortable with that kind of stuff like you know going out into public and telling the story I mean I talk to a couple of the designers of the upper watch event and you know I was trying to get them to to you know to to tell me about the mark new some high and what they said was you know that they they were super busy they've got more projects than ever this watch thing is a massive massive project and they needed the extra help and they just need and I was like really what it's that simple you know you just you know they they they just needed extra bodies you know to to come in there and somebody um Mark is somebody that Johnny knows and trusts they have exactly the same Aesthetics the same design sense you can tell they get along very well too like anytime you see them talking together you can tell they're very close with one another right yeah exactly you know they and they say that in all these interviews in fact it's kind of weird you know the that he like had his hand on like Mark's thigh really high and I was like that seems odd and like you know Mark was playing with Johnny's head the whole time like stroking his head like Oh weird well Bono was in some who was it vany far I think did an interview today a profile and Bono was quoted saying they they not only finish each other's sentences they finish each other's food and then they Giggle and they and they're like stop it I know it's um yeah it is a little bit it is a bit strange you know like like two TN but apparently they are like that they're like two you know sort of design servants that like yeah cojin twins you know they they have exactly the same sensibility so you know I like that theory about you know like with jobs and being IES um you know collaborative I mean Johnny actually I think is more important as the team that that he works with the industrial designers are like 18 or 20 22 now you know I think team was was was as important if not more important than his collaboration with jobs I think what jobs did was enable the design team in within Apple that he made them the most powerful group in in the room you know he made them uh lead the product development and push stuff through that they wanted to get done you know that the engineers and the and the people who who worked in the factories and stuff like that said no no we can't do that it's too crazy you know it was jobs that kicked down the doors and you know put his boot on their neck and made then do that quite literally yeah and Chang app's culture I mean of course he had he had a lot of um input into into particular design decisions and he would make a lot he'd make a lot of design decisions with Johnny but you know the impression I got was that Johnny didn't show him anything that he didn't want him to choose you know so he was always a little bit leading you know jobs but that's how jobs worked I mean jobs was involved in not just the industrial design but also the software design the marketing you know that he he he poured over every single detail of that company and so his he had back-to-back meetings and all the meetings were super tightly scheduled they have an agenda of all these different things that had to show jobs and he liked to see things in threes you know he'd like to see three Alternatives so if they were working on like new buttons he wanted to see three versions of of of the button they were going to you know make it uh choose and he would choose one of them you know so in a certain sense I mean they never put you know the designers have already kind of made decisions about what to show Steve you know and and he would make the final decision and they'd often have an argument about it so you know what I mean it's like he had a super super important his role was so you know it's it's kind of strange it's like you know he had a he he had a very important role but but you know without a replacement there you know how that it functions without him is is still an open question I think you know yeah of course people are saying with the Apple watch that you know there are very much signs that that that Innovation is still alive and well at at at Apple without Steve and I tend to agree with that we'll have to see when it comes out I mean it looks like an amazing product and I think they m the messaging a little bit because the introduction was like it does this and it does this and it does this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this yeah you know so we'll see you know like it's obviously it's a platform like the iPhone and its potential is vast you know you're right sorry go ahead well just that you know and I think that you know sleep was very disciplined in when he introduced the iPhone he said like it's a great phone it's a great iPod and it's a great internet you know communic Ator it's a what did he say a breakthrough internet communication device something like that yeah but then it was like you know he showed browsing and he showed um messaging but not that much more you know and of course the app hadn't come out yet but I mean you know I if he he he he was very disciplined in what he showed people and so it's very clear what the iPhone was about because he narrowed in on just a couple of things yeah I think Buster and I talked about this last show and it was kind of it was kind of muddled actually maybe it was was a couple shows when you were on uh ago leer it was like the whole presentation felt a little bit muddled so we just don't know what the Apple watch is going to do right how much it's gonna cost we just know that battery is or yeah I mean Johnny IV and Mark new were showing it off in Paris this this week I love the picture I saw of them standing with Carl lerf um famous designer I hope I said his last name right who who looks like um you know like a total vampire in his like black outfit and he has like this really puffy Lacy uh neck Accent on and his hair is all done and like pulled back and they're showing it off to all these fashion people it's going to be really interesting to me to see how they pric the addition version of the watch because the thing I keep coming back to is you look at a time or a Rolex a Time X look at a Rolex or other expensive watches and they're very intricately made with all the like the the custom gears and everything inside they're very elaborate you know and the Apple watch if they come out and say the addition if it's going to be like 10 grand but it's 10 grand for a piece of technology that's going to be outdated in a year I just don't know how that's going to sit with people I just I don't know if that's a strategy that's going to be successful for them yeah but you're not a person that's no offense that that has just 10 grand to throw around on a worthless watch in the first place so I think people that are buying watches that cost 10 grand like probably don't care care if it's going to be worthless in four years they more care like the statement it makes now but that's my my opinion on it well let me just correct you my bank account has no zeros in it it just happens just so happens that most of them are on the right hand side of the decimal point so you you stand corrected sir sorry my my apologies didn't mean to assult insult your bank account you're right as a man who only has $300 to his name I don't think I'll be buying the addition of the ople watch but I I am curious to see how they price it because a $10,000 Apple device just seems kind of wacky to me but again I don't dress as well as Carl lerf and I don't drink human blood so and I don't love to count one two all right guys let's go ahead and wrap it up there stick around for the Steve Jobs Commencement Address we're going to be broadcasting that in just a sec hey go check out very desk get up off your butt cheeks and start standing during your workday lose some weight feel better check them out at very desk.com V rid dk.com and please be sure to enter cultcast in the how did You Hear About Us section that's all the cultcast we have for you guys this week new episode of the cultcast come out every Thursday night I want to thank everyone for listening and we'll see you guys next week as usual nothing unexpected Co yeah long that's pretty good though this Pro program is brought to you by Stanford University please visit us at stanford.edu thank you I'm uh honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world truth be told uh I never graduated from college and uh this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation today I want to tell you three stories from my life that's it no big deal just three stories the first story is about connecting the dots I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months but then stayed around as a drop in for another 18 months or so before I really quit so why' I drop out it started before I was born my biological mother was a young unwed graduate student and she decided to put me up for adoption she felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates so everything was all set for me to be adopted at Birth by a lawyer and his wife except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl so my parents who were on a waiting list got a call in the middle of the night asking we've got an unexpected baby boy do you want him they said of course my biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school she refused to sign the final adoption papers she only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to to college this was the start in my life and 17 years later I did go to college but I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford and all of my workingclass parents savings were being spent on my college tuition after 6 months I couldn't see the value in it I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how College was going to help me figure it out and here I was spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life so I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay it was pretty scary at the time but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made the minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting it wasn't all romantic I didn't have a dorm room so I slept on the floor in friends rooms I returned Coke bottles for the 5-cent deposits to buy food with and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the harri Krishna Temple I loved it and much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be Priceless later on let me give you one example Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country throughout the campus every poster every label on every drawer was beautifully hand calligraphed because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this I learned about serif and Sans serif type faces about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations about what makes great typography great it was beautiful historical artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture and I found it fascinating none of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life but 10 years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer it all came back to me and we designed it all into the Mac it was the first computer with beautiful typography if I had never dropped in on that single course in college the Mac would have never had multiple type faces or proportionately spaced fonts and since Windows just copy the Mac it's likely that no personal computer would have them if I had never dropped out I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college but it was very very clear looking backwards 10 years later again you can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future you have to trust in something your gut Destiny Life Karma whatever because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference my second story is about love and loss I was lucky I found what I love to do early in life W and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20 we worked hard and in 10 years Apple had grown from Just the Two of Us in a garage into a$2 billion company with over 4,000 employees we just released our finest creation the Macintosh a year earlier and I just turned 30 and then I got fired how can you get fired from a company you started well as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me and for the first year or so things went well but then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out when we did our board of directors sided with him and so at 30 I was out and very publicly out what had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone and it was devastating I really didn't know what to do for a few months I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down that I had dropped the Baton as it was being passed to me I met with David Packard and Bob noise and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the valley but something slowly began to dawn on me I still loved what I did the turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit I'd been rejected but I was still in love and so I decided to start over I didn't see it then but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me the heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again less sure about everything it freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life during the next 5 years I started a company named next another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film Toy Story and is now the most successful Animation Studio in the world in a remarkable turn of events Apple bought next and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed it next is at the heart of Apple's current Renaissance and Loren and I have a wonderful family together I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple it was awful tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it sometime life sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick don't lose faith I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did you've got to find what you love and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work and the only way to do great work is to love what you do if you haven't found it yet keep looking and don't settle as with all matters of the heart you'll know when you find it and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on so keep looking don't settle my third story is about death when I was 17 I read a quote that went something like if you live each day as if it was your last someday you'll most certainly be right it made an impression on me and since then for the past 33 years I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself if today were the last day of my life would I want to do what I am about to do today and whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row I know I need to change something remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life because almost everything all external expectations all Pride all fear of embarrassment or failure these things just fall away in the face of death leaving only what is truly important remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the Trap of thinking you have something to lose you are already naked there is no reason not to follow your heart about a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas I didn't even know what a pancreas was the doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable and that I should expect to live no longer than 3 to 6 months my doctor advised me to go home and get my Affairs in order which is doctor's code for prepare to die it means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months it means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family it means to say your goodbyes I live with that diagnosis all day later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope scope down my throat through my stomach and into my intestines put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor I was sedated but my wife who was there told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctor started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery I had the surgery and thankfully I'm fine now this was the closest I've been to facing death and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades having lived through it I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept no one wants to die even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there and yet death is the destination we all share no one has ever escaped it and that is as it should be because death is very likely the single best invention of life it's life's change agent it clears out the old to make way for the new right now the new is you but someday not too long from now you will gradually become the old and be cleared away sorry to be so dramatic but it's quite true 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 when I was young there was an amazing publication called the whole earth catalog which was one of the Bibles of my generation it was created by a fellow named Stuart brand not far from here in Meno Park and he brought it to life with his poetic touch this was in the late 60s before personal computers and desktop publishing so it was all made with typewriters scissors and Polaroid cameras it was sort of like Google in paperback form 35 years before Google came along it was idealistic overflowing with neat tools and great Notions Stewart and his team put out several issues of the whole earth catalog and then when it had run its course they put out a final issue it was the mid1 1970s and I was your age on the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning Country Road the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so ad adventurous beneath it were the words stay hungry stay foolish it was their farewell message as they signed off stay hungry stay foolish and I have always wished that for myself and now as you graduate to begin a new I wish that for you stay hungry stay foolish thank you all very much the proceeding program is copyrighted by Stanford University please visit us at stanford.eduum I got back to Apple along with several other people uh two and a half years ago uh what we found was uh a great company that needed a little bit of help and um during this time I've been the interim CEO but I'm uh pleased to announce today that I'm going to drop the interim title hello and welcome to the cast the best 30 plus minute Apple conversation you're going to hear all week long my name is arifan Elijah and I'm joined by two to three of the sexiest members of the international ribboning dance troop Leander kany is here welcome Leander the ribboning leader himself uh Buster K is here Buster good good afternoon and at any moment at any moment Alex exceler Heath will be joining us he is busy restarting his router cuz his audio sounded like poop so he'll be joining in any moment welcome to the cult cast everybody lots of stuff to talk about this week we're going to be talking about Steve Jobs hit the uh anniversary of his death is October 5th can you guys believe it's already been almost three years it feels like it just happened um so I would thought we would start with a cool little uh bit about him and uh how he helped train out to deal with situations like benate which has been crazier than I think anyone has ever expected and uh we're also going to be talking about another new addition to Apple and I finally have my hands on an iPhone 6 Plus and I've been using it for a week and I want to give you guys uh my uh Impressions and I want to hear what you guys think now that you've been using yours for a couple weeks now uh before we hop into the show though I want to thank back Blaze for supporting this episode back Blaze Online Backup five bucks a month it's MACC native unlimited unthrottled uncomplicated setup takes about one minute and you can try it for free at back blaze.com cultcast here's the thing about back Blaze Leander I know you use it I've been using it for quite a while it's just totally uncomplicated you you get it set up the app works great on your Mac because it's built for a Mac and there's no throttling they don't measure your you can back up whatever you want your computer hard drive your external hard drives as many hard drives as you have laying around the house you can back it all up and it's only $5 a month five bucks a month for unlimited backup can you believe it stop me Leander stop me it's offsite and it's and like I say it's dead easy it's um it's really I've been paying for it for a couple of years and it's been great yeah it it you know like it's it's a super it's cheap for the pieace of Mind exactly exactly and I always tell people if you're not backing up you're dingling right I that should be back that should be back blaz this new new model you're dingling if you don't back up because if something goes wrong if your friend comes over to your house Buster and sits on your Mac with his big ARS cheeks and breaks it in half you're screwed you're screwed you you need to have your data backed up offsite and I even have a time machine backup that I have uh at my house but I don't even do just that because guess what house could burn down if a crook breaks in and steals my time machine there goes my backup you got to have a plan to keep your data safe all your pictures that you have all your work items that you have head on over to back blaze.com try it out for free they'll give you a two-e free trial they don't even need your credit card number and it's a totally unlimited trial it's just like the real product that you would pay for I want to thank back Blaze for supporting this episode hey did we just lose someone I don't know oh we lost Alex okay okay we're going to do it without Alex okay which quite honestly would be my personal preference God thank God h i called Comcast and asked if they could throttle his connection so we could do it without him they happily obliged yeah um so let's just jump right into it guys since Alex isn't going to be here it's been three years since Steve Jobs passed away it was October 5th 2011 and with all the benate stuff stuff happening lately I thought this was an interesting story so a former Apple ad guy Ken seagull who we've had on the show before uh he wrote A Blog a blog post about how Steve Jobs constructed Apple to deal with situations like Ben gate which by the way was it not totally I mean did it not blow up even more hugely than any of us expected that video that uh Lewis help tger posted is close to 49 million views right now can you guys believe it I mean it's like one of the biggest videos on YouTube so I want to read you this little blurb from Ken seagull about how how Apple deals with stuff like this and how Steve Jobs prepped the company to deal with situations like this he says if you're familiar with this blog you've probably heard me talk about the importance of Steve the importance Steve Jobs placed on getting customers to love apple he wanted every part of the customer experience to strengthen that love from the advertis to the inore experience to the unboxing to enjoying the product and getting support when needed and by doing so he ensured that customers would a buy more stuff B evangelize to others I'm guilty on both these and C stick with apple when unforeseen problems arise he understood that such things were inevitable even for a company like apple and I thought about what Ken wrote here and I think it's very true I have a love for apple as a company and I would guess correct me if I'm wrong that you guys share that at least to some degree where we kind of have this implicit trust to them and when there's a problem like this I mean I go right to their defense but I don't feel like it's a blind love which is something we get accused of a lot from people who are fans of Android and Windows like I feel like I love Apple because they create an excellent customer experience excellent products even the packaging is great Leander what do you think yeah well you know people say that you know um we're members of a cult and uh you're talking about apple right right yeah exactly well we play it up as a as a joke you know it's the oldest cliche in the book about Apple you know apple apple uses Apple Fans she mindless yeah mindless zombies will buy and anything take and takes these word which I think is horse crap I don't think that's true at all there's elements of it I think you know there's definitely there's a little bit of you know fire there to go with the smoke I think that's you know some people can people can get really irrational about this stuff and it is has a sort kind of religious sort of well the feelings people are very very strongly um connected to their devices and they CH the platform and you can just definitely see this when you get into a conversation with Android users you know and and when um they debate the differences you know and but you know for for a thing like Ben gate though I think you know like Lewis I mean stoked that far there was there was a thing on Mac rumors and then he made this video and it was like oh my god look it it he made it look like it was really easy to do this and um you know it it really did take that was like Consumer Reports jumping in into the antenna Gate scandal I mean Apple stock price dropped 2% right after that whole thing went live I mean this was this was Global News oh absolutely yeah but you know as but but you know the funny thing is it it's a media phenomenon right it's a media storm and they Apple gets built up it benefits it benefited from this insane attention to the iPhone 6 rumors and the launch and then um you know whenever it's inevitable there's always a problem there's been a problem with every single Apple product going back you know as far as I can remember to you know the original Mac the original Mac was called a toy it was like a Fisher Price toy and the tech press you know dismissed it as a as this ridiculous um toy likee computer that wasn't suitable for real work and then you know the iPod it was the the the um the fact that you couldn't replace the battery the first iPhone was the fact that you couldn't replace the battery the iMac was because it didn't have a floppy Drive remember that people said that the iMac was doomed no one would buy the iMac because it didn't have a floppy drive in it right that was the that was the Ben gate for the iMac that was and I remember that distinctly that was a huge mainstream story because the iMac got so much attention you know in the buildup to it when it was launched and they were like oh look at this crazy Jetson's computer and then the Press picked up you know a week later on the fact that it you know that it was it was it was basically a doomed a beautiful but doomed product just just like Marilyn Monroe jeez did they say that so yeah that's mean and it's been for every major product since then there's always been some huge problem but this one definitely went you know massively globally viral but I think that has a lot to do with the interest in the product itself I mean you know the iPhone 6 is a massive Global product the biggest product that's been launched all year maybe for you know since the last iPhone I mean I think that might be true yeah what are the products even though you know uh cars don't get this attention nothing else gets this kind of attention I can't think of anything even you you know like this is why you two is like trying to Hitch their wagon to it I mean it used to be cultural products right movies games games maybe so um yeah I would argue that games still do that to a certain level but not nearly as big as this product was no movies don't it used to be movies and it used to be albums right you know like the Beatles album whatever or the latest um album from whatever you know Beyonce right so maybe Beyonce gets this kind of attention but I you know it's right it's I think it's bigger than that for sure oh I do too people lining up people didn't line up for Beyonce's album I would say the the last thing that I remember being this big was that Robin thick cut um I can't remember I can't remember lines yeah but that's a great example that's a great analogy because that was also accompanied by huge controversy wasn't it yeah because they had that model in it or they had they did that music video where all the girls were topless right and actually didn't even realize for many many weeks and that that was why that song had gotten uh so popular of course it's it's a sweet cut I mean there's that there's that too right let me take us back to the whole idea of blinded Apple love because this this is what really always annoys me when people talk about how Apple Fans are sheep which I think I I think is bull I think that we're very Discerning of things of high quality and value and we're willing to pay a higher price for things that um you know deliver in those two areas and I don't think that we just buy whatever Apple releases I consider myself a very Discerning it consumer if something sucks I won't purchase it I don't care if Apple releases it I don't care if Microsoft releases it um you know may I have a little bit of blindness towards Apple yeah I think that I probably do I might trust them a little bit more I might more willingly go into an Impulse purchased on an Apple product but I feel like the reason I love their products so much is because they're they're they're always such of consistent high quality that I'm like okay I know that I'm going to get something that I really like and I'm not just buying it cuz Apple put puts craps it out and I'm like okay here's another thousand bucks thanks Apple yeah I don't believe in what to that that's all just rationalizing your you know your your brand loyalty no no no because even even the even the Apple watch I and Buster you and I have had this conversation I think even on the show like I'm going to buy one but I am apprehensive about it because I still don't know what the purpose of this product is and why I should want to wear one but I am still going to buy one sing and you just done exactly what you said you won't do M said you were gonna buy one and then you said I don't think I really need it and I don't really know what I'm going to use it for but I'm going to figure that out afterwards okay but hold on I'm doing this because we're on a podcast we need to we need to have experience with the watch if I wasn't on this show I would probably not purchase it and I would listen to somebody else's podcast who had bought one and was reviewing it right okay so there you go I let someone else waste the money I've done this loads of times like I remember that I bought a Macbook you know years ago and and and I did it on the quiet I put on this like credit card that we barely use and I was thinking oh my God what am I'm gonna tell Tracy hit me with a frying P I like that you're telling the story on the podcast by the way yeah so then I was like oh I know you know like I'm supposed to be writing a book so I'll tell her I had to buy it so I could work on the book at a cafe right because we didn't have any Portables we didn't have a notebook at the time so I turned out this whole rationalization and then I sort of like came to believe it myself and then that became the reason I bought it when really I just did it because I was lusting after it I was drooling over it I just wanted it and immediately it was a total you know super expensive impulse but I just had to have it which which uh MacBook was it I you know it was probably one of the early like the G4S or something no they were they were too pricey it was like I think one of the first like um uh you know um aluminum MacBooks MacBooks I don't even remember oh yeah those things were yeah it was like a power book it was so hot those things sexy as hell yeah I just had the hearts for it so bad was like cheating on Tracy it was like I really I had impure thoughts about it I really really really uh and I had to keep it secret it was like a you know like you were having an affair yeah right yeah and then I had to f up all these reasons afterwards to try to you know to explain it to rationalize it but I definitely like that you know like the minute I see the new iPhone I just you know I I I got to have it and then I rationalized afterwards all the reasons why I need it I need the bigger screen I got L te but those are those I know this they're rationalizations they it's like uh it's like why we always end up buying the bigger phone like the like the six plus we talked about in previous shows how we were all we we were like we we don't have a choice we know we're going to get the six plus even though it's more expensive even though it's it's bigger and we don't think we necessarily need the big screen we have to have it because Apple says it's the best that they make so that's that's all we have to buy yeah I had you know like I used to uh people should some friends had a Samsung you know I remember when one guy showed me a Samsung and I was like uh first time I'd seen a big screen phone like that now oh my God I really had um you know screen Envy real bad uhuh but you know then you turn it over and it's kind of clunky and it's ugly as all hack and it has like that fake that fake stitching in the plastic itself to make it look like leather yeah you know it was just it was and and and and immediately you know my interest in it just just was you know like it was I didn't like it at all it was it put me off it was you know it was it was repulsive exactly it has like the appearance of of high quality and then you go to use it my friend was just showing me his uh Galaxy Notes and has a huge screen same exact impression that you have I started playing around with it I looked at the UI and the UI was hideous absolutely hideous there were icons puked all over this thing it had no it had no discernable style it was just a bunch of hodg podge of icons dumped onto one screen it was just a totally different experience right but and but what's important is you're a otal reaction right and you go from oh that's interesting to this kind of you know yeah I was disgusted I was like get this away from me pushed it at him I know you sound like the worst kind of apple snar but you are we both are we are we're exactly what you know why you know you know why we we don't go for Android devices cuz we have impeccable taste we have impeccable taste and I think that people that really love Apple stuff share that value yeah right we have very high quality standards and and you see this you see this if you go down the Apple Store everyone is fondling the products it's kind of gross because you imagine all those goodies on well especially when you use that word gez yeah but even with the MacBooks and stuff like that you know like people don't just sit there and type on it they're picking it up and they're caressing the thing yeah it's very very um tactile and um physical you know there's definitely this kind of physical um you know it has to have that physical ATT and I think that's what Apple has brought to his products forever is that is that physical attractiveness that that that kicks in that emotive you know lust Factor the drool you know that the the the got to Habit this insane kind of crazy like being in love you can't eat you can't sleep all you can think about is that new Macbook you know what's funny is I I can I can actually say with all honesty I have had that feeling about several Apple products it's like when you're touching it and you you're F you're filled with like this sense of Desire it's kind of weird but it's very true and I remember my first uh Power book that I ever had that's exactly how I felt in fact I felt so strongly that way that I ended up writing a blog post about it to express myself I probably wrote like some poetry about it or something it's probably it's probably around here somewhere yeah but you're very right that's exactly what what a response I have to these devices right it's like falling in love it's very very emotional emotional and that's what a lot of te companies I mean the only other people that do this are like fashion companies and car companies people have these feelings about cars but not about any other technology I don't think I can't think of anything anyway I kind of get the same sense of uh of that same sense of Amore when I when I'm around BMWs like really nice BMWs like I feel like they have that same kind of fashion sense to them right so do I but you know what you know what though I can't stand BMW drivers you know you're not the first person that has said that to me why is that cuz I'm thinking about becoming one too I love cars I just can't bear to become one of those people you mean extremely elitist and kind of snobby I'm I'm sure that wouldn't happen to us say things like they have impeccable taste on public podcast hey I was joking wink wink I was totally kidding yeah wink wink wink Um well hey before we move on I just want to say in honor of Steve Jobs passing away we did this last year uh we're going to do again this year I have um gotten permission to broadcast his 2005 commencement address from um Stanford University it's I think probably one of his best talks that I've heard and I've listened to a lot of Steve Job talks it's right after he had found out that he had cancer and at the time he thought that he had been cured of cancer and just a really remarkable talk where he talks about what's important to life uh you know his his sense about Apple and things that he's learned from his life life and from building a company so we're going to be broadcasting that talk in its entirety at the very end of the show if you're interested in hearing it do stick around please I listen to it several times a year it's a very inspirational piece of audio for me so I I really love sharing it with people um let's we we already talked about Ben gate a little bit well did Buster have Buster didn't you have some interesting things to say about um how Apple PR handled Ben Gates how they handled it yeah you know by by you know the the um you know first of all saying it was like you know very limited and then inviting the press in to see the testing procedures yeah I didn't have anything interesting to say about it I don't think but I mean about anything unting it interesting how they how about just anything yeah I mean they were very quiet on it for you know like three days and then they did only let you know like maybe five Outlets come in to like see the testing process and everything um but exactly what they did with um the antenna gate though right it was like first minimize it and then show um the Press you know that they that they had already anticipated this stuff or they they try to test for it yeah exactly but I when you look at their test they don't really do necessarily the same kind of test that Lewis did with like the three-point test right at the volume button either so I mean I think there is probably something to be said said about like the cases weakness and I don't think they really addressed like oh here's the structural flaw that everybody seemed to found find you know right there was an interesting post that you did right about where they um there was a weakness of the at the volume buttons or right weakness yeah like the structural reinforcement there like it doesn't you know come past like the volume button so it's just really weak weak at that one spot which is exactly how Lewis was bending it in his video but Apple's machines they kind of bend it more like straight on in the middle so I think to what you're saying Buster I mean Lewis's point was if you bend it in this specific po spot which is you know where where the volume buttons are it has a weakness and and it will bend now whether or not it will bend in your pocket I think is the real question because obviously right smashing it with your thumbs you're going to be able to bend just about anything in your house yeah yeah you if you applying a force like you know his hands are red and you see like those kids going to the Apple Store and breaking them and like they're like shaking trying to break oh my gosh by the way Buster's speaking about the two biggest idiots on Earth they are they are the biggest idiots on Earth I think they went into an Apple store but before they did now me and my friend Danny what's going on man yo what's up man yeah basically we went into the Apple Store and we actually bent the iPhone 6 plus they broadcasted themselves with their faces and they give their names and they're like we don't believe that these things are going to bend so we're going to go and improve it and they go into an Apple store and start bending the iPhones in the store and then they posted the video on YouTube Just So defiantly and then they're just like oh well it's Apple's fault at these beds yes and they said it was Apple's fault Ian they're teenagers they're going to learn you just can't you can't film yourself on YouTube I'm sure there tons of people doing that over the weekends you know just go just tested it a little bit Yeah there probably were but they weren't they weren't uh so ingenious as to broadcast their face and their first and last names and then post it on YouTube I mean they did like $2,500 worth of damage those two idiots did I didn't I didn't actually watch the video but they didn't get nicked they didn't get security didn't clamp a big meaty pole on their shoulders I don't think so Apple the Apple store policy is pretty nonivasive like you're not supposed to you know kick people out from what I understand talking to former Geniuses unless you know like there's a Ser destroying they destroying equipment unless there's fire involved they just let it they just let it go oh mad yeah because we were done at the Apple Store at the weekend and the guy said y yeah everyone's coming in they're trying to bend it but they're not doing it seriously they're just sort of you know gently flexing it if they can I cannot show my iPhone to somebody without them asking if it's bent every single person I've showed it to is asked me that question it's unbelievable people that didn't even know that apple had released a new iPhone are asking me that question my mom asked me that question you know my mom may not even know have have ever heard what an iPhone was and yet she's asking me if it's if it's if I've had any problems with it bending I mean this video I so I've been talking to Lou kind of um on and off ever since this whole thing happened and my impression is I mean he's just as surprised as anyone else this video has gotten like 50 million views and he was on every major national you know press program and it's it sucks to see that people are kind of churning on him now and kind of calling him a fraud for doing this my personal belief is I think he was just following his nose he saw there might have been a problem he decided to test it and he you know he's got good instincts and he made a video and and you know the video exploded I don't think he was doing anything to to make money there's no way you could architect a video this big like yeah there's just no way so I think that he he's on to something I think there probably is a legitimate problem in in a very small case of situations and uh we're going to be talking about the iPhone 6 in just a sec because now that I have one and um I'm using it in my pockets and stuff I can definitely see if you have skinny jeans or you have pockets that are not like Mom jean size uh forgive apologies forgiveness all the mom Jean wearing there hey what do you hey sorry Leander I know that you love mom jeans cuz you love comfort and that's fine but if you're not wearing those jeans then the the phone definitely sits in your pocket in kind of a weird way in fact I've kind of noticed that I often just don't even want to keep it in my pocket because it's just too huge actually before we hop into that so I want to talk about my Impressions with iPhone 6 Plus and I want to hear what you guys think now that you've been using it for a couple weeks before we do that I want to thank very desk for supporting this episode that's V ies.com Buster you and I talked about varesk before they make these really Nifty standup desks that you can use on top of your existing desk and they're completely adjustable and you can lift them from a sitting position to a standing position in just about 3 seconds I am a standing desk convert I'm I understand this totally genuinely authentically I think that moving to a standing desk is probably one of the best decisions I've ever made in my entire life um you know when you sit all day long you just get lethargic it your metabolism slows way down you turn into a big old chunk and you just don't feel good and you know in in today's modern age when you're sitting down a lot it's it's really good to stand up stretch you know and get some exercise but the great thing about standing desks is they increase your metabolism and they help you burn calories even when you're not doing anything really active just by the act of standing you are burning far more calories than you would be sitting down and you do get tired which is one of the reasons why you want it to be adjustable and why it's great that very desk adjusts so fast because eventually your legs are going to get tired your calves are going going to get tired and you're going to want to sit down you don't want to be standing all day that's going to be kind of excessive but when you do that you're definitely going to notice an improvement I mean I have way more energy now I've have lost some weights I mean I was already in pretty much perfect shape before Buster you know that but my my sixpack ABS have transformed into eight pack abs now D and my biceps are just even more delineated in my arms and and I just look I look great I wish I I should post a picture of myself online so you guys can see but I count that hugely to to switching to a standing desk yeah right cool we saw one at Cs and they were I was really impressed you know the key is to keep you moving right so keeps on uh it it it makes us you know stand up if you've been sitting down for exct set so it'll it'll it'll make you stand up and it's not you know it's not all standing all the time because that's actually kind of hard when I started standing up I found it like you know I felt like a you know some poor shop girl um you know with really bad varicose veins and and it was just killing me it took me a couple of weeks to get to get used to it um it wasn't actually that Pleasant to begin with so the very desk you know eases you into that because it allows you to sort of sit for a while but then it makes you stand up want doing sitting all the time is it that's or standing all the time yeah you don't want to do either really because either one is not healthy you kind of want to mix it up and I've gotten to a point now where when I sit too long I notice you know I start to get antsy and then when I stand too long my my calves start hurting so um in any case VAR desk is great because most Denny desks are like $1,500 plus dollars VAR desks start at 275 you don't need a ton of space like a normal desk because you can just use it on your existing desk go check it out at varidesk.com VA a rides.com they have four models that you can choose from and uh if you decide to make a purchase I know some of you out there have because you've been tweeting me about about them um please use the code uh cultcast in the how did You Hear About Us section so they know that we sent you guys um that helps us and um we'll make them hopefully you know continue sponsoring the show so we want to thank vares for their support Buster breathing into that mic oh shoot let me get away from it my bad you were doing that earlier too I was like oo someone's tired too much standing time to take a seat Buster too much fa desk um so guys let me ask you this I've got my giant surfboard here AKA my six plus and I'll be honest I'm a weak in with it and people have been asking me what I think and I kind of compare it to dancing with a supermodel it's a great experience it's very beautiful but she's taller than me and the whole thing's a little awkward and I'm not really sure where to put put my hands I'm a little embarrassed that she's so much taller than me that's kind of my experience with the 6 Plus so far it's it's a great phone I love it but it's so huge I can barely fit into my pocket and because the the edges are so round I find that I that I have a hard time picking it up off flat surfaces cuz the phone is kind of heavy and there's nothing to really to grab on to it's just like so it's so round um sounds like a cervix A lot I can't believe it's so round it's like out there I mean gross got back so round and big I'll be serious Buster I mean just look at it too much baller I like big okay um are you guys feeling this way are you guys sharing my sentiment here I I felt a little bit of that like the first two days cuz it's a little awkward and here's the thing is I feel like the iPhone 6 Plus is a two-handed device so it is a two-handed device differently than your iPhone 5s and like after two weeks I have has it been two weeks yet almost I I I don't think I would go back to like the 5S size ever again it's just like way too tiny like what about like what about the six would you consider going back to the six or you are you sold like you love the i' consider it but I think Apple needs to do is not necessarily uh Chang the size of the screen I think they need to get rid of the uh the bezel slim it down a little bit because I went to Best Buy over the weekend and held like uh the LG 5.5 in screen and one of the uh Samsungs and they're like just a little bit smaller not as thin but you know uh not as tall as the iPhone 6 I think that would help a little bit think you're absolutely right yeah and the screen is I mean there's a good inch on top of the screen you know on both sides they could definitely shrink that down it's going to be edge to edge the screen is going to be edge to edge yeah I think that is what they need to do well L what do you what do you think I mean do you ever feel like is it is it too big for you I mean I kind of find like I I can never feel like it's secure in my hand I'm always worried I'm going to drop it like Buster said there's no way you can use this thing one-handed I mean I find FaceTime calls to be a little awkward what do you think no no you can totally use it one hand um because I got like unnaturally long Chicken F you must have mutant hands because I have big hands too it's you got to get used to it like you know the way you normally you know you've got to it if you use it one hand it tends to get a bit unbalanced right because it's it sticks at the top so you've got to kind of move your hand you got to move it down your hand so that it's it's it's balanced in it um and but you can totally use it one hand I use it one hand all the time I mean you can't you know it's not like uh you sometimes you have to hold it to go to the far left corner with your other hand but you can do a lot of things onehanded especially if you're using you know reachability feature yeah and the reachability just to reach those furthest icons but you know a lot of a lot of the action goes on at the bottom of the screen anyway so I found I can use it one handed I did have to adjust the grip a little bit and get used to that get used to the size so I think it's you know it's kind of like a muscle memory thing it's just you know it's like playing tennis with a bigger racket or whatever like a giant clown racket you know I've got used to it like like Buster says and now the older phones seem ridiculously small I know my five seems like a child's toy right I know it's funny and then plus you know the pocket thing I mean I I you know I guess I don't wear the Titus jeans any longer but uh I I've been keeping it in my back pocket and every single day I sit on it in the car or on the couch wow and I go oh no my fat 200 pound ass is just of pure muscle has probably damaged my phone is what you think you know and I get that horrible sinking feeling and I quickly panick reach for it uh and because it's totally fine and I you know I feel like an idiot because I do this every single day and it's like oh my god when am I ever going to like you know uh learn not to do this but I'm so used to keeping in my back pocket but but you know I don't think I think the whole bent thing is overblown because I sell it pretty hard like a couple times in the car um and the car's kind of low down you know so you know when you get in you kind of fall in yeah and then whack down on the thing and uh it hasn't of course I'm sitting on a seat right I'm not sitting on a wall or anything hard um the seats you know has some think it has anything to do with like how maybe spongy and Mal malleable your rear end cheeks might be so they just totally conform yeah it's like pressing it between two giant soft pillows exactly it's like trying to press on it from both sides with a pillow and trying to bend it that might have something to do with Buster you you do you keep the phone in your pocket cuz here's the other thing that I have kind of um been thinking about so the phone is so big and so heavy that I find that when it's in my pocket I notice and it's heavier than my last phone is so I I feel like it's pulling my pants down so and then and then my pants are going to come down in front of all the kids and they're all going to laugh at me wores don't invest in the belt you know honestly I have I've had I have had start I can't I can't speak I have started wearing a belt more often because of that exact problem and you can get one of those belt holsters for the iPhone 6 Plus really cool at the mall and stuff yeah I even know that was an option I think I might need to look into that maybe you should get some milk and Mindy suspenders too you get a wardrobe mil function so the problem here is myard yanked down but Buster I find that I don't want to carry it in my pocket because it's so big and you know when you don't carry in your pocket you don't get the advantage of the motion co-processor tracking your steps because it's not with you so like the health app can't really track your steps as well because you're not carrying the phone are you you carrying this phone in your pocket as much as you wear your last phone uh like when I'm in my house I usually kind of set it on the desk and to there and that's but that's cool and I think once the Apple watch comes out I think it kind of solves a lot of it will solve a lot of like the portability problems with like the 6 Plus where like the 6 Plus will just be like your main portable computer that you leave everywhere and then your I watch or Apple watch will be how you interact with it you know I think it actually might be an apple conspiracy theory like they released a phone that was so big that they knew you were going to have to buy an accessory device to actually use your phone cuz you're never going to have it with you so they released the Apple watch so that you could actually do all the things on your wrist that you were not doing on your phone anymore because it was never actually in your pocket yeah I I don't have a problem carrying it in the pocket though you know so uh and when it's in your pocket do you ever when you sit down and stuff do you ever notied that's there cuz I'll be honest I can barely put my socks on cuz when I lift my leg up this freaking thing presses into my junk area and it doesn't feel very nice so I have to like bend over like a grandpa and put my socks on maybe you should put your phone on last first hey don't tell me how to dress although is that the way Apple recommends cuz actually I think that's in the iPhone 6 Plus user manual please put socks on first before putting phone in pocket I never really noticed it I mean well I do notice it but I just don't let it bother I guess well I got to say out of all that um the phone is sexy so sexy display is just amazing the display is the best display I have ever seen on any device ever I know that sounds like hyperbole but it's not I really I really feel that way it's an unbelievable phone and and I love how how the edges of the phone are rounded off like when you're swiping and stuff on like mail box and stuff it just kind of like yeah it's like it's like you just your finger just floats off the phone floats off the phone there's not a single edge on this thing and the buttons are so wonderfully clicky can you hear it I'm doing it right now hear it yeah you can hear it there you go so I guess it's just me you guys love your phones and well I think problem for a lot of people I think the six actually is the best phone for most people cuz I do think the 6 Plus is just kind of like enormously huge so I think unless you're willing to like make some compromises I think most people should go with the six I agree and we've talked about this on previous shows I it's not a phone for everyone I really don't believe that I the six is a great phone I think it's probably suited for most people the six plus Buster you said this before and I totally agree now that I've been using this for a week is this phone isn't a tablet and it's not a phone either it's a whole new device and I'm kind of learning how to interact with it right now um and so far I really like the experience but it's it's been a little bumpy what well you know one of the things I think they might do is uh look at making I changing iOS for bigger screens I think so too yeah I think yeah creating a whole new user experience for a larger screen yeah I think that's a great idea yeah I think sorry well no go on bu I just think they need some different tools for the six plus like you have all this like extra pixels like 2 million more pixels or something but it just all the same tools are there and so I don't think it really takes advantage of like the big display as much as it could I don't either I don't either you know what's going to be interesting all the jailbreakers I'd love to see some jailbreakers do like especially if they're taking cuys from the Apple watch like I thought the Apple watch UI looked gorgeous and like you know the old grid of um icons it would be cool if you if you had a if you had like a much more responsive um icon grid that was that you could move around you know with your thumb at the bottom and pull icons down towards you like the Apple watch yeah possibly even one that uh intelligently adapts to like your most used apps and kind of rearranges stuff for you like it looks like the Apple watch kind of does that a little bit I don't know I think that would be useful I'm kind of tired of the uh the the squares on the screen interface now yeah I would love to I I would love to see them become dynamic in some way yeah you know I hate to say this but like the Windows phone does it I obviously don't want it to look like the Windows phone but that functionality is a good idea yeah live tile so they're a little bit more Dynamic yeah ex it's expansive you you know you have like four different options for each app you know I think that would be great and give developers the option to build functionality in into their icons so they can you know have them do something instead of just be you know a pretty static picture yeah of the icon itself um so there you go uh for those of you who have been asking about my iPhone 6 Plus but wait before we move on the camera on this phone is Gorge unbelievable so we've had with hearts on U famous instagrammer I've been noticing his pictures um have just taken they've been they've been taken to a whole new level and the D dnamic range on them has increased which is the ability to show um you know different shades of light in one picture without something being too dark and something else being too bright and his pictures have just gotten creamier so I I pinged him and I'm like hey you know you're using the six plus how do you like like it and he was just like yeah it's an unbelievable camera and uh I've been playing around with it and I've noticed the dynamic range on this camera is just unbelievable it's it's the best I've ever seen on a on a phone have you been using the manual controls didn't oh played around a little bit with them but I haven't played around with them a ton Buster what were you going to say have you used uh the app manual no it's uh it gives you like full control of like you know shutter speed ISO aperture everything it's like super awesome app and it works really great with like the six plus cuz you have extra room for like the extra buttons on the screen you know if somebody's looking to like put like the six plus to like the full like Max potential I think you should try that app manual looking at it right now uh two bucks yeah it's I think it's worth it I'm going to try it out I want to have control over the aperture it basically puts like DSLR controls on your iPhone don't some of the other camera apps do that as well though they're probably all building in because it's it's new in iosa right that they can control that stuff yeah this is the first one that I think has really nailed it really well though like all the tools are just right there at your fingertips and everything manual it sounds exactly how or it's spelled exactly how it sounds check it out um before we wrap up guys let's talk about Mark new so you guys kind of made fun of me a little bit and said this is old news which is true it's a it's a couple weeks old but with all the Apple announcements happening we weren't able to really talk about how Apple has hired a new industrial designer and I think this is kind of Def I think it's definitely newsworthy and feel free to pipe in here at any time so Mark news is a famous industrial designer he has been a friend of John I for quite a long time they've collaborated on um some apple projects together they've also more recently collaborated on some project red product designs for Leica cameras and they made a table together or a desk together that they sold at auction for Bono's red charity and they raised like you know millions of dollars and he's recently been hired by Apple and I thought this was really cool because speaking of Steve Jobs since we were talking about in this episode so he was kind of Johnny IV's collaborator and you know Leander you feel free to to add any additional information here since you wrote both the books about Steve Jobs and Johnny I but you know Steve Jobs was famously very involved in product creation and I know that Tim Cook said in that New York Times um article that they wrote about him that he really wasn't so much involved in the day-to-day creation of new products that's not really his Forte and it seemed to me like Johnny has been operating for the last three years without that counterpart in design and if that were me I think that that would be really tough you know you're used to collaborating with someone and he you know passes away and you don't have that partner anymore and now he has Mark new with him I think this could be really big for Apple right I think it's I think it's a super interesting Theory and I think um you know the TR is that they haven't really given any insight into how how they're working together and in fact Apple today I mean they were the European press was trying to ask Mark news what he was you know what Apple hide him to do and what he's been working on and the PR department was keeping really tight um uh rain on him and and tight leash and and and refusing and not letting him answer any questions like are you working on the Apple watch well I'm afraid I can't say that well what are you working on well I can't really say that either you know so um uh you know he it's difficult to know exactly in what capacity he's been working I was pretty sure that he's been working on the watch I mean Killian did a great gallery of all the det of how the Apple watch was very much like new's watch designs over the years and all the straps uh you know new some designed for what was it called icopod which is his Swiss watch company so he'd already solved a whole bunch of design problems oh so you think that he was already very involved on the Apple watch Project yeah he's been working on it for more than a year so you think this just kind of cemented it it's like okay he's already been working here let's just make it official yeah a lot of the the Apple watch details look like some of his icopod uh designs too mhh right yeah yeah yeah exactly and I think you know he has experience in a whole bunch of different products he has a ton of fashion experience um he's a really good public you know figurehead he's a good person to help sort of share those kind of you know design PR duties with with Johnny who who who I know isn't for you know who's is uncomfortable with that kind of stuff like you know going out into public and telling the story I mean I talk to a couple of the designers of the upper watch event and you know I was trying to get them to to you know to to tell me about the mark new some high and what they said was you know that they they were super busy they've got more projects than ever this watch thing is a massive massive project and they needed the extra help and they just need and I was like really what it's that simple you know you just you know they they they just needed extra bodies you know to to come in there and somebody um Mark is somebody that Johnny knows and trusts they have exactly the same Aesthetics the same design sense you can tell they get along very well too like anytime you see them talking together you can tell they're very close with one another right yeah exactly you know they and they say that in all these interviews in fact it's kind of weird you know the that he like had his hand on like Mark's thigh really high and I was like that seems odd and like you know Mark was playing with Johnny's head the whole time like stroking his head like Oh weird well Bono was in some who was it vany far I think did an interview today a profile and Bono was quoted saying they they not only finish each other's sentences they finish each other's food and then they Giggle and they and they're like stop it I know it's um yeah it is a little bit it is a bit strange you know like like two TN but apparently they are like that they're like two you know sort of design servants that like yeah cojin twins you know they they have exactly the same sensibility so you know I like that theory about you know like with jobs and being IES um you know collaborative I mean Johnny actually I think is more important as the team that that he works with the industrial designers are like 18 or 20 22 now you know I think team was was was as important if not more important than his collaboration with jobs I think what jobs did was enable the design team in within Apple that he made them the most powerful group in in the room you know he made them uh lead the product development and push stuff through that they wanted to get done you know that the engineers and the and the people who who worked in the factories and stuff like that said no no we can't do that it's too crazy you know it was jobs that kicked down the doors and you know put his boot on their neck and made then do that quite literally yeah and Chang app's culture I mean of course he had he had a lot of um input into into particular design decisions and he would make a lot he'd make a lot of design decisions with Johnny but you know the impression I got was that Johnny didn't show him anything that he didn't want him to choose you know so he was always a little bit leading you know jobs but that's how jobs worked I mean jobs was involved in not just the industrial design but also the software design the marketing you know that he he he poured over every single detail of that company and so his he had back-to-back meetings and all the meetings were super tightly scheduled they have an agenda of all these different things that had to show jobs and he liked to see things in threes you know he'd like to see three Alternatives so if they were working on like new buttons he wanted to see three versions of of of the button they were going to you know make it uh choose and he would choose one of them you know so in a certain sense I mean they never put you know the designers have already kind of made decisions about what to show Steve you know and and he would make the final decision and they'd often have an argument about it so you know what I mean it's like he had a super super important his role was so you know it's it's kind of strange it's like you know he had a he he had a very important role but but you know without a replacement there you know how that it functions without him is is still an open question I think you know yeah of course people are saying with the Apple watch that you know there are very much signs that that that Innovation is still alive and well at at at Apple without Steve and I tend to agree with that we'll have to see when it comes out I mean it looks like an amazing product and I think they m the messaging a little bit because the introduction was like it does this and it does this and it does this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this yeah you know so we'll see you know like it's obviously it's a platform like the iPhone and its potential is vast you know you're right sorry go ahead well just that you know and I think that you know sleep was very disciplined in when he introduced the iPhone he said like it's a great phone it's a great iPod and it's a great internet you know communic Ator it's a what did he say a breakthrough internet communication device something like that yeah but then it was like you know he showed browsing and he showed um messaging but not that much more you know and of course the app hadn't come out yet but I mean you know I if he he he he was very disciplined in what he showed people and so it's very clear what the iPhone was about because he narrowed in on just a couple of things yeah I think Buster and I talked about this last show and it was kind of it was kind of muddled actually maybe it was was a couple shows when you were on uh ago leer it was like the whole presentation felt a little bit muddled so we just don't know what the Apple watch is going to do right how much it's gonna cost we just know that battery is or yeah I mean Johnny IV and Mark new were showing it off in Paris this this week I love the picture I saw of them standing with Carl lerf um famous designer I hope I said his last name right who who looks like um you know like a total vampire in his like black outfit and he has like this really puffy Lacy uh neck Accent on and his hair is all done and like pulled back and they're showing it off to all these fashion people it's going to be really interesting to me to see how they pric the addition version of the watch because the thing I keep coming back to is you look at a time or a Rolex a Time X look at a Rolex or other expensive watches and they're very intricately made with all the like the the custom gears and everything inside they're very elaborate you know and the Apple watch if they come out and say the addition if it's going to be like 10 grand but it's 10 grand for a piece of technology that's going to be outdated in a year I just don't know how that's going to sit with people I just I don't know if that's a strategy that's going to be successful for them yeah but you're not a person that's no offense that that has just 10 grand to throw around on a worthless watch in the first place so I think people that are buying watches that cost 10 grand like probably don't care care if it's going to be worthless in four years they more care like the statement it makes now but that's my my opinion on it well let me just correct you my bank account has no zeros in it it just happens just so happens that most of them are on the right hand side of the decimal point so you you stand corrected sir sorry my my apologies didn't mean to assult insult your bank account you're right as a man who only has $300 to his name I don't think I'll be buying the addition of the ople watch but I I am curious to see how they price it because a $10,000 Apple device just seems kind of wacky to me but again I don't dress as well as Carl lerf and I don't drink human blood so and I don't love to count one two all right guys let's go ahead and wrap it up there stick around for the Steve Jobs Commencement Address we're going to be broadcasting that in just a sec hey go check out very desk get up off your butt cheeks and start standing during your workday lose some weight feel better check them out at very desk.com V rid dk.com and please be sure to enter cultcast in the how did You Hear About Us section that's all the cultcast we have for you guys this week new episode of the cultcast come out every Thursday night I want to thank everyone for listening and we'll see you guys next week as usual nothing unexpected Co yeah long that's pretty good though this Pro program is brought to you by Stanford University please visit us at stanford.edu thank you I'm uh honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world truth be told uh I never graduated from college and uh this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation today I want to tell you three stories from my life that's it no big deal just three stories the first story is about connecting the dots I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months but then stayed around as a drop in for another 18 months or so before I really quit so why' I drop out it started before I was born my biological mother was a young unwed graduate student and she decided to put me up for adoption she felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates so everything was all set for me to be adopted at Birth by a lawyer and his wife except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl so my parents who were on a waiting list got a call in the middle of the night asking we've got an unexpected baby boy do you want him they said of course my biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school she refused to sign the final adoption papers she only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to to college this was the start in my life and 17 years later I did go to college but I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford and all of my workingclass parents savings were being spent on my college tuition after 6 months I couldn't see the value in it I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how College was going to help me figure it out and here I was spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life so I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay it was pretty scary at the time but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made the minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting it wasn't all romantic I didn't have a dorm room so I slept on the floor in friends rooms I returned Coke bottles for the 5-cent deposits to buy food with and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the harri Krishna Temple I loved it and much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be Priceless later on let me give you one example Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country throughout the campus every poster every label on every drawer was beautifully hand calligraphed because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this I learned about serif and Sans serif type faces about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations about what makes great typography great it was beautiful historical artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture and I found it fascinating none of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life but 10 years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer it all came back to me and we designed it all into the Mac it was the first computer with beautiful typography if I had never dropped in on that single course in college the Mac would have never had multiple type faces or proportionately spaced fonts and since Windows just copy the Mac it's likely that no personal computer would have them if I had never dropped out I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college but it was very very clear looking backwards 10 years later again you can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future you have to trust in something your gut Destiny Life Karma whatever because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference my second story is about love and loss I was lucky I found what I love to do early in life W and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20 we worked hard and in 10 years Apple had grown from Just the Two of Us in a garage into a$2 billion company with over 4,000 employees we just released our finest creation the Macintosh a year earlier and I just turned 30 and then I got fired how can you get fired from a company you started well as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me and for the first year or so things went well but then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out when we did our board of directors sided with him and so at 30 I was out and very publicly out what had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone and it was devastating I really didn't know what to do for a few months I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down that I had dropped the Baton as it was being passed to me I met with David Packard and Bob noise and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the valley but something slowly began to dawn on me I still loved what I did the turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit I'd been rejected but I was still in love and so I decided to start over I didn't see it then but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me the heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again less sure about everything it freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life during the next 5 years I started a company named next another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film Toy Story and is now the most successful Animation Studio in the world in a remarkable turn of events Apple bought next and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed it next is at the heart of Apple's current Renaissance and Loren and I have a wonderful family together I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple it was awful tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it sometime life sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick don't lose faith I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did you've got to find what you love and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work and the only way to do great work is to love what you do if you haven't found it yet keep looking and don't settle as with all matters of the heart you'll know when you find it and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on so keep looking don't settle my third story is about death when I was 17 I read a quote that went something like if you live each day as if it was your last someday you'll most certainly be right it made an impression on me and since then for the past 33 years I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself if today were the last day of my life would I want to do what I am about to do today and whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row I know I need to change something remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life because almost everything all external expectations all Pride all fear of embarrassment or failure these things just fall away in the face of death leaving only what is truly important remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the Trap of thinking you have something to lose you are already naked there is no reason not to follow your heart about a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas I didn't even know what a pancreas was the doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable and that I should expect to live no longer than 3 to 6 months my doctor advised me to go home and get my Affairs in order which is doctor's code for prepare to die it means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months it means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family it means to say your goodbyes I live with that diagnosis all day later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope scope down my throat through my stomach and into my intestines put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor I was sedated but my wife who was there told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctor started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery I had the surgery and thankfully I'm fine now this was the closest I've been to facing death and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades having lived through it I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept no one wants to die even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there and yet death is the destination we all share no one has ever escaped it and that is as it should be because death is very likely the single best invention of life it's life's change agent it clears out the old to make way for the new right now the new is you but someday not too long from now you will gradually become the old and be cleared away sorry to be so dramatic but it's quite true 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 when I was young there was an amazing publication called the whole earth catalog which was one of the Bibles of my generation it was created by a fellow named Stuart brand not far from here in Meno Park and he brought it to life with his poetic touch this was in the late 60s before personal computers and desktop publishing so it was all made with typewriters scissors and Polaroid cameras it was sort of like Google in paperback form 35 years before Google came along it was idealistic overflowing with neat tools and great Notions Stewart and his team put out several issues of the whole earth catalog and then when it had run its course they put out a final issue it was the mid1 1970s and I was your age on the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning Country Road the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so ad adventurous beneath it were the words stay hungry stay foolish it was their farewell message as they signed off stay hungry stay foolish and I have always wished that for myself and now as you graduate to begin a new I wish that for you stay hungry stay foolish thank you all very much the proceeding program is copyrighted by Stanford University please visit us at stanford.edu\n"