The Curator of the Future: Why Taste Matters More Than Tech

There is a misconception that Steve Jobs was a great inventor.

If you look at the patent filings, the heavy lifting was often done by Wozniak, Fadell, or Ive. But to call Jobs a "marketer" is an insult. He was something far more specific and far more important for the modern world.

He was an editor.

In a world that equates "more" with "better"—more features, more buttons, more RAM—Jobs was obsessed with the art of subtraction. He understood that the value of a system isn't defined by what you put in, but by what you ruthlessly leave out.

The Intersection

Jobs famously ended his keynotes with an image of a street sign showing the intersection of Technology and Liberal Arts.

This wasn't just branding; it was his entire operating system. Most engineers build things because they can. They start with the capability ("We can make the screen touch-sensitive") and try to find a use for it.

Jobs started with the humanity. He asked, "How should this feel?" and forced the engineering to catch up. He treated silicon and glass not as hardware, but as mediums for emotion.

The Back of the Fence

There is a story from his childhood that explains everything. His father, a mechanic and carpenter, told him that when you build a fence, you must paint the back of it just as beautifully as the front.

"But no one will see it," Steve said. "You will know," his father replied.

This philosophy of hidden quality defined Apple. When you open up an original Macintosh, the circuit board is aesthetically pleasing. The chips are aligned. The signatures of the team are molded into the plastic case inside the machine.

It creates a subconscious trust. When you hold an iPhone, you feel a density and a rigidity that communicates care. You trust the software because the hardware feels inevitable.

Exploring The Taste

In 1995, in a rare interview, Jobs said something that haunts me:

"The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products."

He didn't mean they were bad at business; he meant they were spiritually empty.

"Taste," to Jobs, meant exposing yourself to the best things humans have done and then trying to bring that into what you are doing. It means studying typography, listening to Dylan, looking at Bauhaus architecture, and bringing that discipline into your code.

Connecting the Dots

Steve Jobs didn't just build computers. He built a standard.

He taught us that our diverse interests—whether it's calligraphy, music, or travel—are not distractions. They are the raw materials for innovation. You cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.

If you are going to build something, you owe it to the user to make it beautiful. Not just because it sells better, but because it proves that you care about the person on the other side of the screen.