SDS 072: Connecting the dots

I just finished watching Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement address on YouTube. I actually saw it before, but I don’t think I watched it to the end or I don’t really remember it. And it is very, very eye-opening. Unfortunately, Steve Jobs died a couple of years ago, but nevertheless, he still continues to make an impact. I highly recommend watching this video. You can find it on YouTube, it’s called “Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement address”. It’s got 27 million views and I’ve been recommended many times to have a look at this video, and now I understand why.

There, Steve Jobs talks about 3 stories from his life which taught him 3 different lessons, and which he wanted to pass on to the world. And I’m not going to ruin it for you, I’m only going to recap one of his stories, and then I’ll leave the other two for you to explore further in your own time. It’s only 15 minutes long, so it’s definitely worth watching whenever you have 15 minutes, during your lunch break or something. So the first story, that’s the one I’m going to touch on, which I could – they all made me think, and they all made me realise certain things, but this one I could really relate to, because it’s something that I’ve probably seen in my life as well.

So the first story is about connecting the dots. And there, Steve Jobs talks about how when he was in university, or in college, as it’s called in America, he dropped out. But he didn’t just drop out and completely leave college, he dropped out and he remained in college and attending classes which he wanted, rather than the classes which he had to attend. And one of those classes was a class on calligraphy, on handwriting, on how to use different fonts, and create them, and make writing beautiful, rather than always the same.

Back then, of course, there were no personal computers, and things like that, and it was all handwritten, and at the time, he had no idea how that would impact his future profession, his future career. It was just something that he really enjoyed. He just enjoyed going to this class and seeing how beautiful this can be, what amazing fonts you can create, and it was just something that he loved. And he kept doing it even without understanding, without even double thinking, or second guessing, how it would impact his future career. He just kept doing what he loved.

And then years went by, they created the first Macintosh computer, and that’s when all of this, 10 years later, came back to him. All of this calligraphy that he was doing. They built it into the Macintosh, and that’s why the Macintosh had so many different fonts, and that’s probably why we now have so many different amazing fonts in all our personal computers, whether it’s a Mac, or Windows, you have the sans serif, the serif fonts, you have different fonts with a different amount of space between letters, different styles of letters, and that’s how it all came to be. So if he had not attended that class on calligraphy, which at the time had no meaning in terms of his career and profession, he didn’t even know what he was going to do, if he had not attended it, probably the whole world right now wouldn’t even have all these different types of fonts.

And that’s how he talks about connecting the dots, that’s how the dots connected for him, that attending the class led to calligraphy being embedded into Macintosh and now into all of the personal computers that we have. But at the time, there was no way he could look forward and connect the dots in advance. You cannot connect the dots looking forward. But at the same time, it’s much, much easier to connect the dots when time has passed and you look back. You can much easier connect the dots. And probably in your life, if you stop and think after listening to this episode, there are probably events in your life like that, that you couldn’t connect the dots when they were happening, you couldn’t understand what they would turn into, but now, looking back, you can see how all of that played out and how the dots were connected. In my life, I definitely have lots of those lines of connected dots, and now looking back on them, I can understand why certain events happened, and where they led.

And the takeaway from this that he mentioned is that don’t worry that you cannot connect the dots in advance. When things are happening, or your life is taking on certain events, or turns, and you don’t understand why exactly that’s happening, it’s ok just simply because you cannot connect the dots in advance. You just need to believe that the dots will connect at the end, that when you look back in the future, the dots will connect, and if you believe in that, that will give you the confidence to follow your heart. How beautiful is that? So just do what you love, like he did with the calligraphy. Just love doing it. Do what you love and believe that the dots will connect. And that will give you the confidence to follow your heart and have an amazing life, have an amazing journey.

So I’ll leave you with that thought, something to think about, and hopefully this weekend, you’ll do something that you love and believe that the dots will connect in the future. And don’t forget to check out the full video of Steve Jobs at Stanford, and I look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, happy analyzing.