It's better to be a pirate than join the navy. ~Steve Jobs
Hunter Powers: Welcome to "The One." I'm your host, Hunter Powers, broadcasting live from our nation's capitol, D.C. Proper, Washington D.C. And the one idea for today comes from none other than Steve Jobs who said, "It's better to be a pirate than join the Navy." And I think this is a interesting idea to examine. What exactly does it mean? Do we agree with it? How could we apply it in other areas. So first just an ounce of context behind this. It was 1983 and Steve had taken a small group of employees from Apple to an offsite where they would form the beginnings of a new team that would build a new product called the Macintosh. And this was one of his rallying cries, or at least reportedly one of his rallying cries. And his team would fly the pirate flag as they went forth and built this new system.
Hunter Powers: Alright, so it's better to be a pirate than join the Navy. We have to ask ourselves what does "pirate" mean and what does "Navy" mean? Obviously it's a metaphor. So in the first examination, a pirate is someone who goes around and steals a lot of things, right? They're in a giant ship and they bring their ship up to your ship and then they tell you, "You need to give us all of your stuff." Or maybe they blow up your ship. They don't really have a good reputation, do they? These pirates. There's a some degree of coolness or edge with them, I think. Black Beard. I'm not saying Black Beard was a nice guy. A role model will live up to. There's an edge there. I don't know if that's the kind of... Certainly would fall into some sort of concept of a bad boy.
Hunter Powers: All right, but so there's a pirate. There's a bad boy. They take... All right, here's something. A pirate takes what they want. They see what they want and they just take it. And the Navy represents the institution, the existing system, the existing ways that we do thing, a very systemized approach, or it's accomplishing a goal to some degree. It represents legacy, I think. I don't know if I'm reading too much into it there. So the pirate is the edgy individual who goes out and takes what they want. They rip a hole in the universe and claim what's theirs. And the Navy arguably accomplishes a similar feat but through a lot of process and structure and rules.
Hunter Powers: I'm reminded of a separate Steve Jobs quote where as part of an interview where he talked about that there's a moment in your life when you realize that everything around you was created by people that probably weren't all that more intelligent than you are. And that it's at that moment that you realize you can shape your life into whatever you want it to be. And so I think that probably connects back to this idea. There's following along. There's conforming with everything around you in joining the Navy. Or there's being a pirate because who made the rules anyways? And we're going to go out there. We're going to rip the hole in the universe and claim what we believe is the correct destiny.
Hunter Powers: Now obviously we could read this some other way, which is just I'm going to go out and steal anything that I want, and if you try to cross me, off with your head or walk the plank. I don't know, and then there's a whole hook angle in there somewhere. I'm not taking that approach. You could take that approach. I'm not taking that approach. I don't think that's what Steve was pointing at, but that if we want to accomplish something we can just because we want to and that we don't need to follow the systemized approach and that you don't really want to follow the giant system approach because the giant, the Navy, will grab your identity. That it's better to live on the edge than in that. That that's a more fulfilling existence that you will do more with this pirate mentality, that you go out there and you claim it, that you ripped the hole in the universe and claim what's yours and bring it to you.
Hunter Powers: I think that's what he was doing to try to motivate the troops as it were, as they started work on their Macintosh, which is certainly still around today. So I guess they did it. It worked though. What did he say? "Well, this was a successful idea because just look at the results." There's a lot more going on there.
Hunter Powers: Alright, so now to what degree does this idea, one more time, "It's better to be a pirate than join the Navy," is this applicable in the day to day? Well, we're going to take our reading of it. Again, no violence here, folks. Don't listen to this episode and go get a ship and then head out in the waters and just the first ship that you see that's better than yours, go over and say "I'm taking it." And when they ask you why, "I listened to this episode of 'The One' by Hunter Powers, and he told me that I should be a pirate if I want to accomplish anything in life." Nope, that's not what's going on.
Hunter Powers: So I think that this idea is applicable, and I'm going to modify it or streamline it to if you want to accomplish greatness in life, you need to go straight for it and ignore all of the systems and structures that have been put in place to get there. Because all of those systems and structures were put in place by people likely no more intelligent than you. And in that instance, it's better to be a pirate than join the Navy.
Hunter Powers: That's it for today. Once again, I am Hunter Powers broadcasting live from Washington D.C. Whereas we in the city like to say D.C. Proper. Until next time.