Steve Jobs' sedimentary rock analogy might deflate the egos of some developers. We work so hard on developing innovative hardware and software that will be relevant in the future. On top of that there's a lot of hyped-up business rhetoric about disrupting whole industries and changing the world with our products. Yet, even when we do manage to shake things up, what Jobs said is true: Our innovations will get buried under new innovations, like layers of sediment in a cliffside.
But I think there's something important, albeit humble, about becoming that thin layer of sediment in a rock formation. The layers may not have any obvious utility, yet they tell geologists a vivid, detailed story about changes in a landscape. That story may even help the geologists predict future changes and disruptions.
I'm sure you see where I'm going with this. Sure, we may not use the original Apple products, but to technologists with the right knowledge and experience, they offer fascinating, useful insights about the future and past of technology.
Just last night on IRC I was commenting on the stinkeye I received at a company once when I suggested their tagging functionality mimic Stack Overflow's. Even though their product was a multiuser version of something that had existed at 1:1 scale for a decade, never did I hear it described in terms of what already existed. Based on more than this one example, I am convinced that there is a beautiful-farts narcissism in startups today where everybody thinks they're doing something new when they're really just making a drag-and-drop Megaupload, in-browser Sublime Text, Flickr-with-animation, or whatever.
Or to loosely paraphrase Joel Spolsky, you can describe what most startups make today as "web sites where users enter something and then that's presented to the other users."
To stretch the metaphor: I think we're lucky if what we do becomes real sediment that others build upon. Most programming work is throw-away business code that no one will ever build upon and will be whisked away by the wind.
It doesn't matter though, we do what we do for the love (or compulsion) of creation. I'm quite certain Michelangelo loved painting above all else, and that's the necessary but not sufficient fact for him to achieve something like the Sistine Chapel. Who knows how many great painters are completely lost to history?
But I think there's something important, albeit humble, about becoming that thin layer of sediment in a rock formation. The layers may not have any obvious utility, yet they tell geologists a vivid, detailed story about changes in a landscape. That story may even help the geologists predict future changes and disruptions.
I'm sure you see where I'm going with this. Sure, we may not use the original Apple products, but to technologists with the right knowledge and experience, they offer fascinating, useful insights about the future and past of technology.