Words: Steve Jobs “Bicycle For Our Minds…”

The common everyday bicycle is one of the most underrated inventions. In the US, we mostly consider it as a toy for kids. But the invention and wide use of bicycles, a simple tool of transportation, became a major force of innovation and change throughout the world.  It lead to mass efficiencies in many industries, gave mobility and freedoms to major portions of the population world-wide, and spurred inventions within the automotive industry and the rise of the industrial revolution.

No surprise I’m a fan of bikes.  I’ve written about some of the history of bicycles in The Ubiquitous Bike: Still A Creative Force? and the possible resurgence of the bicycle in Pondering the Possibilities: Sweat Worthy Entertainment.  But Steve Jobs “Bicycles for our Minds” quote sums it up best and rightly gives credit where credit is due.

Computer = Bicycle for our Minds

"I think one of the things that really separates us from the high primates is that we’re tool builders. 

I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. And, humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing, about a third of the way down the list. 

It was not too proud a showing for the crown of creation. So, that didn’t look so good. But, then somebody at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. 

And, a man on a bicycle, a human on a bicycle, blew the condor away, completely off the top of the charts. 

And that’s what a computer is to me. What a computer is to me is it’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.”

~ Steve Jobs, via video Michael Lawrence Films

Enjoy more Steve Jobs quotes:
Words: Steve Jobs “Poke Life …”
Words: “… You Tend To Get Told …”

STEVEN PAUL “STEVE” JOBS
(1955 – 2011)

Co-founder , Chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc.
Husband, Father,
Creator,  Inventor, Marketer, Entrepreneur
Co-founder and CEO of Pixar

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