One More Thing

Michael Lopp, writing at Rands In Repose, on Steve Jobs’ famous “one more thing” ending at Apple keynotes:

The best stories, the ones we love, have a surprise ending. Since Steve returned to Apple, an essential part of the keynote was the anticipation of the unexpected, and that means aggressive and invasive secrecy. Not because they don’t want you to know, but because they want to tell you a great story.

Since diving into the Mac platform with both feet in late 2005, one of my favorite things is watching the Apple keynote address.¹ The “one more thing” at the end was the icing to the keynote’s cake. As much as Steve Jobs was a visionary, he was a better showman. He understood that telling the story of a device was as important as its implementation. Jobs would artfully and slowly describe how a product or service would integrate with your life and make it better. Just when you were fully onboard and excited to go buy the product - BOOM! - one more thing, it’s even better than you thought. That anticipation built an excitement around Apple’s products that no other company has matched. Whether you think it is silly or not, there is no denying that Jobs masterfully humanized technology in a world filled with bland, soulless products laden with awful corporate jargon.