San Jose and the new Steve Jobs film

Last weekend I caught a preview of the new Steve Jobs film, courtesy of Visit California.

Perhaps I know too much about Steve Jobs and Silicon Valley to have an unbiased opinion. I grew up in the Bay Area during the time much of this was happening. It was a special time when Silicon Valley was the cradle of technology innovation. Mix Northern California’s “we learn from mistakes” attitude with lots of really smart, quirky, unaffected people and you get some cool stuff. Xerox PARC. Hewlett-Packard. Apple. During that time so much came out of that valley (the capitol of which is San Jose, btw, but more on that later.)

Innovation attracts money and the Venture Capitalists moved in. And then the start-ups and the jobs. Oh, the jobs. With great perks too. I can’t complain, I had one of them and through it met my husband. 

Back to this weekend and the preview. The journalist next to me watching the film was not an insider. He was fascinated by the story and the Steve Jobs character. “Was he really like that?” he whispered, while typing notes about the film on his iPad. “I think so. Probably. Did you read the book?” (The Steve Jobs personality comes through loud and clear there too).

Job’s wife tried to stop the film coming out. Some people think it is a character assignation. But answer this: Where are you reading this post? Your iPhone? An Android which now looks like an iPhone? Via an app on your tablet? Clicking on your laptop via the graphical user interface? (GUIs btw are so baked in technology these days most people gloss over it. It’s like saying you breathe in air.)

You should see the film. It illustrates how anything can happen in Silicon Valley.

And while you are at it … check out this video from Team San Jose. Voted “Healthiest,” “Happiest” and “Smartest” City in the US, if you want to be privy to what makes Silicon Valley so special – put San Jose on your travel bucket list. It’s a very cool place.