Reality distortion field

Reality distortion field (RDF) is a term first used by Bud Tribble at Apple Computer in 1981, to describe company co-founder Steve Jobs's charisma and its effects on the developers working on the Macintosh project. ^[1] Tribble said that the term came from Star Trek , ^[1] where it is used to describe how the aliens encountered by the crew of the starship USS Enterprise created their own new world through mental force. ^{[note 1] [ citation needed ]}

Steve Jobs

In the book Steve Jobs , biographer Walter Isaacson states that around 1972, while Jobs was attending Reed College, Robert Friedland "taught Steve the reality distortion field." The RDF was said by Andy Hertzfeld to be Jobs's ability to convince himself, and others around him, to believe almost anything with a mix of charm, charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, appeasement and persistence. It was said to distort his co-workers' sense of proportion and scales of difficulties and to make them believe that whatever impossible task he had at hand was possible. Jobs could also use the reality distortion field to appropriate others' ideas as his own, sometimes proposing an idea back to its originator, only a week after dismissing it. ^[1]

The term has been used to refer to Jobs's keynote speeches (or "Stevenotes") by observers and devoted users of Apple computers and products, ^[2] and derisively by Apple's competitors in criticisms of Apple, for example a post on Research In Motion's official BlackBerry blog titled "RIM Responds to Apple's 'Distortion Field'". ^[3]

Bill Gates talked in an interview about Steve Jobs using his reality distortion field to "cast spells" on people. Gates considered himself immune to Jobs's reality distortion field, saying, "I was like a minor wizard because he would be casting spells, and I would see people mesmerized, but because I'm a minor wizard, the spells don't work on me." ^{[4] [5]}

Other instances

The term has been extended, with a mixture of awe and scorn, to other managers and leaders in industry who try to convince their employees to become passionately committed to projects without regard to their overall difficulty or to competitive forces in the market. It is sometimes used with regard to excessively hyped products that are not necessarily connected with any one person. ^[6]

• Bill Clinton's charisma has been called a reality distortion field. ^[7]
• The chess champion Bobby Fischer was said to have a "Fischer aura" surrounding him that disoriented Boris Spassky and other opponents. ^[8]
• The term has been also associated with Donald Trump's approach to running his 2016 campaign for United States President and his presidency. ^[9]
• Financial Times used the term when describing Elon Musk. ^[10]
• WeWork founder Adam Neumann has been described as having a reality distortion field. ^{[11] [ pages needed ]}
• A parody of a reality distortion field appeared in a 2010 Dilbert strip in which a reality distortion field emitter is used during a keynote speech by Dogbert. ^[12]
• Columnist Yen Makabenta of The Manila Times opined that Rodrigo Duterte's rise to prominence and appeal to the masses—in spite of allegations of human rights violations and Duterte's obscene remarks towards individuals and organizations such as the Roman Catholic Church, which the Philippines has a significant population of adherents—have generated a reality distortion field. He added that while Duterte's vulgar and sexually charged comments during his presidential campaign have alarmed many and were initially seen as detrimental to his victory as a presidential candidate, he exhibited charisma which accounted for why people still campaigned for him in spite of this behavior. ^[13]

See also

• Brainwashing
• Charismatic authority
• Gaslighting
• Locus of control
• Magical thinking
• Suggestibility
• Suspension of disbelief

Notes

1. This comes from the episode The Menagerie from the original series.

References

1. Hertzfeld, Andy (February 1981). "Reality Distortion Field". Folklore.org . Archived from the original on January 14, 2025. Retrieved February 26, 2025.
2. Dudrow, Andrea (October 16, 2000). "Notes from the Epicenter: Exploring the Reality Distortion Field". CreativePro.com. Archived from the original on November 12, 2024. Retrieved February 26, 2025.
3. "RIM Responds to Apple's 'Distortion Field'". Inside Blackberry. October 19, 2010. Archived from the original on October 20, 2010. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
4. Duffy, Clare (July 8, 2019). "CNN Exclusive: Bill Gates calls Steve Jobs a 'wizard' who saved Apple". CNN Business . Archived from the original on May 18, 2023. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
5. Grothaus, Michael (July 8, 2019). "Bill Gates thinks Steve Jobs was a wizard". Fast Company . ISSN   1085-9241. OCLC   33444063. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
6. Temkin, David (April 12, 2005). "The Ajax Reality Distortion Field". DavidTemkin.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2010. Retrieved February 26, 2025.
7. Ferriss, Tim (November 21, 2010). "How It Works: Clinton's "Reality Distortion Field" Charisma". Tim.Blog. Archived from the original on January 27, 2025. Retrieved February 26, 2025.
8. Darrach, Brad (August 11, 1972). Graves, Ralph (ed.). "Bobby is Not a Nasty Kid". Life . Vol. 73, no. 6. Time Inc. pp. 40–44. ISSN   0024-3019. OCLC   947110599.
9. O'Brien, Timothy L. (June 16, 2016). "A Peek Inside Trump's Smoke and Mirrors Tour" . Bloomberg News . Archived from the original on May 21, 2023. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
10. Waters, Richard (September 30, 2016). "Elon Musk, billionaire tech idealist and space entrepreneur" . Financial Times . ISSN   0307-1766. OCLC   60638918. Archived from the original on September 18, 2019. Retrieved February 26, 2025.
11. Wiedeman, Reeves (2020). Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork (1st ed.). New York City: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN   978-0-316-46136-8. OCLC   1175677200.
12. Adams, Scott (September 23, 2010). "Dogbert the Pitchman". Dilbert . Archived from the original on June 1, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2025.
13. Makabenta, Yen (November 1, 2016). "Duterte has his own 'reality distortion field'" . The Manila Times . ISSN   0116-3558. OCLC   31041091. Archived from the original on January 12, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2020.