Broad-Based Education: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country.… I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.… It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. -Commencement address, Stanford University, June 12, 2005
Steve Jobs recalled his time at Reed College, where he took a calligraphy class that he found captivating for its beauty and artistic nuances. Although he felt the course had no practical application in his life at the time, he was deeply interested in the historical and subtle aspects of calligraphy that science couldn't express. This experience turned out to be influential in his later work.
Years later, when Jobs was involved in designing the first Macintosh computer, he realized how valuable that calligraphy class had been. The skills and appreciation he developed in that course directly contributed to the aesthetic aspects of the Macintosh, highlighting the importance of broad-based education in fostering creativity and innovation.
