Reality distortion field
{{Short description|Use of charisma to affect the perceptions of others}}
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.{{cite web |last=Hertzfeld |first=Andy |author-link=Andy Hertzfeld |date=February 1981 |title=Reality Distortion Field |url=http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Reality_Distortion_Field.txt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250114174252/https://www.folklore.org/Reality_Distortion_Field.html |archive-date=January 14, 2025 |access-date=February 26, 2025 |website=Folklore.org}} Tribble said that the term came from Star Trek, 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.{{refn|group=note|This comes from the episode The Menagerie from the original series.}}{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}
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.
The term has been used to refer to Jobs's keynote speeches (or "Stevenotes") by observers and devoted users of Apple computers and products,{{cite web |last=Dudrow |first=Andrea |date=October 16, 2000 |title=Notes from the Epicenter: Exploring the Reality Distortion Field |url=http://creativepro.com/notes-epicenter-exploring-reality-distortion-field/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241112223007/https://creativepro.com/notes-epicenter-exploring-reality-distortion-field/ |archive-date=November 12, 2024 |access-date=February 26, 2025 |website=CreativePro.com}} 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'".{{cite web |date=October 19, 2010 |title=RIM Responds to Apple's 'Distortion Field' |url=http://blogs.blackberry.com/2010/10/rim-responds-to-apples-distortion-field/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101020110045/http://blogs.blackberry.com/2010/10/rim-responds-to-apples-distortion-field/ |archive-date=October 20, 2010 |access-date=December 11, 2010 |website=Inside Blackberry}}
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."{{Cite web |author=Duffy |first=Clare |date=July 8, 2019 |title=CNN Exclusive: Bill Gates calls Steve Jobs a 'wizard' who saved Apple |url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/08/tech/bill-gates-on-steve-jobs/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230518053501/https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/08/tech/bill-gates-on-steve-jobs/index.html |archive-date=May 18, 2023 |access-date=August 12, 2021 |website=CNN Business}}{{Cite web |last=Grothaus |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Grothaus |date=July 8, 2019 |title=Bill Gates thinks Steve Jobs was a wizard |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90373250/bill-gates-thinks-steve-jobs-was-a-wizard |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220702185303/https://www.fastcompany.com/90373250/bill-gates-thinks-steve-jobs-was-a-wizard |archive-date=July 2, 2022 |access-date=August 12, 2021 |website=Fast Company |issn=1085-9241 |oclc=33444063}}
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.{{cite web |last=Temkin |first=David |date=April 12, 2005 |title=The Ajax Reality Distortion Field |url=http://www.davidtemkin.com/mtarchive/000012.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618065115/http://www.davidtemkin.com/mtarchive/000012.html |archive-date=June 18, 2010 |access-date=February 26, 2025 |website=DavidTemkin.com}}
- Bill Clinton's charisma has been called a reality distortion field.{{cite web |last=Ferriss |first=Tim |author-link=Tim Ferriss |date=November 21, 2010 |title=How It Works: Clinton's "Reality Distortion Field" Charisma |url=http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2010/11/21/bill-clinton-reality-distortion-field/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250127085250/https://tim.blog/2010/11/21/bill-clinton-reality-distortion-field/ |archive-date=January 27, 2025 |access-date=February 26, 2025 |website=Tim.Blog}}
- The chess champion Bobby Fischer was said to have a "Fischer aura" surrounding him that disoriented Boris Spassky and other opponents.{{Cite magazine |last=Darrach |first=Brad |author-link=Brad Darrach |date=August 11, 1972 |editor-last=Graves |editor-first=Ralph |editor-link=Ralph Graves (writer) |title=Bobby is Not a Nasty Kid |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EVUEAAAAMBAJ |magazine=Life |publisher=Time Inc. |volume=73 |issue=6 |pages=40–44 |issn=0024-3019 |oclc=947110599}}
- The term has been also associated with Donald Trump's approach to running his 2016 campaign for United States President and his presidency.{{Cite web |last=O'Brien |first=Timothy L. |author-link=Timothy L. O'Brien |date=June 16, 2016 |title=A Peek Inside Trump's Smoke and Mirrors Tour |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-06-16/peeking-inside-trump-s-smoke-and-mirrors-tour |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521093403/https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2016-06-16/peeking-inside-trump-s-smoke-and-mirrors-tour |archive-date=May 21, 2023 |access-date=July 29, 2016 |website=Bloomberg News}}
- Financial Times used the term when describing Elon Musk.{{Cite news |last=Waters |first=Richard |date=September 30, 2016 |title=Elon Musk, billionaire tech idealist and space entrepreneur |url=https://www.ft.com/content/8ca82034-86d0-11e6-bcfc-debbef66f80e |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190918022100/https://www.ft.com/content/8ca82034-86d0-11e6-bcfc-debbef66f80e |archive-date=September 18, 2019 |access-date=February 26, 2025 |work=Financial Times |issn=0307-1766 |oclc=60638918}}
- WeWork founder Adam Neumann has been described as having a reality distortion field.{{Cite book |last=Wiedeman |first=Reeves |title=Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-316-46136-8 |edition=1st |location=New York City |oclc=1175677200}}{{Pages needed|date=February 2025}}
- 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.{{cite web |last=Adams |first=Scott |author-link=Scott Adams |date=September 23, 2010 |title=Dogbert the Pitchman |url=http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-09-23/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170601204829/http://dilbert.com/strip/2010-09-23 |archive-date=June 1, 2017 |access-date=February 26, 2025 |website=Dilbert}}
- 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.{{Cite news |last=Makabenta |first=Yen |date=November 1, 2016 |title=Duterte has his own 'reality distortion field' |url=https://www.manilatimes.net/2016/11/01/opinion/columnists/topanalysis/duterte-reality-distortion-field/294150/ |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220112003215/https://www.manilatimes.net/2016/11/01/opinion/columnists/topanalysis/duterte-reality-distortion-field/294150 |archive-date=January 12, 2022 |access-date=November 29, 2020 |work=The Manila Times |issn=0116-3558 |oclc=31041091}}
See also
Notes
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