Reality distortion field (
RDF) is a term coined by
Burrell Smith at
Apple Computer in 1981, to describe company co-founder
Steve Jobs'
charisma and its effects on the developers working on the
Mac project.[sup]
[1][/sup] Bud Tribble claimed that the term came from
Star Trek.[sup]
[1][/sup] Later the term has also been used to refer to perceptions of his keynote (or
Stevenote) by observers and devoted users of
Apple computers and products.[sup]
[2][/sup] The RDF is said to be Steve Jobs' ability to convince himself and others to believe almost anything with a mix of
superficial charm,
charisma,
bravado,
hyperbole,
marketing, appeasement, and persistence. RDF is said to distort an audience's sense of proportion and scales of difficulties and makes them believe that the task at hand is possible.
The term is also used by Apple's competitors when they
criticize Apple. On
Research In Motion's official
BlackBerry blog,
Jim Balsillie introduced his article by saying "For those of us who live outside of Apple's distortion field".[sup]
[3][/sup]
Jobs' reality distortion field was parodied in
Dilbert:
Dilbert built a functioning reality distortion field emitter, which is used during
Dogbert's
keynote speech,[sup]
[4][/sup] while previous strips parodied
iPhone flaws.
