I woke up at 2 A.M. this morning thinking about what I am going to say at our GigaOM RoadMap conference. I wanted the words to be just right. And then I couldn’t go back to sleep. So I started watching Mad Men’s The Wheel episode:

Technology is a glittering lure but there is a rare occasion when public can be engaged on a level beyond flash. They have a sentimental bond with the product.

And that is one thing Steve Jobs and Apple do right – form a sentimental bonds with their “people.”

I always thought of myself as a humanities person as a kid, but I liked electronics. Then I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaroid, said about the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of humanities and sciences, and I decided that’s what I wanted to do. Steve Jobs as told to Walter Issacson.

In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Issacson writes:

Bill Gates is super-smart, but Steve Jobs was super-ingenious. The primary distinction, I think, is the ability to apply creativity and aesthetic sensibilities to a challenge. In the world of invention and innovation, that means combining an appreciation of the humanities with an understanding of science — connecting artistry to technology, poetry to processors. This was Mr. Jobs’s specialty. The ability to merge creativity with technology depends on one’s ability to be emotionally attuned to others.

I hope a lot of us in technology industry would pay attention to this as we sit around and create new thing.