Clutch: The Reality Distortion Field

I’ve been pouring thru Apple founder Steve Jobs’ biography, Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson. I couldn’t help but notice how often Jobs’ colleagues and employees refer to his best/worst trait as being what they refer to as a “reality distortion field,” Jobs’ uncanny ability to believe what he wants to believe no matter whether it’s true or not, and further, to convince others of it as well no matter how far fetched.  Polite folk would call this delusion, colloquially it would be called “bullsh—.”

Of course, this is not a new concept, and many people are great at it. But similar to how you learn a new phrase, then suddenly you hear everyone using it all the time, I’ve been on heightened alert for those who also carry Jobs’ greatest virtue and vice. And chile’, they are everywhere, especially in the public eye.

I happened to catch 50 Cent on Oprah’s Next Chapter, and no surprise, he’s a master a creating a reality distortion field, even on Lady O. From the time Winfrey showed up to interview him at his Nana’s home and panned to the pink bedroom where he spent the night before, he was in full-on spin mode. But when Winfrey finally asked him about naming his dog after her—the question I’d been waiting for — my BS detector was damn near off its figurative charts.

“I was looking for real cute names for pets,” 50 explained, offering a charismatic grin. He mentioned he had a cat as well. “Named?” Winfrey asked. 50 flashed another mischevous grin  (to  Winfrey’s bestie Gayle King who was sitting off screen) before he answered: “Gayle.”  Winfrey practically giggled. In the end, she took it for “a compliment whether you meant it to be one or not.”

Incredulously, I looked at CBW, my significant other, the way Ferris Bueller looks at the screen, breaking the fourth wall to address viewers. “Did that just happen?”  I asked in disbelief.

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