reality distortion field

English

Steve Jobs, the original user of the reality distortion field, demonstrating the MacBook Air at Macworld 2008

Etymology

In the idiomatic sense, coined by software developer Bud Tribble at Apple Computer in 1981, to describe company co-founder Steve Jobs' charisma and its effects on the developers working on the Mac project: "Steve has a reality distortion field. […] In his presence, reality is malleable. He can convince anyone of practically anything."

The term was borrowed from the 1966 Star Trek episode "The Menagerie", in which the humanoid Talosians are able to create lifelike illusions using such fields.

Noun

reality distortion field (plural reality distortion fields)

1. (idiomatic) The persuasive ability of a leader or entrepreneur, especially in misleading or convincing others in order to promote a product or service.
   • 2007, Cory Doctorow, Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present, Thunder's Mouth Press, →ISBN:

     I fell silent under her stony glare. I tried to keep going, but I couldn't. Blight had the opposite of a reality distortion field. A reality assertion field.

   • 2013, Alistair Croll, Benjamin Yoskovitz, Lean Analytics, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 3:

     Small lies are essential. They create your reality distortion field. They are a necessary part of being an entrepreneur. But if you start believing your own hype, you won't survive.

   • 2018 August 16, Kara Swisher, “Elon Musk Is the Id of Tech”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     Mr. Jobs used his famous reality distortion field to bend the news media and investors and everyone else to his will.

   • 2021, Tom Eisenmann, Why Startups Fail, Crown, →ISBN, page 41:

     By propagating a "reality distortion field"—that is, mesmerizing potential employees, investors, and strategic partners so they focus on a startup's world-changing potential rather than on its real-world risks—overconfident and charismatic founders in particular are able to persuade people to commit resources under terms favorable to their new venture.

2. (literally) An environment which alters one's perception of reality.
   • 2012, Mats Larsson, The Business of Global Energy Transformation, Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN:

     At present we sometimes experience what can be interpreted as a "reality distortion field" built upon arguments that have been developed by the innovators and early adopters within the sustainability movement.

   • 2019, Aaron Ross, Jason Lemkin, From Impossible to Inevitable, Wiley, →ISBN, page 222:

     If you're on social media at all, and follow many news sources, you're bombarded with stories of other people's successes […] This generates a "Reality Distortion Field" in which everyone else appears to experience 95% success and 5% struggle.

   • 2020, John Elkington, Green Swans, Greenleaf Book Group Press, →ISBN:

     If your work takes you regularly into the world's boardrooms and C-suites, it really is hard to miss the reality distortion fields such places generate.

   • 2021, Michael Sahota, Audree Tara, Leading Beyond Change, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, →ISBN, page 54:

     [W]e operate on a generalized, distorted, and incomplete model of reality. The most accurate way to describe our mind is as a reality distortion field.

See also

• Jobsian