Time to connect the dots_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Time to connect the dots

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later.

- Steve Jobs: Stanford commencement address, June 2005, The Observer, October 9, 2011.

3. In the mid-1970s, a man approached singer Kenny Rogers after a performance in the lounge at the Las Vegas Hilton. The mysterious stranger simply said, “Hey, man, I really like your music.” Rogers learned later that the fan at the dressing-room door had been Elvis Presley.

It’s the type of story Rogers shares in his new memoir, which comes out this week. It’s titled Luck or Something Like It – a play on his 1978 hit “Love or Something Like It.” In the book, he connects the dots from his youth in Houston, Texas, public housing to his stints as a jazz musician and folksinger – and, eventually, his emergence as a solo star. He recently spoke with NPR’s Steve Inskeep about his enduring career, his early days fronting the country-rock band The First Edition and what fans expect of him after all this time.