"Lets talk about this "Reality Distortion Field". People claim that Jobs can make you believe things that aren't true by simple application of charisma."

I never saw the RDF in quite that light. It always seemed to me to be a way that Jobs could convince people that something was revolutionary, earth shattering, world changing...even when it wasn't (or at best, a well executed evolution built on previous ideas). It was the pinnacle of salesmanship -- turning customers into religious followers. Something to be admired and feared.

That's why the figurative iShitinabox was such an on target joke. The idea was that Jobs could have put shit in a box, but a diminutive "i" before the name and had people lined up around the block for a week before launch ready to buy it -- all swearing that it's going to change the world.

And always, nobody in that line was ever willing to just fess up that they were camped out in front of the Apple store because Jobs told them to be there and buy his stuff. On questioning, they would all say, and perhaps even think, that it was an original idea for them to go there and stand in that line -- and that they were especially smart and clever people for having arrived at that idea by themselves -- and this cleverness is supported by the other 500 clever smart people who are camped out a week before they can actually buy iShitinabox -- or at least an amazing coincidence. They're all different(ly thinking) in exactly the same way.

And then in the months following, there'll be some segment of that buying population that will, deep down, be dissatisfied in some way with their iShitinabox, but can't quite get the mental lens in focus to really notice it because the RDF has them in its grips, and they'll flood internet forums talking about how iShitinabox is the best thing in the history of things and will fight detractors to the death -- deflecting constructive criticism, covering over product flaws, giving testimonials about how their life has changed, start marginally successful businesses around the iShitinabox that would be more successful if they also sold almost their exact same product to the other 50% of the planet that doesn't think iShitinabox is a herald of the second coming.

That is what Job's magic power was, his Reality Distortion Field.

It's not blind loyalty, that's wrong. The iProducts really are very good -- you get a damn fine product when you buy it. But it's the religious fervor that Jobs could generate, the obedience and recitation of the doctrine by Jobs -- bolstered by a tangible thing that you could point to.

What was it about Job's delivery that caused this to happen? I remember the first iPhone launch and people were lining up with stacks of thousands of dollars in cash so they could buy 20 or 30 of the phones at launch. People literally weeping in the street when the inventory was sold out and they couldn't get theirs. I've known at least a dozen people who bought every single iPod, iPhone and iPad like they were collecting Pokemon -- some even while barely making rent.

I know of at least one divorce over this phenomenon. After every keynote, my friend's husband would run out and buy pretty much one of everything that was put up for sale right after -- annihilating their savings for a new home.

I have a professor friend that literally can't control himself and spend thousands of dollars a month on subscriptions to various services and apps for his iProducts. In class, he will try and inappropriately push this stuff on his students like a born again preacher pushing the good news.

It's not a Field-of-Lies that comprised Job's Reality Distortion Field, but it's not really an innocent Field-of-Dreams either.