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At the recent Apple media event to introduce the Apple Watch, CEO Tim Cook implied that the Watch would bring about a new and better you. In this brief podcast, I’ll be the wet blanket that spoils technology’s unending self-improvement project.

Watch this 11 minute condensed version of the event:

On the Reality Distortion Field:

Reality distortion field (RDF) is a term coined by Bud Tribble at Apple Computer in 1981, to describe company co-founder Steve Jobs‘ charisma and its effects on the developers working on the Macintosh project.^[1] Tribble said that the term came from Star Trek.^[1] Later the term has also been used to refer to perceptions of his keynote speeches (or “Stevenotes“) by observers and devoted users of Apple computers and products.^[2]

The RDF was said by Andy Hertzfeld to be Steve Jobs’ ability to convince himself and others to believe almost anything with a mix of charm, charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, appeasement and persistence. RDF was said to distort an audience’s sense of proportion and scales of difficulties and made them believe that the task at hand was possible.^[3]