"It takes these very simple-minded instructions - 'Go fetch a number, add it to this number, put the result there, perceive if it's greater than this other number' - but executes them at a rate of, let's say, 1,000,000 per second. At 1,000,000 per second, the results appear to be magic"
About this Quote
That word choice is doing heavy cultural work. Jobs isn’t claiming computers are mystical; he’s arguing that modern life experiences them as mystical because human intuition isn’t built for a million tiny steps per second. The subtext is a defense of abstraction: we don’t need to grasp every intermediate operation to trust the outcome, just as we don’t manually track every brushstroke to see a painting. "Magic" becomes the emotional label for computational leverage.
Context matters: Jobs sold products in an era when computers were either intimidating beige boxes or, later, sleek personal tools. His rhetorical trick bridges both worlds. He reassures the skeptics that nothing spooky is happening, while giving enthusiasts permission to feel wonder without embarrassment. It’s also a quiet manifesto for Apple’s design philosophy: hide the machinery, surface the experience. If simple instructions at high velocity can feel like magic, then the company that best choreographs that feeling owns the future.
There’s a subtle power claim here, too. If "magic" is just scale, then the gatekeepers are the ones who control scale - hardware, software, and the story people tell themselves about what’s possible.
Quote Details
| Topic | Coding & Programming |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Jobs, Steve. (2026, January 15). It takes these very simple-minded instructions - 'Go fetch a number, add it to this number, put the result there, perceive if it's greater than this other number' - but executes them at a rate of, let's say, 1,000,000 per second. At 1,000,000 per second, the results appear to be magic. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-takes-these-very-simple-minded-instructions--17679/
Chicago Style
Jobs, Steve. "It takes these very simple-minded instructions - 'Go fetch a number, add it to this number, put the result there, perceive if it's greater than this other number' - but executes them at a rate of, let's say, 1,000,000 per second. At 1,000,000 per second, the results appear to be magic." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-takes-these-very-simple-minded-instructions--17679/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It takes these very simple-minded instructions - 'Go fetch a number, add it to this number, put the result there, perceive if it's greater than this other number' - but executes them at a rate of, let's say, 1,000,000 per second. At 1,000,000 per second, the results appear to be magic." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-takes-these-very-simple-minded-instructions--17679/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.




