Reality distortion field

Reality distortion field (RDF) is a term first used by Bud Tribble at Apple Computer in 1981, to describe company co-founder Steve Jobs's charisma and its effects on the developers working on the Macintosh project.

[1] Tribble said that the term came from Star Trek,[1] where it is used to describe how the aliens encountered by the crew of the starship USS Enterprise created their own new world through mental force.

The RDF was said by Andy Hertzfeld to be Jobs's ability to convince himself, and others around him, to believe almost anything with a mix of charm, charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, appeasement and persistence.

[3] Bill Gates talked in an interview about Steve Jobs using his reality distortion field to "cast spells" on people.

"[4][5] The term has been extended, with a mixture of awe and scorn, to other managers and leaders in industry who try to convince their employees to become passionately committed to projects without regard to their overall difficulty or to competitive forces in the market.