Jack Dorsey The Eccentric Twitter Boss

Foto: CEO Twitter Jack Dorsey (Anushree Fadnavis / Reuters)

JAKARTA - 43 years ago, Jack Dorsey, CEO and founder of social media Twitter, was born on this planet. Together with his three friends, Evan William, Christoper 'Biz' stone and Noah Glass, they later built a company bearing the blue bird logo.

At that time there was no intention from Jack Dorsey or Glass and William, that a unique messaging service that could only write 140 characters. An unusual way for Jack Dorsey to save on word usage in his application.

just setting up my twttr

- jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) March 21, 2006

"... we chose the word 'twitter', and it was perfect. The definition was 'short burst of inconsequential information', and 'babbling birds.' And that's exactly what this product is,"

Jack Dorsey to Time

Twitter was first used as an internal service for Odeo employees, and the full version was introduced to the public on July 15, 2006.Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Dorsey and other Odeo staff formed a new company, acquired Odeo and all of its assets - including Odeo.com and Twitter.com - from investors and shareholders.

In the course of time, Twitter has experienced rapid growth. Jack, who was once a nobody, is now known as one of the technology billionaires in the world, and is predicted to be 'The Next Steve Jobs'.

The man who was born on November 19, 1976 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, has been struggling with technology since he was young, and you could say that since he was a kid he had become a computer bug.

At the age of 13 while in high school, he started programming. Two years later, he succeeded in creating an open source software for managing taxi communications which is still in use today. Dorsey then attended Missouri University of Science & Technology, then moved to New York University.

Having fun trying new things led him to get to know various fields, until he finally found his passion in technology. In addition to founding Twitter, Jack also created Square, a mobile application that turns an iOS gadget into a portable credit card processor.

Thanks to the success of Twitter, Dorsey was splashed with a lot of wealth. His most recent wealth is in the range of USD 1.1 billion.

In mid-2012, Dorsey bought a very luxurious house located on the San Francisco bay. Reportedly, the house was worth USD 9.9 million or around IDR 90 billion.

This mansion is hidden on top of a rocky cliff high above the San Francisco Bay. It was so barely visible that the US technology media joked that this house was suitable as a hiding place for James Bond's enemies.

Even though he has become a billionaire with a fortune of more than USD 1 billion, Jack still looks simple. For example, he prefers to take public buses to work every day, rather than driving his own car.

The reason was, he could better recognize his surroundings. Not infrequently, by seeing first hand the situation around him, he also often gets inspiration.

Spend time meditating

As one of the eccentric figures in Silicon Valley, Jack Dorsey is quite upset with his possessions. He even had time to go to Myanmar for 10 days to meditate and fast internet in Myanmar.

Away from the glitzy life, Jack Dorsey spends his birthday celebrations meditating. There he practices a technique that he says will "rip off the innermost layers of the mind and reprogram it."

For my birthday this year, I did a 10-day silent vipassana meditation, this time in Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar 🇲🇲. We went into silence on the night of my birthday, the 19th. Here's what I know 👇🏼

- jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) December 9, 2018

While in Myanmar, Dorsey stayed at Dhamma Mahimã, an ancient meditation center called Vipassana in the Pyin Oo Lwin area. There are no five-star hotels or luxurious facilities, Dorsey only sleeps in a simple room with pillows without a mattress.

Not being able to do things in general, such as exercising or listening to music, is certainly quite difficult. But for him, practicing meditation like this provides a small space to calm down.

"The time I took to do this gave so much back to me and my work," he said.

We also meditated in a cave in Mandalay one evening. In the first 10 minutes I got bit 117 times by mosquitoes 🦟 They left me alone when the light blew a fuse, which you can see in my heart rate lowering. pic.twitter.com/rz59Wx9yHF

- jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) December 9, 2018

For two years, he focused on vipassana meditation. This is the only way for Dorsey to relieve the stress of work and stress for 20 years.

"A healthier lifestyle ultimately makes me more creative and allows me to think more cohesive," says Dorsey.