I learned of Steve Jobs' passing Wednesday evening in an appropriately ironic way - I was arriving for a meeting with a local tech startup.
The news had cascaded just minutes before, and my host opened the front door of the hip Pearl-district incubator just as I reached it. He glanced at me, and intuited from my habitual dumb grin that I'd not heard. We had a very simple exchange:
Steve is dead, he said.
Damn, is all I could come up with.
We techies are a famously eloquent lot.
Before we settled down to our scheduled exchange of views on business model viability and funding options for my host's six-month old startup, we did trade some metaphors for the finite and precious quantity that is life. Each of our metaphors was new to the other, and that was a blessing.
I believe we both left that evening resolved to work: not so much work harder, but something deeper - to put more of ourselves into what we do. This seems to be Steve's esoteric legacy, for my tribe, at least.
But moving to the tributes for Steve and the ramifications of his passing in the context of our larger tribe - the American Nation - I can recommend no better piece that this, from our Newspaper of Record.
This is where we're at, God bless us.
We've lost a master innovator and a visionary. Our Newspaper of Record hit the nail on the head.
ReplyDeleteRIP Steve. The world is a better place because you graced us with your dreams and intellect.
That summed it up nicely, lewy. Thanks for the smile.
ReplyDeleteWhen Jay Carney walked into the Oval office and announced, "Mister Persident, we've lost Jobs", Obama looked up and replied, "Hey, that wasn't my fault, it was George Bush!"
ReplyDeleteG-R-O-A-N
ReplyDeletetee hee
Excellent Lewy.
ReplyDeleteI'm an Apple/Mac/ipad/ipod/iphone ignoramus. I own none of these products. And probably never will. I hope, however, that I have an appreciation of what they are and what they do.
With the great comes the not so great. I am surrounded at all times at work, traveling on business, on public transit, by automons with no facial expressions or vocabulary. All they are capable of is the rapid movement of a forefinger across a screen, or opposible thumbs tapping out illiterate messages on a minature keyboard.
/middle-aged, white woman rant, endeth now.
Sing it sistah!
ReplyDeleteI'm in the same position (an Apple/Mac/ipad/ipod/iphone ignoramus. I own none of these products. And probably never will) and that's just fine with me.