I keep reading about Steve Jobs and even crying as I do. Now, I'm pretty sentimental, and I cry easily, but, nonetheless, I am surprised at the intensity of my feelings. True, I've been a devoted Apple fan for years. I own a MacBook, an iPhone and an iPad and have at least two iPods somewhere in the house. I have over 90GB of music -- 18,000+ tracks -- in my iTunes library, I have an iMac at work and I look forward to buying a MacBook Pro to replace the MacBook.
So, yeah, I'm a big fan of Apple products.
But, still.
What was it about Jobs that touched me? Maybe that he didn't wear a tie. I love that, being a special hater of ties. Maybe that he was partial to mock turtlenecks; I have a couple dozen and wear one virtually every day in the winter.
Mostly I guess it's that Steve Jobs knew what I wanted before I did. He designed products that were smart, easy and cool. The promo video for the new iPhone 4S includes the line "it just works." That's the way I feel about almost all Apple products. They do what I want them to do and they do it easily, without the clutter and jargon that confounds Microsoft users.
I hope Apple can soldier on, for I don't think Steve Jobs is replaceable. As David Pogue wrote in today's Times, he has been compared to Thomas Edison, Walt Disney and Leonardo DaVinci. That's some pretty impressive and rare company!
I will steal a page from Pogue and end with this quote from Jobs's 2005 commencement address at Stanford:
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Rest in peace Steve, and thank you for making my life more interesting.
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