I mean, we never met. I never emailed him. I never sought him out when I went to Cupertino, or to MacWorld
Yet it makes me incredibly sad that Steve Jobs is gone.
It’s hard to verbalize, but I feel like I lost one of my biggest advocates, as a creative person. The one person that understood the most impactful and yet minimally intrusive balance of technology for creating.
What I do know, is that every ‘thing’ I have created in my lifetime, everything of value, has involved his vision. From publishing a magazine, to promoting poetry, to broadcasting radio, to making a feature length movie- everything I have done has involved working with the results of his vision.
It’s not something you can just pick up the next day and carry on, it never was- that was the point, connecting the human experience to the machine.
Stuff was fun to make because he made things that were fun to use, things that bring emotional joy to the touch.
And that’s gone now.
My first brand new mac, not used, but brand new to me out of the box- was the 1999 iBook, orange. I still have it. I learned young to never cast things away wastefully. It was probably the most exciting purchase I had made of a new item. I remember the keynote that introduced it. I remember Phil’s great ‘leap of faith’ to show how awesome wi-fi was. I remember the Re-Mac guys saying they believed it was the first orange iBook in Arizona. Just opening an Apple product is a joy.
I remember his mantra about the joining of Liberal Arts and Technology, how it was so important to manage to those ideals. I remember Michael Dell saying Apple was going to go out of business. I remember the iPhone, and while I wasn’t too excited when it first came out and waited for it to come to Verizon, how much I realize now that it is such a powerful tool in my everyday life.
I remember waiting to go on vacation until the day we got out iPads so my wife and I could play with them while away.
I think about all the work I’ve done, and how as one person I can manage a movie studio, recording studio, publishing company and literary nonprofit all from a single technological command center of 3 macs, 1 iPhone and 1iPad.
His love of fonts and work on MacWrite would lay the groundwork for the desktop publishing revolution. His love of music and his work to make MP3′s available as a viable business also made it possible for me and millions like me to make their work available to mass audiences. I could go on and on, his achievements will be chronicled by many far more qualified than I.
Without that vision, none of that would be possible. I, and everyone that has been creative on a mac, and iPod, or an iPad- owe him gratitude for this.
He has always been a hero to me,
And I never even knew him.
Goodbye,
Thank You.
