I sometimes find it crazy how the death of someone you didn’t even know, let alone never met, can hit you so hard. I’m speaking of Steve Jobs, of course.
Maybe it’s because I’m such an Apple fanboy, or maybe it’s because I understand where he came from with his design philosophy, or maybe it’s because I appreciated his minimalistic design aesthetic, but it’s a painful loss.
For me, personally, I’m fine and I’ll be fine. I’ve always been able to roll with the punches where death is concerned–call it a bit of a curse, realization, understanding, and acceptance that death is an inevitable component of life. But for others–his family and friends–they likely aren’t in that same position, and for them, I’m sad.
I’m also sad for us, those who didn’t know him but have been touched by him. It’s not overstating it to say that he changed the world. Don’t believe me? Look at every phone that has come out since the iPhone. There were predecessors, you say? Yeah, but did they have anywhere near the same success?
Steve Jobs was a genius. I don’t know if his IQ would have placed him in MENSA, and frankly it’s not important. His genius was in seeing into the future, in seeing how and why a product would be useful and be desirable. He was also a hell of a marketer, but that doesn’t take away from the absolute fact that his decisions, his inventions, his vision has shaped the world.
iPod. iPhone. iPad. Oh, and that little thing called the personal computer. Remember that? You can thank Steve Jobs for that. Of course he had others around him–Steve Wozniak, Jony Ive, Scott Forstall, the list goes on an on–who were important and without whom he couldn’t have accomplished everything he did, but it took him, that one man with a vision, to bring it all together. And let’s not forget Pixar and the wonders he worked with them and Disney.
So yes, I’m sad, but I know my sadness means little when there’s a wife without a husband and children without a father.
It’s not every day that a sculptor of humanity dies. The world lost an important person yesterday.
RIP, Steve.
