I used to do my utmost to suspend belief
Until the day it hit me like a kick in the teeth
-Ivy, I Guess I'm Just A Little Too Sensitive
I usually listen to Ivy when sad. It happened when hearing about Steve Jobs. These two lines are what came to mind. Because...
We suspended belief when we stood in line for the new iPhone.
We were kicked in the teeth when heard the news Steve had died.
When Steve Jobs resigned in August I posted my thoughts. I'm finally able to read stories about Steve Jobs without tearing up and becoming consumed with grief. So I finally feel able to explore why I, and people from all over the world, felt this unexpected sadness.
I believe it was a relationship with Apple and by extension Steve Jobs that people felt. Because Apple and Steve were inseparable right to the very end.
My relationship with Apple started because I was hoping for a relationship with a fellow Geology student. She used Cricket Graph on a Mac in the computer lab (in the entire lab there were only two Macs) and so this is the computer I used too. Then when I needed help I had to ask her. It seemed like a crush but was much more and would impact the rest of my life. Steve Jobs sat in on a calligraphy class at Reed College and this seemingly small chance opportunity changed typography on computers forever. I feel that my seemingly innocuous attempt at flirting by choosing the same computer as a girl I wanted to talk to changed my life forever.
This little Mac was what I used to first experience the Internet, originally with NCSA Mosaic then with something called Netscape. And it was with a Mac that years later I found my callings.
Once I used an Apple computer there was no going back. It was the first time I saw design mattering. And that mattered to me, hence Apple has been a part of my life.
And Apple was Steve Jobs.
Ivy's song is about a relationship and that is what we had with Apple - with Steve Jobs. A relationship we never thought would end.
He wasn't my hero. I looked up to him but never wanted to be him. I looked up to him as people would look at a mythical figure. He was mystifying in that what he did seemed obvious in hindsight; so why did no one else have the foresight?
With that said, I do not believe Steve Jobs was a visionary. He was an evolutionary. He made evolutionary changes that led to revolutions. He was a change agent. He joined the loose connections.
And he set the standard of standards.
Consider these:
-all commencement speeches are now compared to his 2005 Stanford commencement speech
-all Superbowl commercials are compared to his 1984 ad. Plus he made the Superbowl the platform for big commercials.
-how devices are un-boxed or judged against Apple's packaging and now there are web sites just about unboxing.
-advertisement campaigns are judged against Apple's 'Think Different' campaign which he wrote copy for
-Tim Berners Lee invented the World Wide Web on Steve Jobs' post-Apple NEXT computer
-Apple stores are the most successful retail stores in the world and Steve Jobs had final say in their architectural design
-then of course, look at phones, music players, tablet computers, computers, music stores, and video rentals before Apple entered those markets
Steve Jobs really did change everything. So when you see comments from people saying "I never used Apple products but..." they are misguided. Everyone has benefited from Apple. Because to compete, companies have had to be more like Apple in order to succeed. For just one example look at Android phones before and after the iPhone.
Apple design has spilled over all of our culture.
There won't be a "next Steve Jobs". But what we will start hearing is "so and so is the Steve Jobs of X industry".
Steve Jobs was our team captain. If we were visited by extraterrestrials and they demanded one specimen of humanity to interact with the world would have chosen Steve Jobs as our captain. And the amount of one word expletives I saw at the news of his death sounded to me like our reaction when the team we love loses unexpectedly. Our team captain had failed.
Steve was an actual Monomyth but we are used to our stories having a happy ending. He was supposed to live at the end of the story. If he can succumb to the inevitable then we all must succumb to the inevitable too.
That was a kick in the teeth.
Perhaps his greatest evolution is yet to be seen? Perhaps he did succeed in creating a culture of innovation of innovation at Apple.
I just can't stop thinking "What Now?"
For me, I plan on getting his biography this weekend.
Some of the things I have been reading about Steve:
Fortune: Steve Jobs and Me: A journalist reminisces
Slate: The Man Who Invented Our World
HBR: Steve's Seven Insights for 21st Century Capitalists
Wired: Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011
Wired: Guest Column: Steve Jobs, Obsession, and Those Whales
Wired: Guest Column: Steve Jobs as Frank Lloyd Wright
Wired: Guest Column: Steve Jobs, For The Love of Technology
WSJ: Mossberg: The Steve Jobs I Knew
MercuryNews: Why we all feel the passing of Steve Jobs so deeply
Esquire: Steve Jobs and the Portal to the Invisible
Slate: Steve Jobs and Me
Poynter: iMemorial: Steve Jobs honored on front pages, magazine covers, news & tech websites
NYT: Steve Jobs: Imitated, Never Duplicated
TheAtlantic: Why We Mourn Steve Jobs
Wirecutter: Steve Jobs Was Always Kind To Me (Or, Regrets of An Asshole)
RWW: What Steve Meant Back Then
"For an entire generation of young Americans who had every reason to believe what they were being told by their teachers, their friends, their bosses, even their family - that their dreams and ambitions were unattainable and that we were just cogs in a great machine we could never understand - Steve Jobs was living, breathing, human proof that it was all wrong. We were all vessels for something greater, we had it within ourselves to put on a game face and stand up to everything and everyone. He was the personification of "Hell, no!""
Ars: Steve Jobs: a personal remembrance
TheStreet: Steve Jobs' Death Is 'Setback for Humankind'
Macworld UK: Opinion: Why Steve Jobs's death feels so sad
TechReview: Steve Jobs, Storyteller
AllThingsD: Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert Say Goodbye to Steve Jobs
RWW: Steve Jobs' Legacy In the Pantheon of Great American Innovators
