Who Steve Jobs Was

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

Who Steve Jobs Is

I remember the day in 1997 when Gil Amelio left and Steve Jobs came back. For me it was a day of confusion as at the time I did not have an understanding of how and why Steve left Apple before. These were the days of endless rumors of Apple's Rhapsody OS to replace System 8 - of Red Box, Yellow Box, and Blue Box. And the days of factions of what Apple should do next. I was one of those who wanted Apple to buy BeOS. Others wanted Apple to keep pursuing Rhapsody. The NeXT aquisition was a surprise to many, but when you saw that it included Steve Jobs, then in hindsight it all makes sense.

This was also the time when Apple had failed to sell itself to Sun and Michael Dell famously said "What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." (10 yrs later Apple was worth twice as much as Dell).

What no one saw is that Steve Jobs was returning from his personal diaspora with a new focus. But he knew it "Focusing is about saying no". (YouTube link) And this is why Apple has been such a great story. Like Neo returning from the dead in the Matrix, Aragorn returning from the Paths of the Dead, Luke Skywalker returning from Dagobah. What Joseph Campbell described as the Monomyth.

This is the path Steve Jobs has been on. Kicked out of Apple, years in the wilderness, and returned to lead what arguably is the most successful company in history.

When he came back he re-focused Apple.

The biggest change I see CEO Steve Jobs making is he returned Apple to what it was always supposed to be - a hardware company. While he was away Apple became mired in the OS wars. As the technology caught up with Steve he leapfrogged these arguments of the past and that is where I see his genius. To always be looking forward. To make Apple hugely popular but still innovative. To be appealing while having a mass appeal.

I do believe that his resignation as CEO but staying as Chairman of the Board is about Steve searching for a higher purpose at Apple. To finally let go of the details.

Because he has always been about the details and there is only so much mental energy you can devote to these things. When he announced he was resigning there were two anecdotes I read that, for me, capture what makes him so effective.

NPR: A Story About Steve Jobs And Attention To Detail

Business Insider: It Took Me 13 Years To Understand Steve Jobs

Fast Company has a long summary of these kinds of stories: The First Time I Met Steve Jobs...

Later, I asked him why he had seemed happier with the boy than with the two famous artists. His answer seemed unrehearsed to me: ‘Older people sit down and ask, “What is it?” but the boy asks, “What can I do with it?”

Other ways to understand who Steve Jobs is:

BI: Apple's Incredible Run Under Steve Jobs

Forbes: How Apple works: Inside the world's biggest startup: From Steve Jobs down to the janitor: How America's most successful - and most secretive - big company really operates.

Watch his 2005 Stanford University commencement speech

I look forward to the upcoming biography.