EXCERPT:
Three recent deaths have confirmed my conviction that death has a way of illuminating life. In each instance I had the vivid realization “this man was revered”--yet these three led remarkably dissimilar lives. I naturally wondered, what makes someone revered by others?
Steve Jobs’ passing came first, and I admit the public outpouring caught me by surprise. I had never followed his story closely, so I knew only the most basic facts. He cofounded Apple; he left Apple in the 1980s, only to return when it was near bankruptcy. Soon a rapid series of innovations (from iPods to iPhones to iPads) transformed Apple from a struggling computer builder into the world’s dominant manufacturer of personal digital devices….
… Apple’s elegant software “architecture” made it the darling of early adopters and aficionados of technological beauty.
And that’s what Steve Jobs brought to his work: a passion for beauty, even in computer technology. This meant better looking cabinets, more elegant programming, more powerful performance, and above all machines designed for ease of use. His machines were still machines, but they were more humane than other machines, and they rewarded humans in intangible ways. They did more than get the work done--they gave pleasure to the worker. Some called it “Zen computing.”
On September 16, MIT’s Kendall Square unveiled its “Entrepreneur Walk of Fame,” whose tiles at first honored but three stars: Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs. After his death, his stone was adorned with flowers, images, an apple--all surrounding the inscription taken from his own words:
Becoming the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me…Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful…that’s what matters to me.
Needless to say, Jobs’ commitment to technology’s potential to be both beautiful and humane was a wonderful enrichment to the millions whose lives he touched, and who revered him at his passing.
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