Today, Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman of the board, former CEO of Apple lost his long battle with pancreatic cancer. In the coming days, perhaps even weeks, there will be many words written and many tributes paid to the life and legacy of Steve Jobs, his vision and his contributions to the world of technology. I can only say how profoundly he has affected me and how he, his genius and Apple have transformed my life.
My First Computer
Back in the 1980′s I registered for ‘Desktop Publishing” classes at Richland Community College. We had a classroom full of MacIntosh Computers, each with a whopping 20 MG hard drive. Thus began my love affair with Steve Jobs. That little beige box greeted me with smile and helped to calm my anxiety about embarking on a new career.
Over the years, I allowed price point and bad advice from friends to convince me to buy a PC, but my heart always belonged to Apple. I listened to Steve and began to “Think Different“. Eventually, I followed my heart and started my new career as a writer and I made the transformation with a brand new iPhone 4 and Mac Mini. (And soon, an iPad!)
Think Different
When I was young, computers were huge machines occupying entire rooms. They were massive, loud, heat-generating monsters that ate punch cards and required a staff of 10 people to tend to their electronic needs. If someone had told me then that I would have a computer sitting on my desk, capable processing millions more bytes of millions information than that massive computer or that I would own a wireless telephone equally as powerful, I could not have imagined it.
That is where I begin remembering Steve Jobs…with imaginination. Thinking of new and wonderful things beyond imaging and having the vision to create them.
It was not because we needed a new computer, we already had personal computers. But we didn’t have the well-designed, user friendly Mac. We already had MP3 players, but we didn’t have the compact sleekness of the iPod. We’ve had tablet computers for years, but they were not iPads. Everyone makes cellphones and smartphones, but they weren’t the iPhone. Because Steve Jobs could ‘think different’, the world of technology has been radically changed forever.
Tonight, I sit here, saddened and slightly tearful by the passing of Steve Jobs, writing this tribute to the unparalleled visionary, hoping he will rest in peace, knowing he will not be forgotten, and knowing how much he will be missed.
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.“
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