Steve Jobs has died.
It happened with a suddenness that shocked me so badly that my brain refused to accept the news when I first heard it announced on the radio during my drive home from work yesterday.
Go ahead. Call me a “fanboy”. Get it out of your system. But before you cast too harsh a judgement on me, please let me explain that I lumped Steve Jobs up there with Jerry Garcia, Kurt Cobain, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Palahniuk, Ralph Steadman, Nine Inch Nails, and Walt Disney. These are people who were/are masters of their craft and who played a significant part in my life.
Steve Jobs was a man who made an undeniable impact in this world. He indoctrinated many into the world of computers, mastering the melding of design and function, and helmed the course of technology by branding it with his unique style and the simple mantra of “It just works”.
The phrase I heard today, “Steve Jobs is dead,” is still bouncing around in my head like an unwelcome house guest. It’s difficult to comprehend how Apple is going to move forward at this this point without the man who helped to create it, then returned to rescue it from certain destruction, eventually re-building it into a company that is now worth more then $380 billion dollars.
Think about that. $380 billion dollars. That’s worth more than ten times the combined value of every NFL franchise. That’s worth more than all of the gold at the New York Federal Reserve. Heck, that’s worth more than the total income tax paid by all U.S. corporations in 2011.
And he did this by making computers hip. He did this by designing computers with “ease of use” in mind. And he did this by simply making a quality product that “just worked”, and doing his best to do it right the first time with each new product. Nothing more.
He was a once-in-a-generation type of guy.
Steve Jobs…you will be missed.
