In case you were wondering, the man being helped on the plane in the new Apple Genius ad is definitely Krazee-Eyez Killa
This is not a quick read, so it’s a good opportunity to try a read-later method such as Safari’s Reading List, which Apple invented completely on their own.
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Today’s “quote that made me laugh at 7:30am”. There was a lot more competition for such a distinction than one might think.
Apple Shares Touch $600 Ahead Of New iPad →
Tumbleweedgreg must be doing an obscene and awkward happy dance right now.
Man, it’s too bad Apple is unraveling.
And those people who sold their Apple stock in October sure look smart today. It’s only up $200-a-share since then. Why not $300? Total slackers.
Meanwhile, don’t look now, but Apple’s market cap is double Microsoft’s market cap.
Negotiations with the carriers: Android handset makers: Here are our phones. How would you like us to change them so that you will sell them? Microsoft: Here’s $200 million. Please sell our phones. Apple: Here is our new phone. It comes in black or white. We will let you sell it.
— John Gruber, basically describing how the mobile phone industry operates.
We didn’t know much about each other 20 years ago. We were guided by our intuition; you swept me off my feet. It was snowing when we got married at the Ahwahnee. Years passed, kids came, good times, hard times, but never bad times. Our love and respect has endured and grown. We’ve been through so much together and here we are right back where we started 20 years ago-older, wiser-with wrinkles on our faces and hearts. We now know many of life’s joys, sufferings, secrets and wonders and we’re still here together. My feet have never returned to the ground.
— Steve Jobs, to his wife Laurene, on their 20th anniversary.
A poignant quote from Steve Jobs
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
-Steve
I think what’s so striking about this quote is how poignantly accurate it is. Steve was more legend than man, and even he struggled for the greater part of his life with the impending possibility of death. His standoff with death came sooner than most people constantly in the sight of the public.
But Steve never let that compromise his public life. He continued leading a perennially innovative company to his maximum ability, even while he was sick. When he knew that he couldn’t handle how close he was to death, he took a step back. That kind of wise perseverance is one of the most admirable things about him.
It’s very sobering to think that a man with such great power and innovation, who has literally changed the world, also is very self aware of his own mortality. He accurately recognizes his cosmic significance as minute.
Even as a man who could seemingly do anything with his own willpower and creativity, he reminds us that we are all on a one way path in life. There is only one end. And since that end cannot be changed, it is about how we fill the middle that will define our lives. Very, very few people’s lives are defined by their death, and Steve made sure he knew that every day of his life.
His words and his death have been a somber reality check for me. Even though I knew he was very sick - much sicker than he let the public know - I think part of me always assumed he would be around for awhile. He created a reality for Apple customers, one in which his designs and his products consistently reached our often astronomical expectations. His reality was so invincible, so universally accepted as truth, that I figured that there was no way he could be so close to his end.
And here we are, mourning his loss. I literally can’t believe it.
I suppose the only thing left to do is make sure that the time up until our end is filled with something we love. Whether it’s friendships, relationships, family, a career or a hobby, our time in consciousness needs to be spent well.
Advice taken, Steve.
The man. The Legend. RIP Steve.
What Steve Meant to Me
To say that mass media will be oversaturated with information, news and remembrance of Steve Jobs for the next week or so, would be an understatement. If you’re the type of person who wearies easily, or did not have much of a personal connection to Steve, whether remote or proximate, then this is isn’t a tribute written to you.
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When I was 13 years old, I went to my first Apple store. It opened up at the Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento, and when my parents took me there the first time, I fell in love with their products. It was almost a year after that I decided to buy my first Apple computer. I showed up at the store with my dad, and a wad of more than $1600 in cash to buy my first iBook. I had been saving money during the prior three years from birthdays, Christmases and chores, and up until I walked into that Apple store, I had no idea what I wanted to spend it on.
My family had been a group of staunch Dell and HP users up until that point, and so my purchase of a Mac was seen as an interesting move. But it would only take a few years before my Dad, Brother and Sister wouldn’t buy anything without an Apple symbol glowing on it’s surface.
My first iBook was the first electronic product of mine that I really loved. It’s design was so sleek, the white was so pure, and the glossy exterior gleamed in a way that made me wonder why I had been interacting with PCs at all my whole life.
It was not long after that I received an iPod for my 8th grade graduation, and knew that I was dealing with a company that knew how to engineer greatness. Even the old iPod (mine was a new 2nd generation; the kind that had the four touch buttons and the blue illuminated screen) had a simple, wonderful elegance to it. They were completely intuitive. And I was able to put all of my favorite songs in one place without having to fiddle with CDs and a walkman disc player.
As I got older, my relationship with Apple, and my idolization of Steve grew exponentially. His insistence on ensuring perfection, both functionally and visually, was a trait that I admired unyieldingly. He spoke with such confidence, such accuracy, and such enthralling presence that every single person that shared a room with him seemed to know he was there immediately. No one ignored him, because he spoke as if always on the verge of saying something extraordinary.
Most recently, Steve has been a paragon of behavioral ambition for me. He was notorious for his unrelenting belief in his own ability to force positive change. He is the reason why I believe in my career path the way I do, and the reason why I am willing to work hard to get to where I think I can change things in a marked, memorable way. His brilliance and dynamism are only attributes that can be emulated and documented, but never replicated. Even knowing this, I strive to someday be in any way similar to him.
Steve was a visionary, a leader, and above all, an unparalleled innovator and inspiration for me. He may be gone now, but his legacy is something that I have in mind every day when I wake up in the morning. He is my idol.
Farewell Steve. You’ll always be remembered by many.
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
— Steve Jobs quoting the last issue of the Whole Earth Catalogue.
