I know that it will be just a number…
Anyway, I would like to write down a few lines in memory of someone who spent his whole life changing ours.
I’m not talking about eletronic gadgets, computers, phones… Steve Jobs’ main contribution to me, and probably everyone else, even if they don’t realize it, is simplicity.
It doesn’t matter if you have an Android phone or an iPhone or any fancy smartphone today, you use Jobs’ legacy of ultimate simplicity and, well… it just works (at least it tries to
I see him as a rebel, a man from the future. I won’t ever forget him talking about the iPad upon its launch. Facing many criticism, he stated that just like man moved from trucks to cars when going to the city, the tablets would be the same kind of transition. The streets full of tablets won’t let him lie. The iPads came from “WTF is that s%#t?” to “OMG!1!!1!!!! I must have one!”.
He showed us many times how to win, but also how to lose. Not all Apple products when he was in charge were successful, but he kept trying, doing what had to be done. He endorsed many things that were just lost… music in a flash drive? 3D movies? Unix on 2001? tablets? smartphone for real people? He gotta be kidding… turns out he was not!
Again, he was the first man to lead me to an insight about how we should design stuff we do for people that are potentially different from us, with different needs. Not all computer should be designed for engineers, nor all web pages should be designed for other web developer. There is some kind of altruism in his works that is overlooked. But at the same time we now know about it and practice without even thinking about.
I hope history gets written by someone who can grasp those facts and put them where they deserve, because he was absolutelly not just a number.
To all his family, all my thoughts to you! And you are damn lucky to have the privilege of living close to him!
I’m not upset about what just happened, because I really do believe that we are just on a trip, and as so I can just wish:
Godspeed you! Steve Jobs
mailto: rememberingsteve@apple.com