Editorial

Few untouched by genius of Apple founder

Thursday, October 6, 2011

It's surprising just how hard the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has hit the world, especially those of us of his generation, and those who spend their days staring at a computer screen.

Then again, maybe it's not surprising, especially to anyone in the newspaper or other media business.

Around our office at the Gazette, there are few things in our daily lives that Jobs hasn't influenced directly or indirectly, from the screens we stare at (an iMac) to create these words, to the operating system it is running, the desktop publishing software used to create the page and process the pictures, to the software and equipment used to publish the final product on newsprint or over the Internet.

The lucky among our online readers enjoy the newspaper on an iPad tablet computer, and when they're done reading, they may be exercising with iPod buds in their ears, listening to music purchased online at the iTunes store

If they don't use actual Apple equipment, they're using something that would like to be -- Windows software that looks like Apple's original point-and-click system, an Android tablet or a generic MP3 player.

We remember writing news stories about the first Apple II computers installed at high schools, primitive boxes feeding signals into television screens, but amazingly accessible compared to the hulking mainframes confined to air conditioned rooms at universities and banks prior to that time.

Forced to the sidelines, Jobs and a small rebel crew created the elegant Macintosh computer while the stogy board then in charge of Apple wasted company resources on the plodding, expensive Lisa computer.

Back in charge, Jobs did his best to make the hardware disappear, shedding buttons and knobs on the way to the slim, smooth iPod, iPhone, MacBook Air and iPad.

Little wonder, then, that consumers even in China prefer genuine Apple products to the knock-offs they manufacture for export to the West.

Quite an accomplishment for a college dropout who once slept on friends' floors, turned in Coke bottles for the deposits and depended on a Hare Krishna soup kitchen for sustenance. His vision and focus resonated with customers, building Apple to the point it is now neck-and-neck with Exxon in the race to be the world's most valuable company.

In the end, Jobs, who once used LSD and converted to Buddhism, put things into perspective as he faced his own mortality:

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. ... Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

-- Stanford University commencement address, June 2005.

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