The world mourns one of the most influential thinkers, designers and company leaders the modern world has ever seen.
Steve Jobs passed away last night at the age of 56.
For the younger generation, brought up on his technologies and products, his name only reached a fraction. A man with strong integrity and even in his resignation, an impassioned sense of dignity, he could take to a stage and wonder tens of millions — but never wanted his name to be at the forefront of what he did.
A humble man, his work surpassed the person he was, and wanted to be.
Facing an elephant in the room, I know I am young, and I never met Jobs. Unlike some of my colleagues, my image — along with others in my age range — have a different perspective of what Jobs was like in the public eye; who he was as a person, perceived and otherwise, and how he brought joy to millions in form of his part technological genius.
As someone who joined the computing revolution late, along with my generation, our front-facing view of who Jobs was is through the products he helped create, design and manufacture. Every curve, pixel and name was carefully crafted and thronged upon by tens, even hundreds of millions of people who share my generational title.
“The world is immeasurably better because of Steve”; words from the Apple board of directors. Amid the words from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Google chief executive Larry Page, these words from his own company resonate and penetrate the deepest.
Almost in his wishes, as a private, carefully crafted man to the world outside of his, his work shall be the forefront of remembrance amongst the Generation Y.
There is no doubt that the subsection of the Generation Y, known as the ‘iGeneration’, stems wholly and directly from Apple’s creative line of products. Symbolised with the lower case ‘i’, the effect Apple’s ethos had on today’s generation is unparalleled
In this day and age, it is not uncommon for technology entrepreneurs to follow a similar path; the Facebook founder, the Google co-founders, and nearly every startup chief in Silicon Valley. But Jobs was one of very few who made themselves into something to be desired and inspired.
Dropped out of college at aged 18, and co-founded Apple at 21 in his parents garage, Jobs was a multi-millionaire by age 25; a year later appearing on the front cover of Time magazine at 26.
Jobs, though never completing college, received his award, and gave a speech at the Stanford Commencement ceremony. Discussing life, getting fired, and facing his own mortality, looking back ‘at the dots’ as he pointed to in his speech, these words resonate with my generation just as his company’s ethos continues to do, and his products carry on inspiring.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
Related:
- ZDNet’s Complete Coverage
- Larry Dignan: Steve Jobs’ big lesson: ‘Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish’
- Steve Jobs: Our digital version of Walt Disney
- Violet Blue: The spontaneous San Francisco Apple Store Memorial for Steve Jobs
- Gallery: Spontaneous Apple store memorial service for Steve Jobs
- Jason Perlow: Steve Jobs eventually made me Think Different
- ZDNet Video: Steve Jobs: A life in technology
- Steve Jobs: Magic moments on stage
Around the network:
- CBS News Video: What drove Steve Jobs?
- CBS News: He thought different
- CNET: Obama, friends, rivals, officials mourn Steve Jobs
