RIP Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

[Pompidou]

I'm writing this on my Macbook Pro, charging my iPhone 4, and hoping the Jobs' legacy lives on. Very few CEOs can be said to be as one with their company's success as Jobs to Apple. He was Apple. I hope his successors learned a thing or two under his tutelage. They've got some big shoes to fill.

 

[Tomasso]

I hope his successors learned a thing or two under his tutelage. They've got some big shoes to fill.

It's well known on the Street that Tim Cook has been doing the heavy lifting at Apple for quite some time. Apple is a definite hold; borderline buy.

 

[kyboots]

I think Steve Jobs was the Thomas Edison of our time. Edison's inventions were expensive for the time too.

 

[Tomasso]

I think Steve Jobs was the Thomas Edison of our time.

It may interest you to read this.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

It may interest you to read this.

I think that some of the comments are more interesting than the article...

 

[scotrace]

It may interest you to read this.

Who is that in the left hand picture? If the author thinks that's Edison...

 

[Nobert]

I didn't think that looked like Edison. I figured it was just a picture of him younger than I had seen before.

 

[sheeplady]

As much as I may disagree with a lot of things about Apple, I think that article is missing the point. Do some people give Steve Jobs too much credit? More than likely yes. Given the circles I run in, I know people who often take their technology favorites a little too far, and I personally don't like hero worship.

The lasting legacy of the Steve Job's run Apple will probably not be the iPad or the iPhone, or anything like that. We won't be using them 100 years from now- no more than we are still using the same type of lightbulbs that were created by Edison. We're still not plugging away at Apple Lisas. However, the advances Apple made in GUIs, PCs, and handheld touch digital media devices, etc. rightly will be the ancestors to many products way into the future. And those original advancements in technological thinking are what need to recognized- not the technologies themselves.

Now was Steve Jobs the inventor of those things? No. But he did create an innovative environment that fostered the technological leaps some of those things. His company dramatically changed our technological trajectory as a society- for good or bad (one could argue). He also helped to reinvent a company that was close to disappearing into a huge market player.

 

[ButteMT61]

Well thanks for setting us straight on how to remember Steve.

 

[Tomasso]

His company dramatically changed our technological trajectory as a society

Shouldn't the credit/blame be spread across dozens of companies, if not the entire industry including university research centers, rather than just one company.

 

[ButteMT61]

This was meant to be a thread to honor the memory of Steve Jobs, not a place to argue his or Apple's credits in tech. Please?

 

[sheeplady]

Well thanks for setting us straight on how to remember Steve.

Sorry if I offended. That's how I choose to remember him.

Shouldn't the credit/blame be spread across dozens of companies, if not the entire industry including university research centers, rather than just one company.

Yes, of course. The GUIs we have today wouldn't exist if not for the early intense competition between several companies. Although, sadly, we do have a tendency to take "innovators" out of context; which is often a context of extreme competition.

 

[Tomasso]

This was meant to be a thread to honor the memory of Steve Jobs, not a place to argue his or Apple's credits in tech. Please?

Is it not common to reminisce and discuss a person's life and achievements upon their passing?

 

[ButteMT61]

Is it not common to reminisce and discuss a person's life and achievements upon their passing?

Not like this. Substitute your father for Steve and think about it.
it was getting nitpicky and more demeaning, but I am fond of him so maybe it's just me. I don't need to revisit the thread any longer so have at it.

 

[Tomasso]

The GUIs we have today wouldn't exist if not for the early intense competition between several companies.

Absolutely, and that competition required Supreme Court adjudication.

 

[sheeplady]

Absolutely, and that competition required Supreme Court adjudication.

lol That statement made my day.

I was just looking at his birthdate and I realized how incredibly young he was. I am going to hug both my parents and inlaws really hard next time I see them, because they are much older than him. How sad.

 

[Mario]

Not like this. Substitute your father for Steve and think about it.
it was getting nitpicky and more demeaning, but I am fond of him so maybe it's just me. I don't need to revisit the thread any longer so have at it.

Beg yer pardon but I think you're taking your admiration a little too far. I'm with sheeplady: I don't like hero worship.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I'm not much for idolizing anyone...but it does seem that some would rather cut down any type of hero...even if they may have deserved the honor on several battlefronts.
HD

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I said my RIP and respect already. I paid no attention to the "whom" as far as business or anything famous about this person as really when I first observed the thread I was thinking, "Steve who"? I could have cared less what the guy did as long as he was not a mass murderer.

 

[sheeplady]

Beg yer pardon but I think you're taking your admiration a little too far. I'm with sheeplady: I don't like hero worship.

I believe ButteMT61 knew him personally, and we should respect that this loss for him was therefore highly personal.

The sad fact is that many people who are close to someone who dies, particularly someone "famous" have to go through a very public vetting of their grief. Which isn't easy for them. I haven't seen anyone question IF Mr. Jobs had value as a person, but they are trying to understand what his legacy will be. I've seen some family members go through a very nasty public vetting of their grief over the death of a private family member, where the value of the person himself was questioned. The tone seems to me to be quite different- one is respectful and the other is not. Of course, for people who are deep in their personal grief, it is hard to tell the difference.

I'm not much for idolizing anyone...but it does seem that some would rather cut down any type of hero...even if they may have deserved the honor on several battlefronts.
HD

I think that there is a fine line. What I was refering to is some of the people I know (who did not know Mr. Jobs personally or professionally) who have in some ways idiolized him and his death to the point where I believe that the vast majority of people would be uncomfortable with such statements being made about themselves following their deaths.