Steve Jobs: 1955 - 2011

I wanted to write a review for today. But I just haven’t been able to focus on music. The passing of Steve Jobs hit me harder than I ever thought it would. I found out when a friend sent me a text message and then I immediately turned on the TV to see the news plastered across the screen. It was true. We all knew the day was coming, particularly after Steve stepped down in August, but it was still a shock when it actually happened. I spent the next hour watching the news and reading about the loss online. I felt the need to pay tribute, so I took some time and created the photo displayed below after the text. It's called "A Light in the Dark" for a number of reasons.

I can’t help but think that while Apple may continue to do well, I just don’t think it will ever be the same. I can’t imagine Apple achieving triumphs of the magnitude they did during Steve’s watch. The news shows compared him to Thomas Edison and while I thought it might be a stretch it also made sense. Steve was a visionary to be sure, and he defied the norm to do things his way, the way he felt things should be done in order to provide the best products possible. You hear stories about how getting things done right took precedence over making a quick buck; how Apple would lose money on something before putting out a product that wasn’t right. Most companies and CEOs don’t think or work that way and we are worse off for that lack of work ethic.

I was a kid when the first Apple computers were released. I remember taking an after school class with a couple other kids where we would learn to create BASIC programs on an APPLE II with the small screen and green text. I remember when the first Mac was released a few years later. I’d be lying if I said I was always an Apple fan. After Windows became popular I parted ways with Apple for many years. Windows seemed easier and more widely supported.

So for years I was an advocate of PCs over Mac. After learning the PC trying to use a Mac seemed foreign and not very intuitive, so for a few years I actively bashed on Macs. But year after year Windows kept getting more ridiculous, less stable, more bloated, less reliable…until finally I’d had enough and a few years ago I bit the bullet and bought an iMac. And what do you know, I loved it. So simple and elegant compared to the bloated monster that is Windows. I was once again an Apple fanboy overnight. I haven't even considered looking back.

So thank you Steve, for all the cool stuff. Thank you for personal computers, for iTunes and digital music, for the iPod and the iPhone, for all the different flavors of Mac, and for the iPad that I haven’t yet scraped up the money to buy. Thank you for thinking differently and inspiring our imaginations. You will be missed.