Steve Jobs

I don’t own an iPhone. Nor do I own an iPad or an iPod. I’ve never worked on or with an Apple computer. My wife put iTunes on my PC and delegated the management of her music to me. Which I hate.

So I’m not partial to Steve Jobs and Apple, and can honestly say I am not influenced in any major way by him or his company.

That being said, I was immensely saddened yesterday when I learned of his death.

Why?

After a day’s deliberation, I think it’s because I recognized (or it was explicitly pointed out to me via media eulogizing) that he was a phenomenally successful genius who influenced a large portion of the world, and for the better.

Genius always has given me chills. Part of the Hopper’s library consists of biographies of John D. Rockefeller, Albert Einstein, Paul Erdos, and Srinivasa Ramanujan, among others. The simple fact of allowing oneself to become completely overwhelmingly absorbed in a simple, singular subject, to one’s pure and utter delight, strikes me as close to the Beatific Vision as one can have on this sphere. Only perhaps a half-dozen times in my life have I come a fraction as close, close to that Elysian Field where the best and brightest humanity has had to offer up have spent hours and days, months and years.

But there’s genius, and then there’s the genius of knowing how to apply, develop, and promote one’s genius. That’s what Jobs had. That’s what kept him from a lifetime of tinkering in his parents basement or garage (or to be more accurate, he’s what kept Wozniak from spending a lifetime in his parent’s basement or garage). That’s what kept him always thinking, always innovating, always getting better. Not merely outsmarting his competitors, but reshaping the very wants and needs of the culture. That’s the genius of Steve Jobs’ genius.

Rest in peace.


A few notes, for what they’re worth –

Scary how young he died … just a dozen years older than me … and about 8 billion dollars richer.

Funny the juxtaposition of his surname with the Obama (cough, cough) “jobs” bill. Someone wittier than me needs to come up with a pithy, chuckle-worthy sentence playing on this coincidence.

The wife loved – absolutely loved – Steve Jobs. But then again, she’s much more into the whole “business” thing than I am. In fact, she begged me for a hundred bucks back in 2006 to invest in Apple stock six months before they released the iPhone. I’d’ve given it to her, had we had the dough to spare.

Somewhere I read that Jobs was adopted. God, how I wish that one day we’ll have the financial opportunity to raise an unwanted or abandoned little one. Perhaps it’s the noblest thing a human being can ever do, aside from raise his children well.

I think I’m going to require – in as friendly and playfully a way as possible – one idea from Little One (and Patch once she’s older) every night at the dinner table. Should be fun. She amazed me with her takeaway when I gave her a brief overview of Jobs’ life and accomplishments: “So, you don’t need to go to college to be successful.” Wow. I mean, wow!