Now that Steve Jobs has passed away, he had left a void that is unlikely to be filled by anyone in the foreseeable future. He was one of the last greats of a decaying society, cowed in by the politically correct bigots, run by the greedy corporate execs, and managed by our own pettiness towards change. We are down a slippery slope, age of masters is already past. We have not seen great composers for two odd generations, Elgar (Edward) may have been the last and we are now satisfied with Barenboim and Robert Miles. As for science, the situation is pitiful – Feynman must have been the last we will ever see. Sure there is Kary Mulis, and Stephen Hawkins. But they are not in the same league as Fermi, Feynman, or surely Oppenheimer.
In the dark night skies where all the stars have burnt out, we see a few specks of light, and Steve was one of them. I know he did not invent a thing, yet he paved the way to our modern computer (with apologies to Alan Turin), he was a pirate, who stole the ideas from others, but he made it all out there. Had Mr Jobs not intervened, we’d be stuck with that Gates fellow, and I would rather go back to the stylus and slate. If you want to get a better understanding of these guys, why not watch Pirates of Silicon Valley – best description of the bunch by far, and you don’t even have to be a movie buff to watch it.
Many people have put their condolence messages on the Yahoo message board, and of the lot I chose the one that says “there are three apples that changed the world. The first was Eve’s apple that gave way to us all, then it was Newton’s apple which brought out modern science, and then its Steve Job’s Apple..” I find it hard to disagree.
And there is another point that binds them together – a bit far removed from the Apple thingy. Adam was a bastards who slept with his own daughters and fornicated against the will of the God (never mind how stupid god was to place the accursed tree out there in the open – what the f was the purpose of that? Then again he had the good sense to make the pot plant too and place in the Garden of Eden..), and Sir Isaac Newton was a bastard who committed arson by setting fire to his own parental house to roast the parents, and Steve jobs was an equal to his Apple-sakes by being a despotic leader and denying fatherhood of his own daughter – he went as far as claiming he was sterile!!! Oddly enough, when Steve returned to Apple, employees dreaded of bumping into him in the building. The story was “if you met Steve in the elevator, you would not have the job when the doors opened”! just think of it.
But then again he was not all that bad. He did have many, very many in fact, things going positive for him. He did everything right, made good machines, changed the world, reconciled with his estranged daughter and wife, brought in the iPhone, brought the mouse (computer) in to everyday use, lived an average life, and most of all – he gave strength and courage to all up coming young talent. He was the role model for many, showing them how to turn misfortunes into great success stories, how to rise from the ashes, and, ah, why college dropouts do better than book worms!
So where do we stand here? Sure he was a genius, sure he made an indelible mark on our day to day lives, and was the role model for many. But his private life was something of a mess, with authoritarian approach, selfishness and reluctance to appreciate how others feel. Strange that the best human-computer interface came from a man who did not sometimes recognise the humanity in people around him (from that sterile claim incident to pulling down a historic edifice just before his death).
I tell you where we stand – we stand where we accept Steve Jobs’ humanity. Sure he was all that. But his personal weaknesses only point to the fact that he himself was only human. Man. Was man not the God’s supreme creation? Steve was a man, and his life proves it.
Disheartened?
Consider Mr Gates then. He never tried LSD, or went to an Ashram, or tried to deny fatherhood. Exemplary man isn’t he. Now take one effing look at his creation – the Windows Operating System….
