My favourite uncle Steve Jobs
Losing Steve Jobs to me is like losing my favourite uncle. You know what uncle that you get an encouraging call from every once in a while? The one that will listen to what’s going on in your life and then nudge you in the right direction by saying something simple, yet profound, that you don’t begin to understand until days later? That’s how I view the impact of Steve Jobs in my life.
My world would not be what it is, without his passion and drive. He has helped shape the way I view design and technology, and the nexus in between. As I sit here writing this from a MacBook Pro, with my iPhone at my side, I recollect the first sites that I built back in the mid-90’s, they were built on my first Mac. When OS X came out, I convinced a client (DJ Irie) to pay me with a new PowerBook 17. It had just come out. The day when I received it, I turned off a windows desktop, and a linux desktop, both of which I used daily, the windows for design, the linux for development. I never turned them back on. I never looked back.
My son, who will turn 7 next week, has only had experienced the world of computers with an Apple. A day I bought my iPad, I put a few games on it, and handed it to him. His initial reaction was, “Sooo, that’s your iPhone and this is my giant iPhone?” His world has never been the same.
There are few moments that I can recollect when my relationship with technology has been reshaped the way it was that day. Most of the moments since have involved an Apple product. It is how I, and several of my friends make our livelihoods. Without Steve Jobs, the ecosystem that we thrive under wouldn’t exist. So I am grateful, eternally. My family is grateful.
Thank you Steve. Thank you!
Today, I’ll call my actual favourite uncle to remind him how much he means to me (and get that nudge).