Steve Jobs

I’ve been really struggling with what to write about Steve’s passing. He was the person I admired the most in the world. He was insanely great(tm) at something I place an enormous amount of value in - being right. Other people have called this having great taste, but I don’t think that really covers it.

His hypercritical eye and legendary attention to detail empowered his companies to execute flawlessly. However, this execution only had any effect because he was consistently right about the big picture stuff - the internet, digital media, smart phones, tablets.. etc as well as the small stuff, down to gradients on tiny text. Being able to execute and having the resolve to carry things through are things people can work on, but I think being right is innate, and something he was endowed with more than anyone.

You’ve probably read a number of pieces on Steve over the past weeks, but a few things you might not have seen that I think are really worthwhile:

1985 interview with Playboy // 40 pages.. worth it

1997 WWDC closing keynote // long.. but the most unfiltered video I’ve seen of Steve

2005 Stanford commencement address

2007 iPhone announcement (part 1, part 2)

Gruber on the last time he saw Steve

He certainly put a dent in the universe, one that I’m thankful for.

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  1. criticalthinking posted this