Mourning Steve Jobs - a personal perspective

Steve Jobs, who died yesterday from cancer, was one of my few heroes throughout my twenties. (right up there with George Lucas) I remember when Jobs bought Pixar from Lucas. I remember when Apple bought NeXT & Jobs returned to give the world the iPod, iTunes, iPhone. Jobs was a brilliant visionary.

Being the type of person who's most happy writing or puttering with technology and science, I haven't spent much of my life following the careers of business people. In fact, I can't think of anyone else other than Steve Jobs whose career has fascinated me over the years.

I was crushed when he had to leave Apple in 1986 due to a corporate power struggle. For me and many others, Apple was synonymous with Steve Jobs.

I was a professional programmer starting at 17. While managing a writing, training, and systems analysis department, I also turned to engineering in my twenties.

There were plenty of women doing all the peripheral work involved with launching computer products, but very few of us were allowed or able to gravitate to circuitry and low-level code. Back then, if you were fascinated by circuitry, hex, bdos commands, C, machine code, Assembly, and so forth, well, it was a man's world.

In the 90s, I shifted heavily into virtual reality, animation, and the more creative aspects of programming.

But in those early days, my heroes were all men. A few guys with whom I worked. And Steve Jobs. Visionaries. People I admired and respected, right up there with George Lucas.

"If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it." - Steve Jobs

His advice also applies to writers. Don't settle. Be true to yourselves, write what you believe and what matters to you. Never lose faith.