Note: I began to write this post the very same day Steve Jobs died. Reading the huge amount of information about him and how others ponder his life gave me second thoughts. So many people saying wonderful, marvelous stories on the way he changed their lives...by giving them a device to listen to music, a really, really cool laptop or a phone to do far more than just a phone call. It allows you to play endless hours killing angry birds (let´s be honest here, that is one of the most used apps, not the mobile version of the Wikipedia). Now I am indeed tired of it and would like to add some details to balance the legacy he has left behind.
"The man is dead. It was all over the news today. Few men more notorious than the late Steve Jobs, CEO and endless times re founder of the Fruit Logo Company.
I am sure that he was a good man to his family, friends, even coworkers at Cupertino (even though many stories about the possibility of been fired after an encounter with him in the elevator in one of his bad days can be found out there to refute this one). Certainly not to employees in China working over the clock to satisfy the hunger for new sets coming from the Apple stores across the globe. But all that is not my point here. How people is about to describe him and make us read countless obituaries is the reason of this post. When someone dies, sad as it is, people related to him and, like in this case, many others will express condolences, say things about the deceased and comfort those who grieve the big lost.
To wait for today may be seen as an opportunistic attempt to look for attention. One speaks or writes about whatever is in his mind and from now on is going to be virtually impossible not to think about Jobs in every available angle. One can say that almost everybody liked him because he represented the most precious value nowadays, success. Over and over again, against all odds. The best Hollywood movie is always in the real life somewhere. He gave us hope? Yes, in a way. He is a good value for our children to pursue? May be, may be not. What he characterized is one side of mankind. That one that makes it progress based on hard work of the brightest leading the way to the rest of us. But don´t look for a purpose there, at least not a higher one. Picasso, whom some call the greatest artist on the 20th century, changed the concept of art. New ways to approach to beauty are now present thanks to him and more artist like him. At the same time he also painted that scary, dragging, dark masterpiece called Guernica denouncing the bestiality of war. Probably that picture has had more impact in the hearts of people around the world than most other well-intentioned speeches against war, and for that he has my respect. But when I look to Steve, with so much power to influence in multiple different ways to an entire generation, I see him spreading hunger for consumer products, luxury devices, crammed with beauty, expensive ones that set off the purchase lust like madness all over the world.
On a certain interview he said philanthropy is something that requires a full time job to do it properly and, at the moment, he had other priorities concerning his company. That is as much as saying no to almost everything we cannot be certain to achieve perfectly. That sends a message too. The ultimate excuse not to do so many things. For those who have spent their lives telling people that a little bit of them multiplied by millions can make the difference is not a good view to see how they have to fight "priorities". Instead of "help what you can even though you cannot change the world because many others are doing the same", we have now the "life is too short, pursuit your dream" being advertised by a far better, far cooler and far more alluring succeeder.
Good men are those who ease suffering, struggle for peace, discover new
medicines, not those who just enhance the user experience."
