“Winter Is Coming” shirts are now IN THE STORE!!! [based on this comic]
When Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple, I made a comic about it and wrote a post about the impact Steve has has on my life and the world at large. I felt weird writing about him like he was gone, eulogizing a living man. I guess I wasn’t that far off. I’ll repost those words below along with some of my favorite Steve quotes.
I honestly feel that Steve Jobs, and his singular vision for his company, have done more to increase the acceptance of technology by the general public and the integration of that technology into our daily lives that any other single person in the last 50 years. Like his products or hate them [for whatever arbitrary reason] they have consistently strived to make high end, seemingly “magic” devices accessible to technophiles and n00bs alike. Your mom has an iPad. A device that wasn’t even on the horizon 5 years ago. Steve helped bring us [that] much closer to the future, and for that I will always be grateful to him. Not to Apple, but to him directly. Ever since he returned to Apple in the 90′s, Steve’s drive, commitment, integrity and borderline certifiable insanity have directly influenced how we interact with technology. He’s a total nutter, but great men often are. I think you’d be hard pressed to find any one person that REALLY changed the world (for better or worse) that wasn’t at least a little unhinged. Here’s hoping he’s in better health than I expect he is, and that his input will continue to lead to wonderful shiny gadgets for years to come.
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” – Wikiquote, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal (Summer 1993).
“I want to put a ding in the universe.”
“Click. Boom. Amazing!” – Macworld keynote 2006
“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.” – Fortune
“Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Address
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Think Different, narrated by Steve Jobs
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Address
I have made 100% of my comics (save the very first one),and all of books, t-shirts and other merchandise on Apple computers. I’ve even made comics on the iPad. I owe a large part of my career to Steve and for that I will always be grateful. You can read more comics I’ve made about Steve Jobs here, if you need some cheering up.
NOTE: I was halfway through a comic about the iPhone 4s yesterday, when I heard about Steve. I decided to hold off on it for a day or two. I will backdate it in the archive and post a link HERE when it’s done. [update: it’s done and linked]
- Read 17 touching Steve Jobs tributes from Lucas, Lindelof and more
- Here’s to the crazy ones: a farewell to Steve Jobs
- Remembering Steve Jobs: we all pay tribute
- Steve Jobs has died.
COMMENTERS: Feel free to post any thoughts or fond memories of Steve, or links to tributes, etc. Did the products he created change your life? How? Anything he said or did that made YOU think differently? No negativity or Apple fanboy bashing. Please be respectful.
This is really sweet: http://jmak.tumblr.com/post/9377189056
That's cleverer than my sad apple.
I still like my sad apple anyway.
Universe Dented, Grass Underfoot http://daringfireball.net/2011/10/universe_dented…
I've never been a massive fan of Apple, (save a few products) but I've always been a fan of Steve Jobs, was sad to hear about his death last night. RIP to a wonderful man.
It was through Steve's inventions that I have felt transported to The Future. I remember clearly the first time I interacted with an iPod. It was my friend's first (or second?) gen iPod, and he and I were driving at night back to our hometown from Washington, DC. He attached the iPod to a tape deck adapter and turned it on the car stereo. "What does it have on it?" I remember asking. "Everything, man. It has everything," he said, with a huge smile on his face. I am happy to have spent time on this planet with Steve, and am deeply sad he is gone.
I consider myself to be an Apple fan, even if I only own an iPod Touch. I remember serving in my country's military, with a geek magazine that had the iPhone on its cover, just looking at it and not believing that this could exist in our time. Through the great presentation of the iPhone, I learned to love the man behind it all: Steve Jobs was charismatic, an genius entertainer and an entertaining genius, let alone a brilliant sales- and business man.
So, I begun to look more upon the man and while I found that he was not perfect, his achievements outweigh his flaws. Surely, Apple is more than Steve Jobs, but he was the one guiding the gang, driving this technological colossus to the next step. He forced the competition to follow (I own a crappy Samsung "touch" cell) and somehow, it feels as if technology will develop slower now…
It's ridiculous to be sad about someone who you never met and for whose products you paid lots of money, but here I am, feeling down all day, dragging through work and every time I close my eyes, I see that Apple website image. I guess this is how it feels when someone truly great leaves this world. May he rest in peace…
That is a really, really nice comic. It's funny, I have picture of my niece and nephew siting on the couch that I took with my iPhone where she is on an iPad and he has a Touch. Everyone's couch is a different place because of Steve. He will be sorely missed.
This is the first 'tribute' I've seen that made me wipe a wee tear. And I'm not even an Apple guy.
I was never a big fan of Apple, but Steve Jobs was easily one of the most inspiring men of our time. He helped get us that much closer to a world where Science Fiction could be a reality. R.I.P Steve Jobs, and God Speed You Magnificent Bastard. *SALUTE*
I suppose I'm young. I was born in the '90s. To me, he's just always been around. Apple has always been a thing.
My mother built my computers as I was growing up; this laptop is the first computer I've had that wasn't put together by her, and it's a Dell. I've been in a Windows-centric household my whole life, and I'll probably stick with it unless my boyfriend converts me to Linux.
That said, the man was a force all by himself. He changed the world in no small part, and I believe that he and his accessible technology is a large reason it's so socially acceptable to be a geek/nerd/dork/whathaveyou today. As I've grown up, I've gone from being bullied on the playground for liking to read and for knowing how to program in fourth grade, to being respected and liked for *knowing* things. I like that we have a culture where knowing things can be cool again.
Thank you, Mr. Jobs. You've had an amazing impact on the world.
Can's post with my normal twitteriffic log in on my laptop for some reason, but would like to share my thoughts anyway – I'm normally BenMS here.
I don't use Apple products, and I've never been a big fan of them. Having said that, I'm going to miss Steve, for the reasons other posters have said here and more. He was a legitimate visionary, and as many others have said, the closest thing this generation has to a Henry Ford character.
One other thing about his passing at the age of 56: that's way too young. That's 24 years older than me. Pancreatic cancer is one of the toughest types of cancer to detect, along with ovarian cancer. I've redirected my (meagre) donation funds this month to pancreatic cancer research organisations, because it's really the least I can do.
Seeya Steve.
Steve Jobs was the Fanciest of Bastards. His suggestion to "Think Different" was a comfort to me as a teenager struggling with (then untreated) OCD and trying to come to terms with an outside-the-box way of looking at the world (I test just shy of Asperger's on the autism spectrum). The idea that someone who seemed to see the world the same way I did could become hugely successful and push us closer to the worlds I'd read about in Dune and A Fire Upon the Deep was mind-blowing and inspirational.
Rest in peace, Steve. Here's hoping you get good cell service in heaven.
originalredditor posted this on reddit, this isn't my story but I thought you'd appreciate it Joel:
I accidentally hung up on Steve Jobs once. True story. In the mid-90's, I was a young intern at an ad agency near Apple's campus in Cupertino. The president of our company, my boss, was a close friend and former colleague of Steve and they spoke often. My boss's administrative assistant had gone on vacation and he asked me to fill in for her for a couple days, and I had no idea what I was doing.
One of the very first phone calls to come in was Steve. Not his admin, but the man himself, and I'm pretty overwhelmed. I attempt to transfer the call, promptly fuck it up, and…….dial tone. I was about to curl up into a fetal ball and die when the phone started ringing again. It was Steve. Laughing. He knew I was just filling in, and dismissed my profuse apologies with a giggling "don't sweat it." I told him I would transfer him again and promised not to hang up on him. I'll never forget his cartoon-like response: "Oooooky doky!"
A trivial encounter with the man, for sure, but for a 22 year old from the east coast, a week into what would later prove to be a pretty extraordinary adventure in Silicon Valley, the approachable, human demeanor of this larger-than-life luminary was revelatory.
To me, Steve will always remain symbolic of Silicon Valley and the very best it represents. RIP Steve."
I still remember when my dad brought home our first Apple IIe and I played Monopoly on it with a floppy (back when they were truly floppy) disk. I remember each upgrade we got and how my dad would make me take the tutorials before I could play on them. To me, Apple products and the innovation they pushed for are intertwined with memories of my dad, science fiction, and dreams of the future. As I write this, I have just realized that Steve Jobs was the same age as my dad. Thank you, Steve, for giving us the future.
I'm going to go call my dad now.
I may use windows, have an android phone and have made fun of apple products in the past, but steve jobs bought apple back into serious competition with windows. He took mp3 players, smart phones and tablets and made them something everyone needed and his products have become a benchmark. To put it another way, if you own any mp3 player, smart phone or tablet that isn't made by apple you will have had to compare it to the apple equivalent and justify your choice at some point, to many people in the public mp3 player = ipod, smart phone = iphone, tablet = ipad.
I've always believed the meaning of life is to leave the world a better place, inspire others, be remembered for the good you've done and earn the love of at least one person. Steve Jobs achieved these magnificently in a tragically short amount of time and reminds me how much more I need to achieve.
I have never owned any Apple product, and probably never will (unless it starts raining cash). But the loyalty and – dare I say – fervour Jobs induced in people tells a lot about the man. He was a true innovator, a man who made the people who worked for him go more extra miles than anyone ever imagined. He changed the world. Literally.
Godspeed, fanciest of bastards. I hope they have turtlenecks in Heaven.
Steve Jobs was certainly an icon of our time and I own an iPhone that I really like. For those of you to which he was a role model, that's great and certainly his passing would have more meaning for you. However the rest of you…he was CEO of a company who sold you gadgets, in what way did he actually "touch" your life anymore than say the cashier at Best Buy who rang up your new iPad? Was he the vision behind some nifty do-hickys? Yup. Was he Mother Theresa? No. The honest truth is your world (barring those who actually knew him) is no more richer or poorer for Steve Jobs passing than any other person. Apple will still make the iWhatever and life will continue. I find these tear jerker "testimonials" from people who could give a rats ass about their neighbor who's got breast cancer, unemployed, etc. about some guy whom they only know of because he "made their iPod" and was a bit famous to be a sad commentary on our society.
You know what I find a sad commentary? Judgmental people who feel they need to impose their feelings on everybody else, whom they know nothing about.
Did I know Steve Jobs personally? Nope. Did he touch my life? Absolutely. Because of Steve Jobs I have some of the best memories of my childhood. I spent hours with my brother playing on our Apple ][e playing games and learning Basic. His "do-hicky", the iPod, was one of the things that kept me sane through 6 months of chemotherapy.
And I do give a rats ass about my neighbors and co-workers, who I have cooked many meals for when they are ill or need a friend. So, in fact, my life was and is richer for having the things that Steve Jobs envisioned.
Steve Jobs in no way touched your life. "I spent hours with my brother", THAT is the point your brother NOT the "material object" however you hang the value on the object. You could have just as easily spent hours with your brother playing baseball, fishing, watching TV, or any number of activites. If you spent hours playing baseball with your brother would you be mourning the death of the CEO of Spaulding? I mean he made the gloves and bats you used right? How about if you spent hours with your bro watching Black Belt Theater on your Zenith TV? Would you be mourning the passing of the CEO of Zenith? How about the guy that sold your family the Apple ][e? Have you thanked him for the fond memories with your brother? I mean he's as directly responsible for those fond memories as Steve Jobs right? If he hand't convinced your family to purchase the ][e you might have spent that time on a Commodore 64 or IBM PC clone right?
You have no right to tell someone how they do or how they should feel. I don't like your attitude and you seem to be trying to stir up trouble when I explicitly stated that no negative comments would be tolerated. This is your only warning. Stop pushing buttons and trolling people or you will get banned from the comments.
How can you draw a comic like "Numerology" and then call me out for pointing out something very similar to what you parody in that very comic? I made no personal attacks, nothing directly at any person until thelazygator made it about them. The truth is that most of the tearful youtube clips etc. are from people who had zero connection to Steve Jobs save they own an Apple product. That the salesperson and cashier who rang up thier devices had the same amount of impact on thier lives as Steve Jobs. The connection is illusory, imaginary, and kind of silly if you are honest about it.
You are far harsher than I was in any post in the "Splitster" comic to the CEO of Netflix. If you ban me for pointing out the same type of stuff that you do (and you proably will but oh well) then you are a hypocrite. If you feel that strongly to ban someone for pointing out what may be an uncomfortalble truth you should stop making comics like "Splitster" and "Numerology" just to name a couple.
Good day sir.
GAH! I've got to proof read when using IE, Firefox has made me lazy.
In fact now that I think about it, if my talents ran in that direction I'd have probably have made a web comic on the whole phenomenon. Alas they do not.
You are needlessly attacking people who feel sad because someone died. You just don't get to tell people how they should or should not feel about loss. You dont get to dictate their connection simply because you don't feel it yourself. Call me out however you like, but you were being a jerk (and still are) to people that are having a communal experience over the death of someone they admired and there is no excuse for that kind of behavior. Either way it will not be tolerated on this site. I suggest you learn from this one, and move on. I haven't banned you yet, but another such comment will probably do the job.
"…the iPod, was one of the things that kept me sane through 6 months of chemotherapy." My sympathies to you on your chemo I hope you never have to experience that again,but trooting out personal tradgedy doesn't invalidate my argument. You really should thank the person who gave you or sold you the iPod, not Steve Jobs because that do-hickey could have easily been a Palm Pilot, Blackberry, or Android.
The reality is you feel a kinship with Steve Jobs because of cancer and perhaps his example in fighting it not because of any device his company sold. That is a much more real "connection" to the man than buying some gadget from Apple.
As far as Jobs himself, I'd agree with Skoby. He definitely took Apple in a new direction and IMO pushed them to make some top notch gadgets. He did not however "invent" them as so many people seem to say. All these devices existed prior to the i(insert device name here), mp3 players, smart phones, and tablets. His true triumph was one of marketing, making the Apple versions of these devices synonomous with the device itself in the mind of the public. It wouldn't matter how great the iWhatever was if it wasn't for this. Many superior products have fallen by the wayside due to poor marketing. Jobs was good at selling overpriced trendy stuff to yuppies (or whatever the term is these days) and their kids. Yes most of Apple's stuff is overpriced, its saving grace is that it's not junk, and in today's society overpriced is trendy.
All that being said, may God comfort his family, friends, and co-workers in their time of loss.
(Apple stock owners are probably going to need some comforting too in the not so distant future)
Just a retort to the "overpriced" label that you seem to be fond of. Something is only overpriced if you can get something of the same kind and quality for less. Quality is what allows Apple the Company to charge what it does for its products. When was the last time someone near you did not swear at a piece of technology as junk/crap? … Okay, Okay … the previous iPhone and its antenna issue ….
I can and have built desktops and laptops that are better and more reliable than an Apple products for 1/3rd of the price. Computers that if they have a component fail doesn't cost an arm and a leg to repair. So yes OVERPRICED. Also I'm not a fan of Apple's proprietary tendancies. Watched any Flash content on your iPhone lately? Jail broken phones don't count.
If you disagree about "overpriced" how about the whole price drop a while back shortly after release of the 3GS? I'm sure the people who paid $699 for thier iPhones were pleased as punch about that one, even Apple agreed they charged too much for their product.
Great comic. It's exactly what happened in our house when news broke.
As opposed to the majority of posters here, I am from the opposite camp. I was there for the II, one of my buddies got one back in high school (yeah Im old) and when I graduated I bought my first computer, a IIc and then thing came with full documentation including the full bios with all the comment tags in place … it was a hoot to read then and still is now. I caught the cyber bug early and read Creative Computing and Byte while wishing I had the cash for S100 system … But Jobs was the engineer with a sense of humor and a knack for communication.
Sure there were iterations of a lot of those consumer products out there BUT me made sure the Engineering was there, both the technical and user aspects. He also had the spine to step forward and dictate to the industry dictators, resulting in things being better for both his company and US as well.
As I said, I was there in the early years though things have changed quite a bit and my love of things Apple has waned considerably since [ didn't help when they went rabid on their support base with the copyright lawyers -bad move – killed a whole cottage industry ] …. Blackberry Phones and self assembled intel / AMD boxes for the last couple of decades now though I still have my old systems ready to boot up when the urge rises. Mind you the family is saturated with his companies devices.
I respect the man for his vision and what he has done for and to industry as a whole.
This world needs more Jobs and less Gates.
I'm right there with you. My family got an Apple ][ when I was 13 and it changed the direction of my life, I'm a successful software developer today because of it. However I think Woz was really the force behind the open architecture of the early computers, the full bios dumps, system schematics etc. etc. and I believe Jobs was behind the reversal of that open architecture with the Macintosh. I felt betrayed by Apple when that happened. I still remember sitting down at my first Mac playing with it a bit and then asking how to get into the Monitor (the Apple ]['s built in debugging tool). "There is no monitor," the bearded Computer Center employ told me with a shake of his head, "You have to buy the development software and the 7 toolkit books, at $45 dollars a piece." I was aghast. There was no way as a teenager in the '80s I could afford all that plus the cost of the Mac.
It was a good 10 years before I worked with a Mac again, when I got a job at a company that had all the dev tools in house.
But still, there is no denying his impact on technology. He stuck by his unspoken rule, "Build things people WANT to use and they will pay more for it." and he had the uncommon ability to know what people want to use. Maybe he didn't personally invent Apples technology (he surrounded himself with people like Woz for that) but he drove the company to make their products accessible and a pleasure to use.
EXAMPLE:
Apple without Steve Jobs: The Newton: Technologically advanced, forward thinking, ahead of it's time, ugly, difficult to use, failure.
Apple with Steve Jobs: The iPod: Technologically competent, an advancement of current devices, aesthetically pleasing, easy to use, a huge success.
I'm writing this now on a MacBook Pro, it is essentially a Unix laptop with a pleasant, unified GUI and fully functional drivers out-of-box. That's something the Linux community and even the big distro companies like Red Hat haven't managed to put together, ceding personal computers to Microsoft while focusing on server technology. But Steve had the foresight and balls to kill off the aging Mac OS wholesale in favor of a BSD based system he'd been cultivating at NeXT and so, like it or not, the only serious inroads Unix has made on Windows territory is not being lead by a flightless bird, but by a a piece of fruit. AND Jobs also realized some people need Windows, so Bootcamp. At night I Bootcamp over to Windows 7 to play games.
So did Steve Jobs only impact the industry through superior marketing as Buster said? Not at all. No he wasn't an engineer but he lead the engineers (sometimes by screaming at them, true) into developing beautiful easy-to-use products that they would not have otherwise thought of, let alone made. He did, personally, drive inovations in the industry by directly effecting what products were made, how they were made (uni-body aluminum shells anyone?), AND how they were marketed.
@Buster, "Steve Jobs in no way touched your life. "I spent hours with my brother", THAT is the point your brother NOT the "material object" however you hang the value on the object. You could have just as easily spent hours with your brother playing baseball, fishing, watching TV, or any number of activites. "
How is what they COULD have done relevant? What they DID do is how Steve and Woz touched their lives. I COULD have gotten an IBM XT with my dad instead of an Apple but I didn't, so Steve and Woz touched my life in a profound way and IBM did not. The thing over which they bonded doesn't mater, you say, it's the fact that they bonded that's key. But I can just as easily argue that if they hadn't bonded over an Apple and went into competitive sports instead they might have formed deep rooted rivalries which estranged them throughout their lives. What might have happened doesn't count, the fact is that they bonded over an Apple and were touched by it.
Should thelazygator not feel grateful for the makers of a device that gave comfort, be it a Zune or an iPod?
And yes, if I were to run into the (same bearded gentleman) who sold us the Apple ][ I would thank him, and probably share fond memories with him over a drink. I feel sorry for you, Buster.
Steve was one of my heroes. Not because of Apple, but because of the life he lived. Apple's old slogan of "Think different" was most exemplified in Steve. I had (and still have) a lot of respect for him. His death hit me pretty hard, a man I admired, respected, and in many ways, modeled my life after is now gone. Here's to you Steve, may we always stay hungry, stay foolish, and think different.
why have i not seen a someone playing taps on a ipad. i would settle for a mac classic playing it.
It was through Steve’s inventions that I have felt transported to The Future. I remember clearly the first time I interacted with an iPod. It was my friend’s first (or second?) gen iPod, and he and I were driving at night back to our hometown from Washington, DC. He attached the iPod to a tape deck adapter and turned it on the car stereo. “What does it have on it?” I remember asking. “Everything, man. It has everything,” he said, with a huge smile on his face. I am happy to have spent time on this planet with Steve, and am deeply sad he is gone.