11 ms·

Daring Fireball: Universe Dented, Grass Underfoot

749 points by ditados 15y ago

flamingbuffalo 15y ago
"I like to think that in the run-up to his final keynote, Steve made time for a long, peaceful walk. Somewhere beautiful, where there are no footpaths and the grass grows thick. Hand-in-hand with his wife and family, the sun warm on their backs, smiles on their faces, love in their hearts, at peace with their fate." Beautifully written. And I'm glad it took Gruber some time to post this after the news broke yesterday, it would make me glad to know that he didn't have it ready and waiting to be published.
- swombat 15y ago
  Don't discount something just because it's quickly written. Strong emotions are a powerful source of artistic inspiration. Sometimes, you can create in 5 minutes something which hours or months or even years of labour could not equal.
  - flamingbuffalo 15y ago
    very good point - and probably even more true when it's something emotional like this.
- hugacow 15y ago
  I like to think he had mowed grass. That is what a common man does in the U.S., and it would be a sign of his humanity. I also like to think he just wore the shoes because he was sick, in pain, and he needed a comfortable pair of shoes.
  - snoozer 15y ago
    Not sure why this was downvoted. Seems reasonable to me. FYI Steve was famous for always wearing the same thing, including the shoes. Overall something about Gruber's piece felt off to me. But none of us is a perfect writer and this is an emotional time.
pseuds_corner 15y ago
A walk outside in nature: something I can heartily recommend all the folk stoking up their teenage emotion tsunami while swamping HN with endless Steve tributes.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- pseuds_corner 15y ago
  Seriously. Princess Diana level craziness.
  - spxdcz 15y ago
    The difference is that Princess Diana made very little difference to most of our lives. Steve Jobs made such a huge impact in all of our (technologists, programmers, consumers) lives. Do you remember what mobile phones used to be like before the iPhone? How OSX kick-started the style of graphic design that is still in-trend, with aqua? How ugly consumer devices generally were? How he made design matter again? How darn productive he made many of us, thanks to amazing tools. We're sad because today the world of technology seems a little less exciting than it did yesterday. We owe that man a debt. If you don't like reading this stuff, come back in a couple of days.
    - onenine 15y ago
      Rich people can buy apple products, lots of poor people have been killed and maimed by landmines. It's best not to be so glib about how important a god to consumers was when some people did important charitable things despite being a figure in the tabloids.
      - spxdcz 15y ago
        I apologise if this came off as glib, it certainly wasn't meant to be. I spent four weeks in Laos last December and visited the COPE center in Vientiane; the landmine issue is a horrible, real thing that people have to cope with (and get killed by) every day, and I didn't mean to imply that what Diana did wasn't amazing. BUT, to most (lucky) people reading Hacker News, Steve Jobs has had more of an impact on our day-to-day lives. He was a hero to many of us, and I don't think it's correct for some people to decide who is and isn't a valid hero. It's all about context.
robterrell 15y ago
You know what? This code can wait. I'm going to take my son for a walk.
- kidmenot 15y ago
  You know what? This has got to be the best comment in this thread. Thanks.
- doktrin 15y ago
  This 1 line had a greater emotional impact on me than anything I've read or heard since Steve's passing. Thanks.
- abreu_alexandre 15y ago
  Yes. It is so easy to forget ...
- aliparr 15y ago
  Yeah, I came straight home and took my daughter to the park. Perspective.
- dusing 15y ago
  I spent the entire day walking and hiking by a river. First time in years.
technoslut 15y ago
Gruber's talent for writing never ceases to amaze me. It's always incredible that a tech blogger can write so well and, in this case, poetically. Five minutes ago I had just watched Jobs' commencement speech on CNN for the at least the 50th time. I put work on hold just to hear it again. Every time I hear it I gain strength. I've never had a dad but I did have heroes. Steve Jobs is one of them.
- mapleoin 15y ago
  Funnily I got the exact opposite impression. I thought it was cheesy and kitsch.
  - hyperbovine 15y ago
    Agree completely. Yerba Buena Gardens anyone? http://g.co/maps/wy2se http://g.co/maps/wy2se The whole thing is contrived and smacks of just the sort of prying, cultish obsession with the private lives of celebrities that Steve Jobs treated with scorn. If it wasn't appropriate to write crap like this when he was alive, I don't see why it is now that he's dead.
  - achompas 15y ago
    Very surprising to read this. Was there anything in particular that bugged you about it? To me, Gruber captures Jobs as both a loving family man and a visionary who is selective with his attention to detail. This is a nice lesson, as I often spend time focusing on the wrong details. Even the structure of the article -- a vignette with a narrative device built from a small detail -- is a tribute to Jobs's legendary focus on details. Beautiful on multiple levels.
    - dmm 15y ago
      > a loving family man He denied paternity of his daughter Lisa, even testifying in court that he was infertile. Lisa's mother was on welfare for a time because of this. So if you are going to say he was a loving father, you should also mention that he was a neglectful one. Hero worship is empty. If you want to admire something, admire the man, not some two dimensional pr bullshit.
juliano_q 15y ago
I am not a big Gruber fan. Actually, I disagree with most of his opinions. But this text is just beautiful.
- PhrosTT 15y ago
  Came here to make the same point. I kinda hate his fanboyism, but damn if he can't find the angle nobody else sees.
  - ethank 15y ago
    I hate this admonishment of fanboy-ism that permeates the discussion anytime MG or Gruber are mentioned. We need fanaticism to counter balance apathy. There is nothing more empowering than a belief in what you do, why you do it, or who you do it for. *said as someone who ran a fan site for 16 years
    - jmathai 15y ago
      I wish more people could be closer to the middle.
      - ethank 15y ago
        The middle is the most boring place to reside. Nothing happens there.
      - SoftwareMaven 15y ago
        Most people are closer to the middle. The middle isn't what we need. Compassion, caring, and humility in our passions are.
        jmathai 15y ago
        I guess I considering myself in the middle. I'm extremely passionate about a handful of topics. But at the same time I've learned to not allow it to alienate myself from the majority. The alienation is where I consider the edge to start. It's counter productive because you're just viewed as a crazy. I think we agree but our scales of the edges and the middle might be different.
solutionyogi 15y ago
Gruber uses the word 'Raconteur' in his Twitter Bio. I didn't know what the word meant, I looked it up. Well, for me, he is truly a raconteur (along with Joel). RIP, Steve.
- rkalla 15y ago
  For those (like me): rac-on-teur: A person who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way. Also, found this interesting site in the process of defining that word: http://www.theraconteurs.com/ http://www.theraconteurs.com/
  - juliano_q 15y ago
    Or, if you are a A Song of Ice and Fire fan, Tyrion Lannister. Sorry for the off-topic.
- alanh 15y ago
  FWIW, Lion users on new-ish hardware should be able to use three fingers to double-tap on words to define them: http://cl.ly/3w2r3p42261w1z2j1X3F http://cl.ly/3w2r3p42261w1z2j1X3F
  - gurkendoktor 15y ago
    This function has been there at least since Leopard and the old shortcut still works: cmd+shift+D. Saddens me that Chrome still doesn't support it at all, and it breaks in Safari when web-fonts are involved. With additional dictionaries, this feature is pure gold for language learners.
    - vito 15y ago
      Works for me in the latest Chrome, except the shortcut is Ctrl+Cmd+D (I think it always has been?). For a long time it didn't work, though.
      - gurkendoktor 15y ago
elmofromok 15y ago
It makes me think of this photo of Steve in a garden a few years ago. http://www.flickr.com/photos/katsanes/1636555794/in/photostream/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/katsanes/1636555794/in/photostr...
jgrahamc 15y ago
Many years ago a colleague, Steve Holtzman, suddenly discovered he had colon cancer. Within a year he had faded away (it seemed almost literally) and was gone. He had money and access to the best doctors, but he wasn't vigilant (he had ignored odd weight loss and bowel trouble) and so it was too late. Although Jobs didn't die of a "man's disease" there are lots of men killers out there that can be stopped if you look for the signs. But talking to men around me we are often reluctant to go and see a doctor for regular health checks. If you have a smoke alarm in your home, it's not because you expect a fire, but because you want to be warned if there is one. Think the same way about your own health: a visit to the doctor for an annual medical is a smoke alarm for your body. PS In the UK if you are over 40 then the NHS offers a free "Health Check" (http://www.nhs.uk/Planners/NHSHealthCheck/Pages/NHSHealthCheck.aspx http://www.nhs.uk/Planners/NHSHealthCheck/Pages/NHSHealthChe...) that screens for common adult diseases. It's free. Go do it.
- shabda 15y ago
  In January 2009 I was Stage 5 chronic kidney disease, in July 2009 I had a kidney transplant. Looking back there were so many telltale signs that I had over the last six months, which I was ignoring as I was busy building my startup. A regular health check has the potential to catch a problem like this. I now nag each of my friends and family in having an annual health check. Its the best time you can spend. This was not the first time I made a mistake like this. When I was a kid, I had trouble seeing my teacher's blackboard. I just kept moving closer to the blackboard. I saw a doctor when I had trouble understanding what the teacher was writing from the first row. Problems like this creep up on you over years, and they are so gradual you don't realize them. You wont run your site without a Google Analytics/Pingdom. Dont do it with your life. If you haven't had a health check, get it done today.
  - meric 15y ago
    > I now nag each of my friends and family in having an annual health check. I had an aunt and an uncle (from different sides and don't know each other) fight off cancer 5 years ago. After they were deemed "cured", they still didn't learn the lesson of an annual health check. Around 1 year ago they both started to feel strange symptoms and went to checkup again. They found out not only had the cancer recurred but that it had spread to many parts of their bodies. The doctors recommended a couple of treatments but weeks later they said there was nothing more they could do. In July and August they both passed away, within 3 weeks of each other. (Right after my grandmother too, and of course it's been emotional for me.) It appears this applied to S.J too. (If he died of recurring cancer.) But, convincing anyone (including me, a 21 year old) of annual checkup is hard. The thinking goes: we've been fine for all our lives/ is too young to get sick, why worry?
bgarbiak 15y ago
In my mind Jobs was the kind of guy that soils his sneakers while running, not while peacefully walking. The image painted by Gruber here is a kitschy one - and kitschy is probably the adjective least fitting to Jobs and his creations.
- glhaynes 15y ago
  Jobs famously would take people on walks and talk with them.
  - bgarbiak 15y ago
    I didn't mean that literally. All I'm saying is that a hypothetical portrait of Jobs I would made would be closer the today's apple.com welcome page: simple, elegant, almost raw and in some magical way both sterile and emotive - like most of the Apple's products. 'A melancholic, warm family photo took in a sunny day' seems like a thing from a different culture - but maybe Jobs privately was closer to that picture. Certainly Gruber knows better than me.
- bmelton 15y ago
  That is of course contradicted by the many, many tales of how much Steve Jobs enjoyed walking, and in particular, walking for long distances.
Sindisil 15y ago
I'm not what you would call a Gruber fan, but this is a beautiful and inspiring piece of writing. Apple, and thus Jobs, has always been "them" to me. With the exception of the CoCo way back in the day, I've never been much of a fanboy, but my computer affiliations have always been with something other than Apple: CBM PET, COSMAC Elf, CoCo I/II/III, Amiga, Dos, Windows, Linux - always something else. But in all that time, I always felt that, over rated and over hyped as they might be, Apple and Jobs we worth of respect and admiration, most especially for their inspiration. Inspiration inward, in the sense of invention, discovery, and art. Inspiration outward, in the sense of leadership, drive, and motivation. Somehow, a kernel of that inspiration is expressed by this vignette.
hugacow 15y ago
He was a great man. But, he wasn't perfect. He basically took credit for Woz's creation, backed the losing Lisa (and prior to that the Apple III) rather than the Mac and jumped ship to the Mac when the Lisa tanked. The OS X technology was written by NeXT before Apple bought them. iPod (etc.) was a design win and a business win, but Jobs just helped hire good people. He makes a great front-person, was a stellar businessman, and helped make Silicon(e) Valley what it is today. He seems to have been a great father and husband also. My heart goes out to his family and friends for their loss. But seriously- the man was a front man for great technology that people use. I feel like I'm living in a real-life Simpsons episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZGIn9bpALo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZGIn9bpALo
- masklinn 15y ago
  There's a lot of nonsense in your comment > jumped ship to the Mac when the Lisa tanked. Jobs was taken off the Lisa team before it even shipped (he joined the Mac in 1982, the Lisa did not ship before '83) > The OS X technology was written by NeXT before Apple bought them. Of course, what would have been the point of buying NeXT otherwise? NeXT was founded by Jobs. > iPod (etc.) was a design win and a business win, but Jobs just helped hire good people. Most of them he actually brought with him from NeXT (the NeXT acquisition has often been referred to as a takeover). Or he found rotting inside Apple itself (Ive had been working for Apple for 5 years before Jobs came back and put him in charge of Industrial Design). And Jobs's main role has never been to be in the production trenches (it's easy to see that from Folklore.org), I don't understand what you're trying to achieve taking down irrelevant strawmen. > But seriously- the man was a front man for great technology that people use. What you're trying to achieve is apparently being high as a kite.
- Tashtego 15y ago
  "iPod (etc.) was a design win and a business win, but Jobs just helped hire good people." That's like saying the iPod developers just helped write code, or the iPod designers just helped design. Hiring good people is huge.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
skeltoac 15y ago
Freshly cut grass has the greatest staining ability. My sneakers turn green only when I mow a green lawn on foot. Had Steve been walking behind a lawnmower? I know I enjoy cathartic effects from clipping grass. Having billions of dollars and fans shouldn't change that.
timr 15y ago
"There is no grass in Moscone West." There's a gigantic grass lawn right next door, in Moscone Center. Steve Jobs was a great man, but this remembrance hit a sour note for me. It's not about Steve Jobs, so much as it's about an outsider's fantasy of what Jobs' (very private) inner life was like. And if this bears no resemblance to reality, it's not a remembrance at all. It could even be offensive to the people who knew him best. Remember the man for the person that he was, not for the person that you imagined him to be.
- andrewljohnson 15y ago
  Steve Jobs meant something different to each of us, and for the vast majority it's just fantasy. I think this blog was a tad touching, and a tad overwrought, but not sour.
  - Gormo 15y ago
    > ...meant something different to each of us, and for the vast majority it's just fantasy. This is true of just about everything.
- jodrellblank 15y ago
  Jobs' (very private) inner life. [..] Remember the man for the person that he was, not for the person that you imagined him to be. Do you not see a problem in pointing out his very private nature, then scorning people for imagining that instead of knowing it? It could even be offensive to the people who knew him best. And now you're chastising people for fantasizing about SJ because of how you fantasize his friends reacting? Come on.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - timr 15y ago
    "Do you not see a problem in pointing out his very private nature, then scorning people for imagining that instead of knowing it?" No. Maintaining a private life does not give anyone carte blanche to fill in the details with fiction. People may do it, but that doesn't make it right.
oh_ryan 15y ago
Gruber changed the background of his site to a darker shade of grey in mourning. Update: Used to be #4A525A and now is #222222
- antidaily 15y ago
  Also switched back from the Yankees DF logo. Which, fuck that shit. Go Tigers!
kennethologist 15y ago
I've never read so many inspiring and life changing stories about anyone. Steve Jobs was one of the greatest men to have ever lived.
- ShirtlessRod 15y ago
  > Steve Jobs was one of the greatest men to have ever lived. Don't you think that's a little over the top?
  - high5ths 15y ago
    Depends how many people you include in that list. 5? 100? 10,000?
lwhi 15y ago
Good writing is set apart through an honest expression of emotion and experience. As much as I usually despise Gruber's particularly disingenous brand of tech writing .. this is nicely put. We can all take something from his example.
tonetheman 15y ago
I am not a huge fan of daring fireball either but it was a good post. It is strange how we notice things about people and then remember them like that.
FredBrach 15y ago
"Those grass stained sneakers were the product of limited time, well spent."
pknerd 15y ago
I can say that I touched Jobs by using his beautiful products.
- pknerd 15y ago
  What wrong did I say here? Can't we techies be poetic and emotional?
jmagar 15y ago
Of all the tributes, this is the one that brought a tear to my eye. I worry that the long hours and extraordinary commitment to our craft may not be worth the sacrifices we make. The time is now for me, and I'm driving hard to a personal goal. Late nights and early mornings, essentially every waking hour is spent preoccupied by building a great product. And I see it in my son's eyes that he's missing me. Reading Gruber's final paragraph reminds me that I'm going to regret this lost moment in time with my family, and that any success achieved will be paid for by their commitment to stand by me along the way. Tonight, I'm going to kick off early and go watch his Hockey practice. And then enjoy a few periods of the Leaf opener tonight with the kid. He deserves it.
Steko 15y ago
This remembrance squares nicely with Walt's about how Steve set a goal of walking a bit further every day. I guess at the time of WWDC he was still making it to the park regularly.
demoo 15y ago
Very nice post. Reading through the comments brought this back to me: You could do Richard Branson's job. Most of the time anyway. Except for what he does for about five minutes a day. In those five minutes, he creates billions of dollars' worth of value every few years, and neither you nor I would have a prayer of doing what he does. Branson's real job is seeing new opportunities, making decisions that work, and understanding the connection between his audience, his brand, and his ventures.
savoy11 15y ago
And now "industry" analyzers making $6500 per post make a living trying to explain why Steve Jobs had dirty shoes. Unbelievable.
happypeter 15y ago
Turn sorrow into poetry. I love this.
tonio09 15y ago
-1 Seriously, a fantasy story about a man taking a walk in a park? is that it? 732 upvotes. sigh...

749 points by ditados 15y ago

"I like to think that in the run-up to his final keynote, Steve made time for a long, peaceful walk. Somewhere beautiful, where there are no footpaths and the grass grows thick. Hand-in-hand with his wife and family, the sun warm on their backs, smiles on their faces, love in their hearts, at peace with their fate." Beautifully written. And I'm glad it took Gruber some time to post this after the news broke yesterday, it would make me glad to know that he didn't have it ready and waiting to be published.

swombat 15y ago
Don't discount something just because it's quickly written. Strong emotions are a powerful source of artistic inspiration. Sometimes, you can create in 5 minutes something which hours or months or even years of labour could not equal.
- flamingbuffalo 15y ago
  very good point - and probably even more true when it's something emotional like this.
hugacow 15y ago
I like to think he had mowed grass. That is what a common man does in the U.S., and it would be a sign of his humanity. I also like to think he just wore the shoes because he was sick, in pain, and he needed a comfortable pair of shoes.
- snoozer 15y ago
  Not sure why this was downvoted. Seems reasonable to me. FYI Steve was famous for always wearing the same thing, including the shoes. Overall something about Gruber's piece felt off to me. But none of us is a perfect writer and this is an emotional time.

pseuds_corner 15y ago

A walk outside in nature: something I can heartily recommend all the folk stoking up their teenage emotion tsunami while swamping HN with endless Steve tributes.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
pseuds_corner 15y ago
Seriously. Princess Diana level craziness.
- spxdcz 15y ago
  The difference is that Princess Diana made very little difference to most of our lives. Steve Jobs made such a huge impact in all of our (technologists, programmers, consumers) lives. Do you remember what mobile phones used to be like before the iPhone? How OSX kick-started the style of graphic design that is still in-trend, with aqua? How ugly consumer devices generally were? How he made design matter again? How darn productive he made many of us, thanks to amazing tools. We're sad because today the world of technology seems a little less exciting than it did yesterday. We owe that man a debt. If you don't like reading this stuff, come back in a couple of days.
  - onenine 15y ago
    Rich people can buy apple products, lots of poor people have been killed and maimed by landmines. It's best not to be so glib about how important a god to consumers was when some people did important charitable things despite being a figure in the tabloids.
    - spxdcz 15y ago
      I apologise if this came off as glib, it certainly wasn't meant to be. I spent four weeks in Laos last December and visited the COPE center in Vientiane; the landmine issue is a horrible, real thing that people have to cope with (and get killed by) every day, and I didn't mean to imply that what Diana did wasn't amazing. BUT, to most (lucky) people reading Hacker News, Steve Jobs has had more of an impact on our day-to-day lives. He was a hero to many of us, and I don't think it's correct for some people to decide who is and isn't a valid hero. It's all about context.

robterrell 15y ago

You know what? This code can wait. I'm going to take my son for a walk.

kidmenot 15y ago
You know what? This has got to be the best comment in this thread. Thanks.
doktrin 15y ago
This 1 line had a greater emotional impact on me than anything I've read or heard since Steve's passing. Thanks.
abreu_alexandre 15y ago
Yes. It is so easy to forget ...
aliparr 15y ago
Yeah, I came straight home and took my daughter to the park. Perspective.
dusing 15y ago
I spent the entire day walking and hiking by a river. First time in years.

technoslut 15y ago

Gruber's talent for writing never ceases to amaze me. It's always incredible that a tech blogger can write so well and, in this case, poetically. Five minutes ago I had just watched Jobs' commencement speech on CNN for the at least the 50th time. I put work on hold just to hear it again. Every time I hear it I gain strength. I've never had a dad but I did have heroes. Steve Jobs is one of them.

mapleoin 15y ago
Funnily I got the exact opposite impression. I thought it was cheesy and kitsch.
- hyperbovine 15y ago
  Agree completely. Yerba Buena Gardens anyone? http://g.co/maps/wy2se http://g.co/maps/wy2se The whole thing is contrived and smacks of just the sort of prying, cultish obsession with the private lives of celebrities that Steve Jobs treated with scorn. If it wasn't appropriate to write crap like this when he was alive, I don't see why it is now that he's dead.
- achompas 15y ago
  Very surprising to read this. Was there anything in particular that bugged you about it? To me, Gruber captures Jobs as both a loving family man and a visionary who is selective with his attention to detail. This is a nice lesson, as I often spend time focusing on the wrong details. Even the structure of the article -- a vignette with a narrative device built from a small detail -- is a tribute to Jobs's legendary focus on details. Beautiful on multiple levels.
  - dmm 15y ago
    > a loving family man He denied paternity of his daughter Lisa, even testifying in court that he was infertile. Lisa's mother was on welfare for a time because of this. So if you are going to say he was a loving father, you should also mention that he was a neglectful one. Hero worship is empty. If you want to admire something, admire the man, not some two dimensional pr bullshit.

juliano_q 15y ago

I am not a big Gruber fan. Actually, I disagree with most of his opinions. But this text is just beautiful.

PhrosTT 15y ago
Came here to make the same point. I kinda hate his fanboyism, but damn if he can't find the angle nobody else sees.
- ethank 15y ago
  I hate this admonishment of fanboy-ism that permeates the discussion anytime MG or Gruber are mentioned. We need fanaticism to counter balance apathy. There is nothing more empowering than a belief in what you do, why you do it, or who you do it for. *said as someone who ran a fan site for 16 years
  - jmathai 15y ago
    I wish more people could be closer to the middle.
    - ethank 15y ago
      The middle is the most boring place to reside. Nothing happens there.
    - SoftwareMaven 15y ago
      Most people are closer to the middle. The middle isn't what we need. Compassion, caring, and humility in our passions are.
      - jmathai 15y ago
        I guess I considering myself in the middle. I'm extremely passionate about a handful of topics. But at the same time I've learned to not allow it to alienate myself from the majority. The alienation is where I consider the edge to start. It's counter productive because you're just viewed as a crazy. I think we agree but our scales of the edges and the middle might be different.

solutionyogi 15y ago

Gruber uses the word 'Raconteur' in his Twitter Bio. I didn't know what the word meant, I looked it up. Well, for me, he is truly a raconteur (along with Joel). RIP, Steve.

rkalla 15y ago
For those (like me): rac-on-teur: A person who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way. Also, found this interesting site in the process of defining that word: http://www.theraconteurs.com/ http://www.theraconteurs.com/
- juliano_q 15y ago
  Or, if you are a A Song of Ice and Fire fan, Tyrion Lannister. Sorry for the off-topic.
alanh 15y ago
FWIW, Lion users on new-ish hardware should be able to use three fingers to double-tap on words to define them: http://cl.ly/3w2r3p42261w1z2j1X3F http://cl.ly/3w2r3p42261w1z2j1X3F
- gurkendoktor 15y ago
  This function has been there at least since Leopard and the old shortcut still works: cmd+shift+D. Saddens me that Chrome still doesn't support it at all, and it breaks in Safari when web-fonts are involved. With additional dictionaries, this feature is pure gold for language learners.
  - vito 15y ago
    Works for me in the latest Chrome, except the shortcut is Ctrl+Cmd+D (I think it always has been?). For a long time it didn't work, though.
    - gurkendoktor 15y ago

elmofromok 15y ago

It makes me think of this photo of Steve in a garden a few years ago. http://www.flickr.com/photos/katsanes/1636555794/in/photostream/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/katsanes/1636555794/in/photostr...

jgrahamc 15y ago

Many years ago a colleague, Steve Holtzman, suddenly discovered he had colon cancer. Within a year he had faded away (it seemed almost literally) and was gone. He had money and access to the best doctors, but he wasn't vigilant (he had ignored odd weight loss and bowel trouble) and so it was too late. Although Jobs didn't die of a "man's disease" there are lots of men killers out there that can be stopped if you look for the signs. But talking to men around me we are often reluctant to go and see a doctor for regular health checks. If you have a smoke alarm in your home, it's not because you expect a fire, but because you want to be warned if there is one. Think the same way about your own health: a visit to the doctor for an annual medical is a smoke alarm for your body. PS In the UK if you are over 40 then the NHS offers a free "Health Check" (http://www.nhs.uk/Planners/NHSHealthCheck/Pages/NHSHealthCheck.aspx http://www.nhs.uk/Planners/NHSHealthCheck/Pages/NHSHealthChe...) that screens for common adult diseases. It's free. Go do it.

shabda 15y ago
In January 2009 I was Stage 5 chronic kidney disease, in July 2009 I had a kidney transplant. Looking back there were so many telltale signs that I had over the last six months, which I was ignoring as I was busy building my startup. A regular health check has the potential to catch a problem like this. I now nag each of my friends and family in having an annual health check. Its the best time you can spend. This was not the first time I made a mistake like this. When I was a kid, I had trouble seeing my teacher's blackboard. I just kept moving closer to the blackboard. I saw a doctor when I had trouble understanding what the teacher was writing from the first row. Problems like this creep up on you over years, and they are so gradual you don't realize them. You wont run your site without a Google Analytics/Pingdom. Dont do it with your life. If you haven't had a health check, get it done today.
- meric 15y ago
  > I now nag each of my friends and family in having an annual health check. I had an aunt and an uncle (from different sides and don't know each other) fight off cancer 5 years ago. After they were deemed "cured", they still didn't learn the lesson of an annual health check. Around 1 year ago they both started to feel strange symptoms and went to checkup again. They found out not only had the cancer recurred but that it had spread to many parts of their bodies. The doctors recommended a couple of treatments but weeks later they said there was nothing more they could do. In July and August they both passed away, within 3 weeks of each other. (Right after my grandmother too, and of course it's been emotional for me.) It appears this applied to S.J too. (If he died of recurring cancer.) But, convincing anyone (including me, a 21 year old) of annual checkup is hard. The thinking goes: we've been fine for all our lives/ is too young to get sick, why worry?

bgarbiak 15y ago

In my mind Jobs was the kind of guy that soils his sneakers while running, not while peacefully walking. The image painted by Gruber here is a kitschy one - and kitschy is probably the adjective least fitting to Jobs and his creations.

glhaynes 15y ago
Jobs famously would take people on walks and talk with them.
- bgarbiak 15y ago
  I didn't mean that literally. All I'm saying is that a hypothetical portrait of Jobs I would made would be closer the today's apple.com welcome page: simple, elegant, almost raw and in some magical way both sterile and emotive - like most of the Apple's products. 'A melancholic, warm family photo took in a sunny day' seems like a thing from a different culture - but maybe Jobs privately was closer to that picture. Certainly Gruber knows better than me.
bmelton 15y ago
That is of course contradicted by the many, many tales of how much Steve Jobs enjoyed walking, and in particular, walking for long distances.

Sindisil 15y ago

I'm not what you would call a Gruber fan, but this is a beautiful and inspiring piece of writing. Apple, and thus Jobs, has always been "them" to me. With the exception of the CoCo way back in the day, I've never been much of a fanboy, but my computer affiliations have always been with something other than Apple: CBM PET, COSMAC Elf, CoCo I/II/III, Amiga, Dos, Windows, Linux - always something else. But in all that time, I always felt that, over rated and over hyped as they might be, Apple and Jobs we worth of respect and admiration, most especially for their inspiration. Inspiration inward, in the sense of invention, discovery, and art. Inspiration outward, in the sense of leadership, drive, and motivation. Somehow, a kernel of that inspiration is expressed by this vignette.

hugacow 15y ago

He was a great man. But, he wasn't perfect. He basically took credit for Woz's creation, backed the losing Lisa (and prior to that the Apple III) rather than the Mac and jumped ship to the Mac when the Lisa tanked. The OS X technology was written by NeXT before Apple bought them. iPod (etc.) was a design win and a business win, but Jobs just helped hire good people. He makes a great front-person, was a stellar businessman, and helped make Silicon(e) Valley what it is today. He seems to have been a great father and husband also. My heart goes out to his family and friends for their loss. But seriously- the man was a front man for great technology that people use. I feel like I'm living in a real-life Simpsons episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZGIn9bpALo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZGIn9bpALo

masklinn 15y ago
There's a lot of nonsense in your comment > jumped ship to the Mac when the Lisa tanked. Jobs was taken off the Lisa team before it even shipped (he joined the Mac in 1982, the Lisa did not ship before '83) > The OS X technology was written by NeXT before Apple bought them. Of course, what would have been the point of buying NeXT otherwise? NeXT was founded by Jobs. > iPod (etc.) was a design win and a business win, but Jobs just helped hire good people. Most of them he actually brought with him from NeXT (the NeXT acquisition has often been referred to as a takeover). Or he found rotting inside Apple itself (Ive had been working for Apple for 5 years before Jobs came back and put him in charge of Industrial Design). And Jobs's main role has never been to be in the production trenches (it's easy to see that from Folklore.org), I don't understand what you're trying to achieve taking down irrelevant strawmen. > But seriously- the man was a front man for great technology that people use. What you're trying to achieve is apparently being high as a kite.
Tashtego 15y ago
"iPod (etc.) was a design win and a business win, but Jobs just helped hire good people." That's like saying the iPod developers just helped write code, or the iPod designers just helped design. Hiring good people is huge.
deleted 15y ago
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skeltoac 15y ago

Freshly cut grass has the greatest staining ability. My sneakers turn green only when I mow a green lawn on foot. Had Steve been walking behind a lawnmower? I know I enjoy cathartic effects from clipping grass. Having billions of dollars and fans shouldn't change that.

timr 15y ago

"There is no grass in Moscone West." There's a gigantic grass lawn right next door, in Moscone Center. Steve Jobs was a great man, but this remembrance hit a sour note for me. It's not about Steve Jobs, so much as it's about an outsider's fantasy of what Jobs' (very private) inner life was like. And if this bears no resemblance to reality, it's not a remembrance at all. It could even be offensive to the people who knew him best. Remember the man for the person that he was, not for the person that you imagined him to be.

andrewljohnson 15y ago
Steve Jobs meant something different to each of us, and for the vast majority it's just fantasy. I think this blog was a tad touching, and a tad overwrought, but not sour.
- Gormo 15y ago
  > ...meant something different to each of us, and for the vast majority it's just fantasy. This is true of just about everything.
jodrellblank 15y ago
Jobs' (very private) inner life. [..] Remember the man for the person that he was, not for the person that you imagined him to be. Do you not see a problem in pointing out his very private nature, then scorning people for imagining that instead of knowing it? It could even be offensive to the people who knew him best. And now you're chastising people for fantasizing about SJ because of how you fantasize his friends reacting? Come on.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- timr 15y ago
  "Do you not see a problem in pointing out his very private nature, then scorning people for imagining that instead of knowing it?" No. Maintaining a private life does not give anyone carte blanche to fill in the details with fiction. People may do it, but that doesn't make it right.

oh_ryan 15y ago

Gruber changed the background of his site to a darker shade of grey in mourning. Update: Used to be #4A525A and now is #222222

antidaily 15y ago
Also switched back from the Yankees DF logo. Which, fuck that shit. Go Tigers!

kennethologist 15y ago

I've never read so many inspiring and life changing stories about anyone. Steve Jobs was one of the greatest men to have ever lived.

ShirtlessRod 15y ago
> Steve Jobs was one of the greatest men to have ever lived. Don't you think that's a little over the top?
- high5ths 15y ago
  Depends how many people you include in that list. 5? 100? 10,000?

lwhi 15y ago

Good writing is set apart through an honest expression of emotion and experience. As much as I usually despise Gruber's particularly disingenous brand of tech writing .. this is nicely put. We can all take something from his example.

tonetheman 15y ago

I am not a huge fan of daring fireball either but it was a good post. It is strange how we notice things about people and then remember them like that.

FredBrach 15y ago

"Those grass stained sneakers were the product of limited time, well spent."

pknerd 15y ago

I can say that I touched Jobs by using his beautiful products.

pknerd 15y ago
What wrong did I say here? Can't we techies be poetic and emotional?

jmagar 15y ago

Of all the tributes, this is the one that brought a tear to my eye. I worry that the long hours and extraordinary commitment to our craft may not be worth the sacrifices we make. The time is now for me, and I'm driving hard to a personal goal. Late nights and early mornings, essentially every waking hour is spent preoccupied by building a great product. And I see it in my son's eyes that he's missing me. Reading Gruber's final paragraph reminds me that I'm going to regret this lost moment in time with my family, and that any success achieved will be paid for by their commitment to stand by me along the way. Tonight, I'm going to kick off early and go watch his Hockey practice. And then enjoy a few periods of the Leaf opener tonight with the kid. He deserves it.

Steko 15y ago

This remembrance squares nicely with Walt's about how Steve set a goal of walking a bit further every day. I guess at the time of WWDC he was still making it to the park regularly.

demoo 15y ago

Very nice post. Reading through the comments brought this back to me: You could do Richard Branson's job. Most of the time anyway. Except for what he does for about five minutes a day. In those five minutes, he creates billions of dollars' worth of value every few years, and neither you nor I would have a prayer of doing what he does. Branson's real job is seeing new opportunities, making decisions that work, and understanding the connection between his audience, his brand, and his ventures.

savoy11 15y ago

And now "industry" analyzers making $6500 per post make a living trying to explain why Steve Jobs had dirty shoes. Unbelievable.

happypeter 15y ago

Turn sorrow into poetry. I love this.

tonio09 15y ago

-1 Seriously, a fantasy story about a man taking a walk in a park? is that it? 732 upvotes. sigh...