The End of an Era?

Steve Jobs has died at the young age of 56. He had a massive influence on at least three industries: computing, film animation and music.

I thought that Dan Gillmor’s eulogy on Jobs probably came closest to a rounded portrait: “a man of contradiction and genius”. Gillmor also links to the commencement speech Jobs gave at Stanford University a few years ago and that is certainly worth reading; in particular, his thoughts on life and death:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.