I think this Eulogy helped give many people closure on Steve's passing. Such a well written piece. I'm really appreciate that she publicly shared this very personal moments with the rest of us, touching.
A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
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Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
#72Fucking fantastic.
Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
#73I always thought of him as a sociopath. It's nice to read an insider's take that isn't suffused with narcissism and loathing, although I always did figure him for a jerk for parking that Merc in the handicapped space every. goddamned. day.
I really found this eulogy quite moving and beautiful and gave me an appreciation for a Steve Jobs that has not been captured by any of the other things I've read about him since his passing. But the part about going through 67 nurses did give me a little chill. My heart goes out to those poor 64 people who tried and failed to care for him up to the level of his demanding standards.
On the other hand, maybe one of them was shaken into improving, leading the next person to get a better level of care. One never knows.
It is true that to demand better than good is a tough challenge but I suspect it is why people look to Jobs with some confusion: he expected the best from himself and from those around him. In a regular corporate setting, that may seem dictatorial; in a hospital or care room, that seems psychotic; but in either case, it is about trying to inspire people into giving their best and breaking through to new levels.
Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
#74"He designed new fluid monitors and x-ray equipment. He redrew that not-quite-special-enough hospital unit. " Instead of charity, if the billionaires or super smarts like gates, larry/sergey, bezos,pg etc can live in ordinary people situations for 2-3 days a year, their imagination will fuel creations that benefit all. Is this not tried already ?
A lot of billionaires live in "ordinary people situations" more than you think. There's always the Bill Gates or Larry Ellisons of the world building supermansions and owning all the yachts, but Steve wasn't exactly one of those. And mere millionaires largely can't afford anything more than living like ordinary people. And there are a lot of ways that rich people can't actually get anything more special than anyone e…
"situation" is about putting a different level of constraints on them and asking them to optimize within those. And not necessarily involving only buying stuff.
Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
#75"He designed new fluid monitors and x-ray equipment. He redrew that not-quite-special-enough hospital unit. " Instead of charity, if the billionaires or super smarts like gates, larry/sergey, bezos,pg etc can live in ordinary people situations for 2-3 days a year, their imagination will fuel creations that benefit all. Is this not tried already ?
A lot of billionaires live in "ordinary people situations" more than you think. There's always the Bill Gates or Larry Ellisons of the world building supermansions and owning all the yachts, but Steve wasn't exactly one of those. And mere millionaires largely can't afford anything more than living like ordinary people. And there are a lot of ways that rich people can't actually get anything more special than anyone e…
> There's always the Bill Gates or Larry Ellisons of the world building supermansions and owning all the yachts, but Steve wasn't exactly one of those.
Indeed. I've run into Steve three times. Twice we were both shopping for produce at a natural food store (Country Sun in Palo Alto, and the old Richard's Natural Foods in Los Gatos).
The last time was just a year ago. I sat down for dinner on the patio at La Strada, a nice Italian restaurant on University Avenue a few doors down from the Palo Alto Apple store, and there were Steve and his daughter at the next table. After dinner they took a stroll down University Avenue, just the two of them. I imagine they were probably going to get some frozen yogurt. I thought to myself, "Doesn't he have some security? A bodyguard? Something?"
There are a lot of Silicon Valley executives who I'd recognize if I saw them. But Steve is the only one who I've ever run into doing ordinary things like produce shopping.
Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
#76Beautiful eulogy. However either it, or Jobs' biography, is erroneous about who called Mona to let her know she had a brother. This eulogy claims a lawyer called Mona. But the biography, in chapter 20, claims it is Mona's mother, Joanne, who called: """ [Joanne] had never told Mona that she had a brother, and that day she broke the news, or at least part of it, by telephone. "You have a brother, and he's wonderful, a…
Either version is true enough.
True, it is mostly irrelevant :)
Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 2nd point you made reminds of Beethoven and how he overcame deafness to write some of his most brilliant pieces. He was incredibly passionate about his work and it was reflected in his music. It's amazing to see read this story and to realize that maybe Jobs' most important inventions, the iPhone and iPad, came at a point of extreme illness where most others would've quit. Passion drove everything he did and defi…
As a side note, in a way it's misleading to speak of Beethoven "overcoming" deafness. All of the master composers were so well-trained at their craft that they could hear the music in their head without "trying it out" on a piano or other instrument. By the time Beethoven was deaf being able to hear was superfluous as far as composing was concerned...
Actually in a lot of his orchestral work, for example the 8th symphony, his arrangement was off. Stuff like trumpets being drowned out by other horns, etc. It's the kind of thing that would be hard to imagine without hearing it.
Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
#78It was a moving and powerful eulogy. Probably the most beautiful thing I've seen written about Jobs since his passing. One important takeaway for me was the quote: “Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later; art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.” I've experienced this firsthand. I've been privileged to work with some great web designers. I've forced myself to wait a minimum of 24 hou…
Jean Cocteau, at least in one formulation & attribution
Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/jeancoctea100975....
Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
#79He designed new fluid monitors and x-ray equipment. He redrew that not-quite-special-enough hospital unit. It is scary to think what Steve could have accomplished if he lived into his 70's.
it's even scarier to think what the millions of artists, entrepreneurs, etc. who Steve inspired will accomplish in the future.
Right now there's someone working on the next billion dollar start-up in his garage that's going to blow us all away because he was inspired by Steve.
That's Steve's greatest legacy.
Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
#80Intubated, when he couldn't talk, he asked for a notepad. He sketched devices to hold an iPad in a hospital bed. He designed new fluid monitors and x-ray equipment. He redrew that not-quite-special-enough hospital unit.
I hope someone takes his sketches and runs with that vision. He's been able to re-imagine other devices wonderfully. To think of what he could have done with hospital equipment is amazing (that at his core, at his most vulnerable, he resorts to creativity) and sad (that he won't be around to execute upon these visions).