A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs • Hacker News Board

Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

#101

Post by acangiano » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 4:35 PM UTC

chugger wrote: post #79

blantonl wrote: post #65

He 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.

I expressed the same thought on my blog a few weeks ago:

"He managed to inspire a whole industry, while doing what he truly loved. Millions of entrepreneurs world wide have been inspired to do the same as a result of his work. This may be his greatest legacy and something that will live on in all of us long after his passing."

Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

#102

Post by hugh3 » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 4:45 PM UTC

sandee wrote: post #63

"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 ?

Do I have to be cold-hearted cynic guy again? Fine.

He redesigned things around his hospital room because he had a pad and pencil, and he was bored. There's no reason to believe that the X-ray machine he drew was better than the X-ray machines designed by X-ray machine designers with a better idea of the details and tradeoffs involved with designing X-ray machines. And that's no insult to Steve, because I'm sure he knew that too -- he was just drawing for the sake of drawing.

Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

#103

Post by sspencer » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 4:52 PM UTC

phuff wrote: post #95

dicroce wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YT was also briefly in "The Diamond Age". :)

Where is YT in the Diamond Age?

She's never explicitly named; the only thing that gives her away is a single phrase: "chiseled spam"

I love literary Easter eggs like that.

Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

#104

Post by IsaacL » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 4:58 PM UTC

bluekeybox wrote: post #24

rmason wrote: post #13

It 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…

I've forced myself to wait a minimum of 24 hours before rejecting a design and it has always served me very well. I've just completed designing a logo for the project I'm working on. Lacking experts around me whose judgement I could rely on, I came up with the following creative process: 1. Come up with an idea and prepare a demo/prototype. 2. Show the demo to a few people around you, preferably those who have some s…

Maybe it doesn't apply so much for visual design, but I often find that a negative reaction to a new concept or piece of software is better than a "meh" reaction. One example: I made a browser game a few years back, one of the early players posted a huge rant about how frustrating the game was, I fixed the design issues they raised, they grew to love the game.

So I tend to think that a negative reaction is often a sign you have something good, but flawed. You don't want people saying "yeah, that's kinda cool", you want them saying "OMG THIS THING SUCKS I'M TRYING TO GET IT TO DO X BUT I CANT BECAUSE IT DOESNT HAVE FEATURE Y" - at least in the second case you know you have something they want, and you know how to fix it.

Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

#105

Post by saraid216 » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 5:31 PM UTC

gbog wrote: post #91

rmason wrote: post #13

It 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…

It is not a matter of hours or days, it is a matter of years and centuries. Bach is more beautiful every new century, so is Vermeer, so is Pride and Prejudice. It is the mark of a Classic, regenerated by each new generation. But we are off-topic, this is again a Jobs thread, unless someone dare compare Sixtine Chapel (priceless) and an Ipad (expensive)?

Someone said that Steve Jobs painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel that Dennis Ritchie built. Does that count?

Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

#106

Post by hugh3 » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 6:48 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #96

seanmccann wrote: post #6

OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW. One can only wonder what he was referring to. Such a well written piece.

Without wanting to burst anyone's bubble, I'm guessing that the words actually refer to a dose of serious palliative care grade painkillers. I don't like the emphasis on "last words" anyway. When I'm dying (and probably not especially lucid), I don't want to have to cope with the pressure that any set of words could be my last and hence I'd better make 'em good. I think we should let everyone record their official la…

Aw c'mon, I got downmodded to -3 for being cynical yet realistic on HN? I really do think that "massive injections of painkillers is the most likely context in which someone a few hours of dying of cancer is likely to say "oh wow oh wow oh wow".

Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

#107

Post by hugh3 » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 7:04 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #102

sandee wrote: post #63

"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 ?

Do I have to be cold-hearted cynic guy again? Fine. He redesigned things around his hospital room because he had a pad and pencil, and he was bored. There's no reason to believe that the X-ray machine he drew was better than the X-ray machines designed by X-ray machine designers with a better idea of the details and tradeoffs involved with designing X-ray machines. And that's no insult to Steve, because I'm sure he k…

Actually, on second thoughts I feel the need to contradict myself: Steve Jobs probably could have done a pretty good job of redesigning the user interfaces of these machines. Many devices in the "big fancy machine" category have terrible user interfaces, because the people who design them spend all their effort on the fancy internal bits, and then just stick a bunch of random buttons on, without a great deal of thought put into usability.

Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

#108

Post by plnewman » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 7:08 PM UTC

blantonl wrote: post #65

He 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.

I once read that Howard Hughes did something similar while he was recuperating from an accident.

Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

#109

Post by malvim » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 7:18 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #106

hugh3 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without wanting to burst anyone's bubble, I'm guessing that the words actually refer to a dose of serious palliative care grade painkillers. I don't like the emphasis on "last words" anyway. When I'm dying (and probably not especially lucid), I don't want to have to cope with the pressure that any set of words could be my last and hence I'd better make 'em good. I think we should let everyone record their official la…

Aw c'mon, I got downmodded to -3 for being cynical yet realistic on HN? I really do think that "massive injections of painkillers is the most likely context in which someone a few hours of dying of cancer is likely to say "oh wow oh wow oh wow".

I didn't downvote your reply, even if I don't especially care for your explanation. I do believe in the power of painkillers, I just think that there's more to it than that.

The idea of pre-recording one's last words, though, is brilliant!

Re: A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

#110

Post by jjtheblunt » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 8:26 PM UTC

mikeleeorg wrote: post #81

UjjwolL wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She was a passionate writer as Steve Jobs was for Technology. He even read her books.

We all — in the end — die in medias res. In the middle of a story. Of many stories. This line is so beautifully & hauntingly crafted. I wish I had thought to add her books to my reading list sooner.

The idea is great, but it's not "in media res" which means "INTO the midst of things" not "IN the midst of things".

She might not have had Latin, so may not have known it was a literary technique in Latin, and perhaps Greek, a way to start a story with no intro, just by jumping right into the action.