I was never a personal friend of Steve Jobs. But for the ways he influenced my life, Steve Jobs will always be a friend of mine.
I grew up in the Silicon Valley and it grew up around me: It was an ever-expanding, fertile place where apricot trees and imagination blossomed simultaneously.
I was a young technology reporter when Steve Jobs reclaimed the top spot at Apple Computers in 1997, and launched the “Think Different” campaign featuring innovators, inventors and icons such as Albert Einstein, Jim Henson and Frank Lloyd Wright.
If it ran today, that list of twentieth-century icons would surely include Steve Jobs.
Over the years, I’ve often reread the text of that slogan to remind myself of the creativity and ingenuity that seemed to permeate my childhood. “Here’s to the Crazy Ones,” it begins. “The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.”
I remember the absolute marvel of my first video game, “Pong,” played endlessly on our game system from Atari, where Jobs spent some of his earlier years.
And I remember the day my Dad brought home a keyboard, a TV screen and a long list of unreadable computer commands. We jostled for turns to type in strings of seemingly random characters. After twenty minutes of hunt-and-peck typing, the screen flashed its reward: “Hello, my name is Lisa.” Magic!
It was Steve Jobs who would transform that computing experience into something friendly and intuitive. With a mouse, I could point-and-click on files with the same flick of the wrist my kids now use to navigate iPads.
In high school, as editor of my school newspaper, I spent countless hours on my school’s Macintosh computers, laying out page designs, art and freshly edited stories. Steve Jobs’ creativity fired my imagination.
In college, feeling rather anti-establishment my senior year, I started my own newspaper which I wrote, edited, and designed on a Mac. I was filled with the heady power of publishing. Steve Jobs’ ingenuity fueled my independence.
Years later, as a reporter in the Silicon Valley, I occasionally covered Apple, including the launch of an operating system that would help Macintosh computers play well with increasingly ubiquitous Windows PCs. The software included technology from NeXT computers, which Jobs founded after leaving Apple in 1985. He had the ability to see the bigger picture, and was never afraid to chart a new course.
As a parent, I’ve watched a whole new generation of Apple innovations unfold, from the iPod downloaded with lullabies that soothed my toddlers on long car trips to the iPads that entered my son’s 3rd grade classroom this year.
As I watch my son’s eyes fill with curiosity and excitement each time we visit the Apple Store, I also recognize another generation of children influenced – and inspired – by the legacy of Steve Jobs.
In our schools, too often influenced by minimum standards and mandated performance, we would do well to remember Jobs’ mandate to “Think Different.” And we should support the teachers and administrators brave enough to teach our children to think critically, be unafraid of failure and use their imaginations.
In a time when jobs are scare and discourse polarized, we also need to remember the example Jobs set, not with his words, but with his actions: He envisioned a world in which he wanted to live and through stubborn determination and an unwavering demand for excellence, made it come to life.
Steve Jobs was never afraid to “Think Different.” He taught me to think differently, too.
Lisa Wirthman (lisawirthman@yahoo.com) is a freelance writer living in Highlands Ranch.
