Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

(Earlier today, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, passed away at 56. I wrote this email to him when he resigned, and decided to post it as sort of a eulogy, having tweaked it slightly to reflect the news of his death.)

Steve,

You don’t know me from anyone. We’ve met a few times, in passing. And now that you’ve passed, it’s a bit late to be writing this, but here goes anyway:

Thank you.

The two years I worked at Apple weren’t necessarily the best two years of my life. They were two years that changed my life, though, and for that I’m grateful.

Without you, and the company you made, my life literally wouldn’t be the same, and for that you get my thanks.

Also: thanks for never taking any shit from anyone. Thanks for doing so many things right. Thanks for putting my mind in motion. You always said that computers were bicycles for the mind, and I’ve been cycling away since I was a kid.

I knew this day would come, probably soon, and yet — it was too soon. It always is, isn’t it? And yet, it was too soon. You deserved at least one more act in the stage of life, if not more.

Thanks for being such a singularly, crazily ornery guy. Thanks for inspiring me, and so many others, to change the world and put a ding on it.

Every time I see the “Think Different” commercial, I get a little bit choked up. I’ll admit it. It gets me in the gut. What most people don’t know is that the original is a bit different itself:

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

How else, indeed?

All I know is that you stared at that empty canvas, and not once, not twice, but many, many times over, you made tools for people like us.

So: here’s to you, Steve. Some may have seen you as the crazy one, but you put a ding in the universe, and helped me and others do the same. And in dinging the universe, we invent. We imagine. We explore. We create. We inspire. We heal. We push the human race forward.

I’m just sorry we couldn’t heal you. So all I can do tonight is thank you, even though that’s not enough.