Apple CEO Remembers Steve Jobs' Impact in Virtual Commencement Address (cnet.com) 31
Today Apple CEO Tim Cook shared some heartfelt remarks in a virtual commencement address to the graduating seniors at Ohio State, reports CNET. "Those of us who can look back on this time and remember inconveniences and even boredom can count themselves lucky."
"I hope you wear these uncommon circumstances as a badge of honor. Those who meet times of historical challenge with their eyes and hearts open — forever restless and forever striving — are also those who leave the greatest impact on the lives of others..."
Cook went on to describe how lucky he felt when he was hired to work at Apple in 1998 with Steve Jobs, as well as the heartbreak when Jobs died. "But fate comes like a thief in the night. The loneliness I felt when we lost Steve was proof that there is nothing more eternal, or more powerful, than the impact we have on others," Cook told the graduates...
"In every age, life has a frustrating way of reminding us that we are not the sole authors of our story. We must share credit, whether we'd like to or not, with a difficult and selfish collaborator called our circumstances. And when our glittering plans are scrambled, as they often will be, and our dearest hopes are dashed, as will sometimes happen, we're left with a choice. We can curse the loss of something that was never going to be... Or we can see reasons to be grateful for the yank on the scruff of the neck, in having our eyes lifted up from the story we were writing for ourselves and turned instead to a remade world."
Cook went on to describe how lucky he felt when he was hired to work at Apple in 1998 with Steve Jobs, as well as the heartbreak when Jobs died. "But fate comes like a thief in the night. The loneliness I felt when we lost Steve was proof that there is nothing more eternal, or more powerful, than the impact we have on others," Cook told the graduates...
"In every age, life has a frustrating way of reminding us that we are not the sole authors of our story. We must share credit, whether we'd like to or not, with a difficult and selfish collaborator called our circumstances. And when our glittering plans are scrambled, as they often will be, and our dearest hopes are dashed, as will sometimes happen, we're left with a choice. We can curse the loss of something that was never going to be... Or we can see reasons to be grateful for the yank on the scruff of the neck, in having our eyes lifted up from the story we were writing for ourselves and turned instead to a remade world."
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To this day, every time I hear his name I think of goatse in a black turtleneck. It's rather comforting in an old UNIX graybeard way, because its not nearly as disturbing as systemd. That last causes screaming nightmares.
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Re:ah steve jobs. (Score:5, Insightful)
I've read both "Steve Jobs" by Isaacson and "Becoming Steve Jobs" by Schlender. The former book leaves you with the idea he's a visionary but a complete ass, while the latter leaves you with the impression he was a visionary who was a flawed yet constantly adapting for the better. His abrasive edges were going away and if he lived a bit longer we might have seen a truly seasoned leader - such is usually the case with success at a young age. IIRC, any on the Mac teams have said that while it was the most difficult and stressful period of their lives it's also their most fond and wouldn't trade it for anything. It's an interesting question why people admire him, but I think it has a simple answer -- he *cared*. It wasn't about profits it was about bringing the brightest people together to make something that was truly impactful. I'll always respect him for this. The world could use more people like this, ideally with more humility and better EQ, but you can't have everything.
To those who would jump in and say Woz was the brains - he was, at least initially. I respect him as well, and would label him a genius. But without Jobs Woz's work would have remained a paper handout at the Homebrew Computer Club. The reason we all used the Apple ][ was the both of them together.
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Captain Crunch was the brains. Woz and Jobs stole his blue box design, sold it to college kids for $100 each, and used those illegally-obtained funds to start Apple Inc.
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Woz designed his own digital version so the frequencies wouldn't drift with temperature. The phone police busted Ike Turner using one of Woz's blue boxes.
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The Buzzfeed article delved into Draper’s relationship with Apple, stating that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told them that Steve Jobs once told him that Draper asked Jobs to sit on Draper’s back, and this was “out of the ordinary,” although it’s unclear if that quote is Woz’s take on the incident, or Jobs’ take, as the quotation is tightly-cut and illegibly placed in a sentence referring to both men.
The article states that “In 1971, Draper showed his design
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Remember Job's own graduation address? Where he told students to "stay foolish"?
It's great if you are lucky enough to be able to act that way and get away with it.
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He was also unfortunate enough to have gotten a kind of cancer that's especially lethal because it's notoriously difficult to treat and cure.
He might have lived another few months with standard treatment but we'd almost certainly be looking at the 8th anniversary of his death instead of the 9th.
LK
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You can't argue his success. Apple was nearly bankrupt when he took the company back.
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...despite the fact that his death was directly caused by.../quote>
Cancer. His death was directly caused by cancer. Jobs certainly didn't help himself by foregoing the proper treatment, but exaggerating the circumstance doesn't help your argument. He created the environment around him by will, effort, and work -- and thought that this would work as well. The reality distortion field only goes so far. He was human.
I've seen much worse commencement speakers. Tim Cook has shown himself to be a little more aware of making the world a better place than other CEOs. I realize that's not saying much, but it's at least somewhat aspirational.
...to cheerlead an establishment thats largely a billion dollar sports conglomerate, or a trillion dollar debtors prison....
I don't even know where to start with this. There are obvious benefits to a post-secondary education as well as societal benefits from academic research.
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Apple never really cared about thinking different.
What they did care about was appearing to think different, until they ran out of money. Luckily Microsoft had lots, and needed to pretend to have competition, so bailed them out.
Then Steve Jobs came back and shouted at people until they invented the iPhone, and Apple got really, really rich.
So rich that they don't need to care again, but this time they have so much money it doesn't matter.
The End.
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I mostly remember Wozniak doing all the work and Jobs claiming all the credit. Woz didn't seem to care one way or the other, so I guess it probably shouldn't annoy me but it does.
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Jobs arrogantly made the statement "Good artists copy, great artists steal". And steal he did.
Totally. Picasso said it with humility, but Jobs stole his line with an exaggerated sense of self-importance.
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Jobs arrogantly made the statement "Good artists copy, great artists steal". And steal he did.
Totally. Picasso said it with humility, but Jobs stole his line with an exaggerated sense of self-importance.
That quote has been attributed to many, not just Picasso. T.S. Elliott, Stravinsky, and others. But echoes of the quote date back to 1892. [quoteinvestigator.com]
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Steve Jobs was quoting Picasso, because Picasso said exactly that, and no one else did.
The "echoes of the quote" dating back to 1892 by Davenport Adams you wish to highlight is exactly: “That great poets imitate and improve, whereas small ones steal and spoil.” That doesn't sound like Picasso, nor Steve Jobs shamelessly stealing his exact quote. And echos appear forwards in time, not backwards in time before the sound it echos. You're thinking of pre-delay... no, that's not right, wait... "pre
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Our modern computer interfaces all owe their origin to Xerox Parc of Palo Alto. Gates was always very open that they had taken the best of Xerox's ideas to incorporate into Windows. Jobs denied ever having known anything about Parc, claiming that the Mac interface was all his inspiration, and for years we had to listen to the Apple fanbois crowing about how Microsoft could only copy someone else's work (normally they claimed Gates copied the Mac). Then someone went back and checked the visitor logs, and
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for years we had to listen to the Apple fanbois crowing about how Microsoft could only copy someone else's work (normally they claimed Gates copied the Mac)
Yeah, they also weren't aware that Jobs hired Microsoft to code the Mac OS because Apple didn't have enough programmers. Microsoft was barred from creating an OS with a GUI per contract on the project, but Gates quietly created Windows and was selling it in Japan. That's when the animosity between the two went to 11.
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Also, when he said "Real Artists Ship" he was talking about writing slash fic.
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you remember wrong, then. Captain Crunch did most of the real work. Woz and Jobs just took what he did and made bank from it (while keeping CC as a salary employee with no stock or options in Apple Inc.)
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What these things did, collectively, is give people some hope that Apple would survive.
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You get that this describes 100% of the Slashdot user base, right?
Give us more details (Score:2)
You forgot to mention Illuminati from Zeta Reticuli and Freemason Lizzard Men.
Cry me a fuckin' river. (Score:2)
Jobs was a thief and nothing more.