We all know that Steve Jobs passed away yesterday. Some folks take it more personally than others. My opinion of Steve Jobs is that he is Tron. In the original movie, Tron is described as someone who fights for the Users. That’s the idea in my head of Steve Jobs. I’ve read accounts of how in tune he was with what consumers cared about. He really was an embodiment of what you hope Capitalism produces: a specialist who understands his market better than anyone else and profits off of that.
But who wants to be thought of as a consumer? Truth be told, I never really liked Apple or Steve Jobs very much until I started reading stories collected on Folklore.org, a collection of stories maintained by Andy Hertzfeld. These stories really won me over. As a software developer, my emotions are mixed that I haven’t tried my hand at a startup. Folklore’s stories both relieve me and inspire me to want to try. The original Macintosh really was a great story to tell. I hope it takes less time for the equivalent story of the iPod and iPhone to come out, I’d be interested in hearing it.