Tuesday, October 11, 2011

No Jobs


Steve Jobs' death at age 56 is so tragic. As a long term member of the Apple tribe, I am sad to see Jobs' death at a relatively young age. His achievements and willingness to think differently deserve praise and reflection. His remarkably wide impact on not only the computer industry but animated movies and the music industry is something so rare. 
Jobs was a brilliant and remarkable individual. His technical ability was very special, but what I admired most was his ability to take good technical ideas and make it work for the average person. Jobs did not invent the Macintosh operating system, he bought it from another company who had spent 10 years developing it, but could not see a future for it. Jobs didn’t invent portable music or even the mp3 player, but he helped build a product that was so easy to use it wiped out the competition. When George Lucas gave up his dream of computer animation and sold Pixar to Jobs for $10 million, he never imagined that one day, after so many hit movies, Job’s would sell the same company to Disney for $7 billion.  When Jobs suggested that he would make a cell phone, many must have reminded him of names like Nokia and that it really was too late to get into that market. But the iPhone did what Apple computers could never achieve - it finally convinced millions of diehard, committed and loyal tribal PC users that Apples were much sweeter than they imagined.
Having said all that, Jobs has hardly saved the world. Computers may be user friendly but humans continue to be very violently unfriendly to each other. In animated movies even the toys are kind to each other, but in life kindness is most often seen as an unaffordable weakness. System failure may be avoidable with sweet computers, but the systems that support our marriages, commerce, banking and governments crash way to often with devastating consequences. Viruses may be rare on some fruity computers, but in life viruses, bacteria, diseases and tragically cancers continue to threaten our very existence.  
One american recently lamented: “10 years ago we had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash. Now we have no jobs, no hope and no cash". 
God alone deserves the honour as the greatest inventor and maker. Jesus remains our only Saviour who has defeated the most persistent enemies of sin and death. The Holy Spirit continues to be a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance. From the Bible comes the idea that God alone is the ultimate apple of our eye.
Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.  Psalm 17: 8

PS The graphic was apple computers first logo - it obviously needed a little modification 

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