Daring Fireball: Universe Dented, Grass Underfoot

http://daringfireball.net/2011/10/universe_dented_grass_underfoot

by ditados • 15 years ago

749 135 15 years ago

"I like to think that in the run-up to his final keynote, Steve made time for a long, peaceful walk. Somewhere beautiful, where there are no footpaths and the grass grows thick. Hand-in-hand with his wife and family, the sun warm on their backs, smiles on their faces, love in their hearts, at peace with their fate."

Beautifully written.

And I'm glad it took Gruber some time to post this after the news broke yesterday, it would make me glad to know that he didn't have it ready and waiting to be published.

swombat4• 15 years ago

Don't discount something just because it's quickly written. Strong emotions are a powerful source of artistic inspiration. Sometimes, you can create in 5 minutes something which hours or months or even years of labour could not equal.

flamingbuffalo2• 15 years ago

very good point - and probably even more true when it's something emotional like this.

hugacow2• 15 years ago

I like to think he had mowed grass. That is what a common man does in the U.S., and it would be a sign of his humanity. I also like to think he just wore the shoes because he was sick, in pain, and he needed a comfortable pair of shoes.

snoozer2• 15 years ago

Not sure why this was downvoted. Seems reasonable to me.

FYI Steve was famous for always wearing the same thing, including the shoes.

Overall something about Gruber's piece felt off to me. But none of us is a perfect writer and this is an emotional time.

pseuds_corner3• 15 years ago

A walk outside in nature: something I can heartily recommend all the folk stoking up their teenage emotion tsunami while swamping HN with endless Steve tributes.

pseuds_corner3• 15 years ago

Seriously. Princess Diana level craziness.

spxdcz2• 15 years ago

The difference is that Princess Diana made very little difference to most of our lives. Steve Jobs made such a huge impact in all of our (technologists, programmers, consumers) lives. Do you remember what mobile phones used to be like before the iPhone? How OSX kick-started the style of graphic design that is still in-trend, with aqua? How ugly consumer devices generally were? How he made design matter again? How darn productive he made many of us, thanks to amazing tools.

We're sad because today the world of technology seems a little less exciting than it did yesterday. We owe that man a debt. If you don't like reading this stuff, come back in a couple of days.

hugh3• 15 years ago

Not really. Look, Steve Jobs was an extremely important dude in the field of computers. If you go round reading a news site for and by people who work in the field of computers on the day he dies then yes, you're going to find a lot of tributes to the man. If you don't like it, go read something else for a while.

Some people are going too far, like whoever left the two bunches of flowers I noticed outside the door of my local Apple store last night. But hey, maybe they knew him personally. Death is hard, and I've got better things to do than look down my nose at other people for their reactions to it.

tonio093• 15 years ago

exactly my thoughts. ima outta here.

danilocampos6• 15 years ago

Come back and say it on your real account, chief.

pseuds_corner3• 15 years ago

Why? So the hordes of mawkish Steve idolisers can downvote the blasphemer? There are penalties from differing from the hivemind (slowban, hellban etc). Anonymity is the only way to communicate my level of amazement at the current mania.

So forgive me if I don't do that.

jarek7• 15 years ago

Look, I'll say it on my real account. I'm not that guy. I find the outpouring of grief repetitive at best and embarrassing at worst. It's the time of year for everyone to strut out their favourite Steve stories and anecdotes. Gotta tell everyone how you feel.

Tell me you can read a comment like http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3078323 with a straight face.

drzaiusapelord• 15 years ago

Look, you gotta give people 24 hours to get out their tributes. I don't see anything wrong with that. Just accept that the newsday today will be all about Jobs. You'll live longer if you give in to a little tolerance and patience.

I have similar thoughts about 'mourning tourism' and the questionable relationships people have in their heads with public figures, but we humans are irrational creatures. Tolerating our irrationality is a good policy. I'm not saying you should go and implement sharia law or become a creationist, I'm saying you should just give people a chance to vent and leave them alone for 24 hours.

runjake• 15 years ago

You might want to spend the day reading a site that isn't full of people inspired by Steve Jobs, be it his products, his work ethics, or his ideas, then.

robterrell• 15 years ago

You know what? This code can wait. I'm going to take my son for a walk.

kidmenot• 15 years ago

You know what? This has got to be the best comment in this thread.

Thanks.

doktrin• 15 years ago

This 1 line had a greater emotional impact on me than anything I've read or heard since Steve's passing. Thanks.

abreu_alexandre• 15 years ago

Yes. It is so easy to forget ...

aliparr• 15 years ago

Yeah, I came straight home and took my daughter to the park. Perspective.

dusing• 15 years ago

I spent the entire day walking and hiking by a river. First time in years.

technoslut• 15 years ago

Gruber's talent for writing never ceases to amaze me. It's always incredible that a tech blogger can write so well and, in this case, poetically.

Five minutes ago I had just watched Jobs' commencement speech on CNN for the at least the 50th time. I put work on hold just to hear it again. Every time I hear it I gain strength. I've never had a dad but I did have heroes. Steve Jobs is one of them.

mapleoin• 15 years ago

Funnily I got the exact opposite impression. I thought it was cheesy and kitsch.

achompas3• 15 years ago

Very surprising to read this. Was there anything in particular that bugged you about it?

To me, Gruber captures Jobs as both a loving family man and a visionary who is selective with his attention to detail. This is a nice lesson, as I often spend time focusing on the wrong details.

Even the structure of the article -- a vignette with a narrative device built from a small detail -- is a tribute to Jobs's legendary focus on details.

Beautiful on multiple levels.

mechanical_fish2• 15 years ago

I should track down the actual post in which JMS (the "Babylon Five" guy) pointed out that even Shakespeare has only about a 50% approval rating.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure you could conduct a proper tribute to Steve Jobs without throwing in a little kitsch. Have you seen the "1984" ad? The "Think Different" ads? Steve Jobs' taste was not constrained by a self-conscious fear of cheese. ;)

cglee• 15 years ago

If there ever was a time to be cheesy and kitsch, it's now.

hyperbovine• 15 years ago

Agree completely. Yerba Buena Gardens anyone? http://g.co/maps/wy2se

The whole thing is contrived and smacks of just the sort of prying, cultish obsession with the private lives of celebrities that Steve Jobs treated with scorn. If it wasn't appropriate to write crap like this when he was alive, I don't see why it is now that he's dead.

danilocampos6• 15 years ago

> I've never had a dad but I did have heroes. Steve Jobs is one of them.

Funny — I was reflecting on exactly this today. No dad, either. Thanks for sharing it.

I think Jobs is the only person outside of my immediate family whose passing could hit me in the gut quite this way. I grew up looking to his example. A man I never met but who nonetheless showed me, in small but meaningful ways, how to be a man.

juliano_q2• 15 years ago

I am not a big Gruber fan. Actually, I disagree with most of his opinions. But this text is just beautiful.

PhrosTT• 15 years ago

Came here to make the same point. I kinda hate his fanboyism, but damn if he can't find the angle nobody else sees.

ethank3• 15 years ago

I hate this admonishment of fanboy-ism that permeates the discussion anytime MG or Gruber are mentioned.

We need fanaticism to counter balance apathy.

There is nothing more empowering than a belief in what you do, why you do it, or who you do it for.

*said as someone who ran a fan site for 16 years

funkah• 15 years ago

It's funny how many of the comments here start the same way. You guys probably agree with him more than you think.

solutionyogi• 15 years ago

Gruber uses the word 'Raconteur' in his Twitter Bio. I didn't know what the word meant, I looked it up. Well, for me, he is truly a raconteur (along with Joel).

RIP, Steve.

rkalla• 15 years ago

For those (like me):

rac-on-teur: A person who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way.

Also, found this interesting site in the process of defining that word: http://www.theraconteurs.com/

juliano_q2• 15 years ago

Or, if you are a A Song of Ice and Fire fan, Tyrion Lannister. Sorry for the off-topic.

alanh• 15 years ago

FWIW, Lion users on new-ish hardware should be able to use three fingers to double-tap on words to define them: http://cl.ly/3w2r3p42261w1z2j1X3F

gurkendoktor2• 15 years ago

This function has been there at least since Leopard and the old shortcut still works: cmd+shift+D. Saddens me that Chrome still doesn't support it at all, and it breaks in Safari when web-fonts are involved.

With additional dictionaries, this feature is pure gold for language learners.

elmofromok• 15 years ago

It makes me think of this photo of Steve in a garden a few years ago. http://www.flickr.com/photos/katsanes/1636555794/in/photostr...

jgrahamc• 15 years ago

Many years ago a colleague, Steve Holtzman, suddenly discovered he had colon cancer. Within a year he had faded away (it seemed almost literally) and was gone. He had money and access to the best doctors, but he wasn't vigilant (he had ignored odd weight loss and bowel trouble) and so it was too late.

Although Jobs didn't die of a "man's disease" there are lots of men killers out there that can be stopped if you look for the signs. But talking to men around me we are often reluctant to go and see a doctor for regular health checks.

If you have a smoke alarm in your home, it's not because you expect a fire, but because you want to be warned if there is one. Think the same way about your own health: a visit to the doctor for an annual medical is a smoke alarm for your body.

PS In the UK if you are over 40 then the NHS offers a free "Health Check" (http://www.nhs.uk/Planners/NHSHealthCheck/Pages/NHSHealthChe...) that screens for common adult diseases. It's free. Go do it.

shabda• 15 years ago

In January 2009 I was Stage 5 chronic kidney disease, in July 2009 I had a kidney transplant.

Looking back there were so many telltale signs that I had over the last six months, which I was ignoring as I was busy building my startup. A regular health check has the potential to catch a problem like this. I now nag each of my friends and family in having an annual health check.

Its the best time you can spend.

This was not the first time I made a mistake like this. When I was a kid, I had trouble seeing my teacher's blackboard. I just kept moving closer to the blackboard. I saw a doctor when I had trouble understanding what the teacher was writing from the first row.

Problems like this creep up on you over years, and they are so gradual you don't realize them.

You wont run your site without a Google Analytics/Pingdom. Dont do it with your life. If you haven't had a health check, get it done today.

FrojoS• 15 years ago

I'm curious about the the eye thing. Did you just need glasses? It wouldn't ruin your eyes if you could see well enough form the first row, would it?

meric• 15 years ago

> I now nag each of my friends and family in having an annual health check.

I had an aunt and an uncle (from different sides and don't know each other) fight off cancer 5 years ago. After they were deemed "cured", they still didn't learn the lesson of an annual health check. Around 1 year ago they both started to feel strange symptoms and went to checkup again. They found out not only had the cancer recurred but that it had spread to many parts of their bodies. The doctors recommended a couple of treatments but weeks later they said there was nothing more they could do.

In July and August they both passed away, within 3 weeks of each other. (Right after my grandmother too, and of course it's been emotional for me.)

It appears this applied to S.J too. (If he died of recurring cancer.)

But, convincing anyone (including me, a 21 year old) of annual checkup is hard. The thinking goes: we've been fine for all our lives/ is too young to get sick, why worry?

jayroh• 15 years ago

And I, just now, walked into my home office after a trip to my doctor for a check-up ... a check-up I'd been putting off for 2 years or so. The timing is impeccable with what happened yesterday in mr. Jobs' passing.

Health and your personal well-being have never been more important to me than it is now. I've lost 50+ pounds in the last 6 months because I couldn't ignore my health problems any more. It got to be too important that I pay attention. Another thing I've lost? My sister. She was 36 years old. She died from a pulmonary embolism while she was getting ready to go to work as an ICU nurse. Ironically, she was a nurse who rarely (if ever) saw a doctor and ended up passing away because she didn't know she was prone to easy blood clotting.

If that's not a wake up call, I don't know what is.

Why will I miss Steve Jobs? Not the iphones and macbooks and ipads that I've bought and enjoyed immensely - but the lesson that tomorrow is no sure thing and to live today as if it's not. This particular lesson is what I'll always remember about this man. He helped us get all of this wonderful STUFF, purchased with money, but the journey that got Apple there is entirely without a price tag.

Hug your family members first. Tell them to literally take care of themselves immediately after.

ronnier• 15 years ago

What were the signs?

ern• 15 years ago

Until I read this, I had forgotten about my own history of mild myopia: I had a mandatory eye exam at 14, which detected the problem, but I was too vain to tell my parents about it, because I didn't want to wear glasses. 3 years of straining to read the board in class followed (which probably dropped my performance in school significantly). When I turned 17 and wanted to drive, I caved and got glasses and contacts. It was an amazing change in quality of life, and by the time I was 22 I had LASIK.

Thanks for reminding me of this: I'm going to make sure I get my own kids' eyes tested at least annually.

Hisoka2• 15 years ago

I think the stress and pressure of running a company also may have contributed to Job's health. He may have had pancreatic problems nonetheless, but the stress, lack of sleep, eating fast food at his desk, etc couldn't have been beneficial. Jobs may have contributed a lot to society, but he probably paid a huge price for it.

rumblestrut• 15 years ago

First of all, if you know a little bit about Steve Jobs, you'll know he wasn't likely a big fast food eater.

Secondly, I think Steve Jobs would have been much worse off if he had stepped down as CEO.

Steve Jobs needed Apple as much as Apple needed Steve Jobs.

teyc• 15 years ago

He's a vegetarian for most of his life.

nitrogen• 15 years ago

In light of this, can anyone recommend any self-employed/entrepreneur health plans in the USA that provide reasonable coverage for preventive testing and checkups?

high5ths3• 15 years ago

The Freelancers Union is pretty competitive in my market (NYC). Not that it's good coverage, but they do cover a physical and vision test every two years (I think).

Of course, it's a hell of a lot more expensive than it should be, but I was unable to find anything better for a self-employed single person.

bgarbiak2• 15 years ago

In my mind Jobs was the kind of guy that soils his sneakers while running, not while peacefully walking. The image painted by Gruber here is a kitschy one - and kitschy is probably the adjective least fitting to Jobs and his creations.

glhaynes• 15 years ago

Jobs famously would take people on walks and talk with them.

bgarbiak2• 15 years ago

I didn't mean that literally. All I'm saying is that a hypothetical portrait of Jobs I would made would be closer the today's apple.com welcome page: simple, elegant, almost raw and in some magical way both sterile and emotive - like most of the Apple's products. 'A melancholic, warm family photo took in a sunny day' seems like a thing from a different culture - but maybe Jobs privately was closer to that picture. Certainly Gruber knows better than me.

bmelton2• 15 years ago

That is of course contradicted by the many, many tales of how much Steve Jobs enjoyed walking, and in particular, walking for long distances.

Sindisil• 15 years ago

I'm not what you would call a Gruber fan, but this is a beautiful and inspiring piece of writing.

Apple, and thus Jobs, has always been "them" to me. With the exception of the CoCo way back in the day, I've never been much of a fanboy, but my computer affiliations have always been with something other than Apple: CBM PET, COSMAC Elf, CoCo I/II/III, Amiga, Dos, Windows, Linux - always something else.

But in all that time, I always felt that, over rated and over hyped as they might be, Apple and Jobs we worth of respect and admiration, most especially for their inspiration.

Inspiration inward, in the sense of invention, discovery, and art.

Inspiration outward, in the sense of leadership, drive, and motivation.

Somehow, a kernel of that inspiration is expressed by this vignette.

kennethologist• 15 years ago

I've never read so many inspiring and life changing stories about anyone. Steve Jobs was one of the greatest men to have ever lived.

ShirtlessRod• 15 years ago

> Steve Jobs was one of the greatest men to have ever lived.

Don't you think that's a little over the top?

high5ths3• 15 years ago

Depends how many people you include in that list. 5? 100? 10,000?

lwhi2• 15 years ago

Good writing is set apart through an honest expression of emotion and experience. As much as I usually despise Gruber's particularly disingenous brand of tech writing .. this is nicely put. We can all take something from his example.

tonetheman• 15 years ago

I am not a huge fan of daring fireball either but it was a good post. It is strange how we notice things about people and then remember them like that.

FredBrach• 15 years ago

"Those grass stained sneakers were the product of limited time, well spent."

pknerd2• 15 years ago

I can say that I touched Jobs by using his beautiful products.

pknerd2• 15 years ago

What wrong did I say here? Can't we techies be poetic and emotional?

jmagar• 15 years ago

Of all the tributes, this is the one that brought a tear to my eye.

I worry that the long hours and extraordinary commitment to our craft may not be worth the sacrifices we make. The time is now for me, and I'm driving hard to a personal goal. Late nights and early mornings, essentially every waking hour is spent preoccupied by building a great product. And I see it in my son's eyes that he's missing me.

Reading Gruber's final paragraph reminds me that I'm going to regret this lost moment in time with my family, and that any success achieved will be paid for by their commitment to stand by me along the way.

Tonight, I'm going to kick off early and go watch his Hockey practice. And then enjoy a few periods of the Leaf opener tonight with the kid. He deserves it.

hugacow2• 15 years ago

He was a great man. But, he wasn't perfect. He basically took credit for Woz's creation, backed the losing Lisa (and prior to that the Apple III) rather than the Mac and jumped ship to the Mac when the Lisa tanked. The OS X technology was written by NeXT before Apple bought them. iPod (etc.) was a design win and a business win, but Jobs just helped hire good people. He makes a great front-person, was a stellar businessman, and helped make Silicon(e) Valley what it is today. He seems to have been a great father and husband also. My heart goes out to his family and friends for their loss. But seriously- the man was a front man for great technology that people use.

I feel like I'm living in a real-life Simpsons episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZGIn9bpALo

masklinn• 15 years ago

There's a lot of nonsense in your comment

> jumped ship to the Mac when the Lisa tanked.

Jobs was taken off the Lisa team before it even shipped (he joined the Mac in 1982, the Lisa did not ship before '83)

> The OS X technology was written by NeXT before Apple bought them.

Of course, what would have been the point of buying NeXT otherwise? NeXT was founded by Jobs.

> iPod (etc.) was a design win and a business win, but Jobs just helped hire good people.

Most of them he actually brought with him from NeXT (the NeXT acquisition has often been referred to as a takeover). Or he found rotting inside Apple itself (Ive had been working for Apple for 5 years before Jobs came back and put him in charge of Industrial Design). And Jobs's main role has never been to be in the production trenches (it's easy to see that from Folklore.org), I don't understand what you're trying to achieve taking down irrelevant strawmen.

> But seriously- the man was a front man for great technology that people use.

What you're trying to achieve is apparently being high as a kite.

Tashtego• 15 years ago

"iPod (etc.) was a design win and a business win, but Jobs just helped hire good people."

That's like saying the iPod developers just helped write code, or the iPod designers just helped design. Hiring good people is huge.

skeltoac• 15 years ago

Freshly cut grass has the greatest staining ability. My sneakers turn green only when I mow a green lawn on foot. Had Steve been walking behind a lawnmower? I know I enjoy cathartic effects from clipping grass. Having billions of dollars and fans shouldn't change that.

timr2• 15 years ago

"There is no grass in Moscone West."

There's a gigantic grass lawn right next door, in Moscone Center.

Steve Jobs was a great man, but this remembrance hit a sour note for me. It's not about Steve Jobs, so much as it's about an outsider's fantasy of what Jobs' (very private) inner life was like. And if this bears no resemblance to reality, it's not a remembrance at all. It could even be offensive to the people who knew him best.

Remember the man for the person that he was, not for the person that you imagined him to be.

andrewljohnson• 15 years ago

Steve Jobs meant something different to each of us, and for the vast majority it's just fantasy. I think this blog was a tad touching, and a tad overwrought, but not sour.

Gormo• 15 years ago

> ...meant something different to each of us, and for the vast majority it's just fantasy.

This is true of just about everything.

jodrellblank• 15 years ago

Jobs' (very private) inner life. [..] Remember the man for the person that he was, not for the person that you imagined him to be.

Do you not see a problem in pointing out his very private nature, then scorning people for imagining that instead of knowing it?

It could even be offensive to the people who knew him best.

And now you're chastising people for fantasizing about SJ because of how you fantasize his friends reacting? Come on.

timr2• 15 years ago

"Do you not see a problem in pointing out his very private nature, then scorning people for imagining that instead of knowing it?"

No. Maintaining a private life does not give anyone carte blanche to fill in the details with fiction. People may do it, but that doesn't make it right.

christoph• 15 years ago

As a complete aside to Steve Jobs, I have to say that one of my all time favorite memories of the last decade is sitting on top of the Moscone Center (for the fifth day in a row) a few years back at an Oncology show - in a very transitional period of my life. If you've never been there, it's hard to describe. Below you in the halls is a barrage of activity and noise and up there it's peaceful and tranquil.

I've been to convention centers on every continent, on a weekly basis for the last five years. I've seen more of hotels/conference centers than I have of my family and friends in that time, but I still think back to sitting on top of that building with sound of laughter, happiness & peace, while eating a meal with a it's own hand picked/hand chosen tea, plate, cutlery and everything else, picked to go just with that one meal on the menu and think of it's basic, intrinsic magical symphony. I guess in someways that's why I think of that memory today and how that memory relates to Steve Jobs, Apple and all he created.

resdirector• 15 years ago

Remember the man for the person that he was, not for the person that you imagined him to be.

Is this actually possible of anyone?

shasta• 15 years ago

I imagine that timr thinks it is.

Aykroyd• 15 years ago

Which part Gruber's image do you think would be offensive to those that knew him best? The walking, being in the grass, or being with his family and holding hands? Or are you just you looking for a reason why it's wrong for Gruber to have written this?

jamesrom2• 15 years ago

Gruber is saying that there is no grass in Moscone West, the west-most hall at Moscone Center. Where the majority of his time would be spent preparing for the keynote.

oh_ryan• 15 years ago

Gruber changed the background of his site to a darker shade of grey in mourning.

Update: Used to be #4A525A and now is #222222

antidaily• 15 years ago

Also switched back from the Yankees DF logo. Which, fuck that shit. Go Tigers!

Steko• 15 years ago

This remembrance squares nicely with Walt's about how Steve set a goal of walking a bit further every day. I guess at the time of WWDC he was still making it to the park regularly.

demoo• 15 years ago

Very nice post. Reading through the comments brought this back to me:

You could do Richard Branson's job. Most of the time anyway.

Except for what he does for about five minutes a day. In those five minutes, he creates billions of dollars' worth of value every few years, and neither you nor I would have a prayer of doing what he does. Branson's real job is seeing new opportunities, making decisions that work, and understanding the connection between his audience, his brand, and his ventures.

happypeter2• 15 years ago

Turn sorrow into poetry. I love this.

tonio093• 15 years ago

-1 Seriously, a fantasy story about a man taking a walk in a park? is that it? 732 upvotes. sigh...

Daring Fireball: Universe Dented, Grass Underfoot

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