Thursday's Technical Melancholy

The outpour of grief and sorrow over the death of Steve Jobs has been kind of awesome to watch, hasn't it? It sounds kind of morbid to put it that way, but I feel one of the reasons humans scare death so much is because of the unspoken fear of being forgotten.

I am in awe of people who can evoke this emotion throughout the world, and Jobs definitely earned the respect, gratitude and honor. Even if you don't own an Apple product (which is a feat nowadays, so congratulations if you managed to not), the technology you use, the movies you see, the music you listen to were all touched in some way by his innovation and collaboration with others.

In watching the flood of sadness across all media outlets, social networks and blogs, I wanted to share a couple things that touched me most.

My favorite quotes (all which happen to be from the commencement speech he gave at a graduation ceremony at Standford in 2005):

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever...because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path and that will make all the difference."

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I have ever encountered that has helped me make the big choices in life. Remembering you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

And finally: "Stay hungry. Stay foolish."



Stay hungry. Stay foolish.