Steve Jobs 

08 Oct 2011

(from http://jmak.tumblr.com/)

Over the past 10 years or so, like many folks, I’ve become (or re-become) an Apple fan. The first computer I ever used was probably an Apple IIe or IIgs, at a friends or at school. Loads of Oregon Trail, other text-based games, and a bunch of Carmen San Diego.

Then, as I got older (and here we’re talking ten or twelve), I moved into the PC world. I liked building machines, replacing parts, screwing around with trying to move memory around with the autoexec.bat and config.sys so I could run the latest game. And that’s a huge reason I ended up with computers being my vocation. Apple got me in the game, the late 80s/early 90s PC world made me a tech geek.

But then something changed. Well, a couple.

I graduated college.

I got a job.

I no longer had time (nor the desire) to upgrade to the latest drivers, or deal with the incompatibility between my new graphics card and my sound card. I didn’t want to deal with poorly developed software that caused my machine to blow up just because I wanted to use a scanner or play a game.

It started slow. I got a second-gen iPod in, I think, 2002. It cost $500 for 10GB. I had to buy a FireWire card for my PC to even use it.

But Steve Jobs had gotten his foot in the door. The iPod did one thing, and it did it well: it played music. The interface required no instructions, no learning curve, no explanation. It. Just. Worked. (It also lasted me 3 or 4 years. And I’m pretty that if I turned it on right now, it would work.)

One iPod lead to another iPod (a Shuffle, then a 5th Gen iPod). Then, I got sick of dealing with a crappy PC at work and bought myself a MacBook Pro. My re-entry (after 20 years or so) into real Mac computing.

I’m not going to tell you that Macs are better because of superior hardware or software. I’m not going to tell you that everything about a Mac is better than a PC. I won’t tell you that Steve Jobs was some sort of deity of software design.

What Steve Jobs got, and what he eventually made me realize, is that my time and my experience are worthwhile. It’s worth paying a little bit extra to get a computer that just sort of does what it is supposed to. That has an interface that makes sense. That doesn’t make me worry about configuration or setup. That does the little things right. Whether it’s a computer, or a music player, or a video player for the TV, what’s valuable isn’t the technology, it’s the technology’s ability to get out of the way and make my life better, easier, faster.

As a kid (and even now, a little bit), futzing around with a computer is an enjoyable pastime. Your time, as a kid, just isn’t quite as valuable. When you have a job, and maybe a hobby or two, or a family, your time is your most valuable asset. Your time allows you to do what you dream–build a company, a family, play a sport, start a charity, whatever it is. Steve Jobs sold time.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.[1]