Steve Jobs

Image :Justin Sullivan - Getty Images

It is heartwarming to see how the world has carefully worked out a way to let Steve Jobs know that they value him and that they wish him well as he continues to fight the good fight against his illness. Since he resigned as Apple CEO in a typically clear, fuss free way a number of articles and sites have popped up to let Steve Jobs know we see him as special and that the Steve Jobs effect is something we see as important. It has been as difficult a job for the world to strike the right balance with its articles as it has been for Steve Jobs himself at this point in time. With Apple and Pixar his creative imagination and seemingly fuss free approach to life and ideating has given us something so much more than diversion and entertainment. When the iPod Touches first came on the market I remember becoming instantly the coolest mother in the universe when my daughter opened her Christmas present from me and friends and family looked on. Her face of wonder was something to behold and our capacity to be impressed was really interesting. Gadgets are gadgets in our home. We've always had them but the iPod Touch was a whole new way of looking at technological portability and the fact it went straight on our wifi had us all gasping in amazement. Its coolness factor was its ingenuity and simplicity of design. The less is more. Uncluttered and cool. Steve Jobs has always been able to brush all the complication of modern living aside and a market crammed with things and recreate for us a new vision and new way of doing things. A new way of looking at lifestyle. That is art. He is a great artist and uses art to create new perspectives which then lead to new opportunities. That is how he took on Microsoft and we lived in a world where Bill Gates had revolutionized the planet and we could not see another way. Steve Jobs has created things which complement and enhance all of that and take it a step further into the realms of possibility and imagination. My daughter's life was transformed by her iPod Touch. It suddenly had a big place in her life  and that  was making a big contribution to the way she lived. She so believed in it that when she was ready to upgrade to the new one she decided I was going to inherit the one I had given her. The Steve Jobs effect came into play when she was prepared to give up a whole afternoon, surprise me with an iTunes card, mentor me through the process of signing up and syncing. She had even thought to work out which apps might appeal to me. She then let me explore and came and dug me out of the holes I got myself into. I am good at technology but the iPod was a bit scary for me and it was a totally new way of doing things. I laugh now. That iPod is still a good friend and a great travel companion. Steve Jobs has since given us the iPhone and the iPad. I am sticking with my iPod Touch and don't feel I need the other things, but I can see others have the same joy I have had with the iPod. That's the trick. He has brought us cool gadgets we like to use and which fill a distinct space in our life and enhance it. He should know we  value his humour and how hard he works. We do value how he can be different and surprising. I'd like to think he will surprise the hell out of that illness. We'll see. In the meantime the world is doing its best to show him that we have all been inspired in some way by him and that it has been a very personal inspiration. We are thinking of him and wishing him well.