I considered writing a post about Steve Jobs at some point. This would require research on my part, of course – my interest in Mr. Jobs has been specific over the years. I don't get into the heavy "Cult of Mac" thing or the cult of anything else, really – so I was interested in him for what I could learn.
I'm not sure what I can say about him overall, but I liked Apple products and felt he lent a sense of coherence and aesthetics to technology. His presence also was oddly defining and comforting at Apple – when he died, I felt the kind of loss you feel with a celebrity. I rather imagine, being a techno-fanatic, I'll feel the same way about many other Big Names in technology.
Of course theres' Jobs as he died, as he lived, as a person, as a business leader, etc. No one is simply defined. It's important for us to understand people such as Jobs because it helps us learn from them, both what to do and what not to do.
The problem of course is that, as I watch reaction to his death, it seems there's far, far too much wank about him and Apple. I find some of it rather surprising, to be frank.
Worst of all, it's completely the usual stuff – I can't differentiate 95% of it from assorted wank over Gundam versus Star Trek, DC versus Marvel, Tim Gun versus . . . well, no one is cool as Tim Gunn so we can forget that. Anyway, too much of the arguing seems to be about staking out territory and endowment-waving, and very little is about issues, who he was, what he did, etc.
I'm all for geekiness, but it's hard to learn professional lessons when it comes down to marking your territory with a heaping stream of invective.
So who knows what I'll write in the weeks to come – if anything, really, plenty of other people are doing better jobs than I. I just hate the idea that anything sober and educational may require me rooting through snarky comments, wild accusations, and blind fanpersonism. After a busy September, I'm not sure I'm up for it.
I think this is also a good lesson for professional geeks – it can be easy to go unprofessional pretty quickly. I'm sure some of the bizarre comments I've read come from perfectly respectable people.
As for now . . . well I'll just confine my unprofessinal ranting to . . . ranting about it.