time is short

steve and apple Steve Jobs – 1955-2011 (Apple computer, Pixar, Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad)

A few quotes, and a summary of the things I’ve been reading around the web.

“What’s really great is to be open when [the work] is not great. My best contribution is not settling for anything but really good stuff, in all the details. That’s my job — to make sure everything is great.”

“No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don’t want to die to get there,” he told the Stanford graduates. “And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new … Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

From Wired Magazine’s profile of Steve Jobs.

Other reactions: Scott Rhodie, Ryan Tate (some swearing), Josh Harris, A post on Steve Jobs’ worldview, Nathan Bingham, Nathan Campbell, a screen capture on the Daily Telegraph going too far with their headline by dave miers, the Westborough Baptists announcing their plans to picket Steve’s funeral (from an iPhone).

Many people are referencing this video: Transcript of Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech (6M views at time of posting).

And this ad, voiced by Steve, about the people who changed the world.

Update: lots more videos on this blog post.

It was an odd feeling today, watching the news of Steve Jobs’ death break on TweetDeck on my MacBook Air, not really wanting to shout it out to other people in the office, not really wanting to watch twitter as it was immediately overrun by pithy quotes, the inevitable black jokes. Has it really been ten years since the iPod first launched? What have I been doing with my life (married, one and a half masters degrees, a mortgage, having two kids, four or five different jobs)?

I’m hoping to take away from today a sense of making the most of the time that is given. Time is short, and it’s too easy to be wrapped up in the urgent while neglecting the important. I’m spending a lot of time learning about theology, and precious little time talking to people (and listening to them) about their take on Jesus. Am I working on the things that are the best use of my time? Am I even managing to spend enough time reflecting on my life so I know how to answer that question?

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3 Comments

  1. Similar thoughts, here, Dave….I know what life is like when you have more choices, more options and more potentials than there could ever be time for, and end up burnt out instead… I’m not sure that Jobs attitude of ‘make the most of every opportunity’ is the answer to the meaning of life. ‘Cosmic purpose’ perhaps, or a lucky person who managed to go from the bottom of the pile to the top…but what is worth having ? love, joy, peace, patience…maybe ? Or just ‘whoever has the most toys wins’… Life’s short…play hard…or ‘sit back and smell the roses’… what is asked of us ? is fear of death a good motivator for the way we live life ? I’m not sure about that…

  2. Dave,
    I’ve had a fairly negative view of Steve Jobs, especially since he said the iPhone 4 had no real antenna problems. As a Christian, I can’t admire someone who stood up and lied through his teeth to the whole world.
    Recently I saw a comment on a gdgt email saying that Microsoft needs Bill Gates to come back like Steve Jobs did with Apple. At the time I thought, “That won’t happen. Bill Gates has found some really worthwhile things to do with his life. Steve Jobs never got past flogging gadgets.”
    Sorry to speak ill of the dead. But even Kerry Packer put a defibrillator in every ambulance in NSW.

  3. Theory is a brilliant thing…as is history.

    Lessons from the past cant be forgotten…and they are there as a lesson to us all. My concern is that sometimes we are too bogged down investigating the past to live in the present.

    Dont be too hard on yourself though…two kids will give way more joy and life experience than any masters or another 1/2 will. :o)

    Just my two cents…

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