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Best tribute to Steve and everyone he inspired I’ve seen.
Almost cried at work.

There are many falsehoods being attributed to Steve Jobs – that he “invented the personal computer,” that he “dreamed of the mouse,” that he “created graphical computing,” that he “made the first tablet PC,” I’ve heard all these things just tonight. Clear away all the false attributions, erase the whiteboard of all the things “he gave us.” Let there be, for one moment, just the man, devoid of the stuff. What did he do?

Well, let me tell you. For an entire generation of young Americans who had every reason to believe what they were being told by their teachers, their friends, their bosses, even their family – that their dreams and ambitions were unattainable and that we were just cogs in a great machine we could never understand – Steve Jobs was living, breathing, human proof that it was all wrong. We were all vessels for something greater, we had it within ourselves to put on a game face and stand up to everything and everyone. He was the personification of “Hell, no!”

Steve Jobs did not give us anything. He challenged us, and his charisma and doggedness and determination not to let failure define him, made us respond. We know him mainly because of the things his company built, and mainly for his charismatic demos, which in the larger scheme of things is actually not all that much.

Take away those products and their demos as though they never existed, and what remains is the single best creation of his life, more valuable than anything Apple has ever produced. And right now, this moment, despite all that Apple has enabled me to do in my life, I would give it all for an eraser that could wipe out every Apple device ever made, in exchange for the one technology that matters this moment, in the here and now – or, better yet, 24 hours ago: the cure for his pancreatic cancer.

There are bigger problems to solve than can fit in an iPad. In his memory, we should revolutionize our approach to conquering death the way Steve Jobs revolutionized our approach to living life.

I just can’t even.