By Saswat Pattanayak
Steve Jobs changed my life in ways I cannot describe in this blog. Suffice it to say, he was the reason for my romance with technology. And, he enabled my family and friends to celebrate countless memories together in ways I would never have imagined were possible. He made technology personal and effortless, while letting it be explored as a social tool of change.
There are so many technological innovations that often make me pause and wonder if I were merely an uninvited guest to this wondrous Planet Earth. Not being a religious person and having nothing supernatural to marvel at, and being so limited in my capacities to comprehend scientific researches, the only things that I have looked at with awe are the technological progresses unfolding before my eyes. Made with countless human labor, and empowering leaders.
Steve Jobs made me feel welcomed to the otherwise elitist and controlled environment of inaccessible technologies. Due largely to him, inside the world of scientific innovations, I have since felt less of a guest, and more of a creator. I continue to marvel at Apple products, but at the same time, I actually utilize them with so much ease that my collaborations with the machines are in fact helping me realize my own potentials.
From remixing songs, to creating podcasts, from producing short movie trailers to creating websites, from editing photographs, to getting motivated to take pictures, from maintaining online diaries to backing up my calendars, from rolling out blog entries, to author several unfinished book projects, Apple liberates me to imagine of possibilities I never could have come up on my own.
At a personal level, I am forever grateful to Steve Jobs.
There are several facets about his own personal life that are disturbing, and again, some aspects which are truly inspiring. His working class backgrounds to capitalistic rise and fame, there are his disputable business acumen, his “Made in China” product lineups, and his authoritarian showmanship. Like most of us, Steve Jobs was a complexed human being, and an uncritical assessment of him would not amount to a just tribute.
But like only he could have done, he changed for the better, the ways we interact with technology today. And it has been a great fortune on our parts to have lived our lives during his lifetime, and for having witnessed this great man help create and present miracles before us. Like a magician. Like a fabled hero. Like an inspiration.