Someday, I’ll sit down and write at more length about what Steve Jobs meant to me. From the time I was first exposed to the Macintosh in the mid-80s (when I was still a little boy), I was fascinated by his company, Apple. My first proper personal computer was a Mac when I turned 12, and I’ve never been without one since. I’m using one to write this now, 20 years later.

But there are a few reasons I feel reluctant to do so yet:

  1. What could I say that hasn’t already been said better than I about this genius, icon and world-changer (and how original could any of it be, given that you’ve already heard those exact words used to describe Steve ad nauseum)?
  2. My feelings about his recent death are still fairly raw. I’ve never been this sad about the death of a public figure before (and it would surprise me to be so again).
  3. I’d like to read Walter Isaacson’s upcoming biography of Jobs first, and recommend it to you too. The book will give unprecedented access to the man’s life, from beginning to end, derived from over 40 interviews with the man himself and hundreds of interviews with others about him. It will be the definitive work on Steve Jobs and his legacy.

So, for now, I’d just like to postmark this simple reminder to try at some point to articulate why Steve Jobs – a true original – inspired me more than almost any other public person alive during my lifetime.