One More Thing

I remember the day Jobs died.

He was an IT hero. Every story that leaked about his character was nothing that would make you want to work alongside him. There's an anecdote about him cornering an employee in an elevator, demanding they explain their project, firing them on the spot when they couldn't. No way to verify it. But that supreme confidence, that willfulness, the way he overturned everything and kept pushing forward — even through a screen, it was formidable.

The last photo to surface showed him walking, gaunt. Everyone understood. Not long now.

October 5, 2011. Apple's homepage changed. No product shots, no links. Just a monochrome portrait of Jobs. Apple — the company whose homepage was directly tied to revenue — gave the entire thing over to mourning.

At the dev shop where I worked, a group of irreverent, not-remotely-spiritual colleagues stood in silence. These were people who cracked dumb jokes all day. Now they just stared at the screen. Sad about the products he made, grief for the era ending — they probably couldn't tell the difference themselves.

Years have passed. Apple without Jobs posts record profits quarter after quarter. Revenue keeps climbing. But that jolt in your chest when he said "One more thing" at the end of a keynote — that's gone.