I just don't get over the "over-the-top" glorification of Steve Jobs since his death.
Sure he was a great personality in our industry, but come on no men is a single hero. For those who say "Now what are we going to do? What will happen to the future of computers?", I say get real, and when did you stop thinking?
Don't get me wrong I think that Steve was a genius. But enough already with this loss of hope for innovation being reported by the media. Let us reminber that it is not Steve Jobs, Motorola or Bill Gates came up with many ideas and we consider breakthroughs. Remember that the creators of Star Trek introduced the flip phone (communicator), the blue tooth head set (Uhura's communication head piece), The Next Generation had the Tablet, and I could go on. Most of us tech geeks dream of taking the sci-fi creations and making them reality. Alter all it is easier to sell when people have seen them before. I just can wait for the replicator (oh yeah Lotus Development Corporation had one of those for its Notes databases in the late 80s), the Holodeck, and of course my jet-pack.
So you see, there is no shortcoming of imagination and ideas buried in our pop culture. It is there for the picking by geeks and those with enough money to help them out. The rise of leaders often comes from the implicit desire of the many to see them explicitly expressed... often in the form of products. I always remind myself that the ultimate expression of knowledge is a product. Today our collective knowledge hides many tacit desires waiting to be realized.
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But I agree we should not fall prey to a huge loss of self confidence. The media is having an easy field trip, let's them enjoy it ... It does make us think.