U
D

Conversation

the

10/06/11 | Uncategorized

Connecting the Dots: Steve Jobs

By Jean Hsu (Android Developer, Pulse)
The Pulse office was jolted suddenly this afternoon as coworkers announced the news coming in from Twitter. Was it a rumor? A few minutes later, TechCrunch and other sources posted confirmations, but many of us were still in disbelief.

Where would we all have been in a world without Steve Jobs? Many of us would never have met each other, and I’m almost certain we wouldn’t have been in that office working together on Pulse.

The ability of one man to have such a wide-reaching effect on people everywhere (and especially in Silicon Valley) is mind-boggling. Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Hacker News were completely devoted today to remembering Steve Jobs.

In the commencement speech that Steve Jobs gave in 2005, he talks about how dropping out of college and getting fired from Apple were actually some of the best things that happened to him:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward,” he said, “you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”

As I drove home today, I reflected on my past 24 years of life and tried to see how my dots connected; I was amazed at how many of my dots, especially in the past few years, were somehow related to Steve Jobs.

I didn’t know him personally, but his life and work has had an immensely strong impact on my own life and work. He has truly left an inspirational legacy, and will be missed.

We may not be able to see how our dots connect going forward, but we can try to lead a more meaningful life and ask ourselves every morning, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”

This post was originally published on Jean Hsu’s blog.

About the guest blogger: Jean Hsu currently co-leads Android development for Pulse News, a mobile news reading app. Before she entered the startup world, she worked at Google as a software engineer for two years. Jean holds a Bachelor’s of Engineering in Computer Science from Princeton University. She blogs about her startup adventures and experiences as a software engineer at www.jeanhsu.com. Follow her on Twitter at @jyhsu.

Editor

Editor

The Switch Editorial Team.

Straight to your inbox.

The best content on the future faces of tech and startups.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

SHARE THIS STORY

NEW COHORT STARTS JANUARY 2024

Join the Angel Sessions

Develop strategic relationships, build skills, and increase your deal flow through our global angel group and investing course.

RELATED ARTICLES
[yarpp]