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Comment by MatthewB | Hacker News Reader

I still can't believe Steve Jobs is gone. I don't think I've ever felt this sad about someone I've never met.

I always thought I would meet Steve eventually, especially since I finally moved to Silicon Valley recently. He will always be my hero and an inspiration to me in every aspect of my life.

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16-year Mac user here - I wouldn't go to the extent of saying Jobs changed my life. Apple devices influenced how I got my work done, which is non-trivial, but I won't idol worship him in an emotional manner. He's still only human just like the rest of us.

I can definitely say that he changed mine. My first WYSIWYG word processing experience was on an Apple //c (they loved those slashes instead of the Is for some reason), and I ended up in marketing and communications partly because Steve Jobs took that calligraphy class in college, and I loved the fonts I could play with...

You realize Jobs had almost nothing to do with the software running on the IIc, right? He'd been booted (driven out, quit in anger, however you want to interpret it) from the company already, and was very much focused on the Mac from 1983 onward.

One of the most frustrating things about his eulogizing (and yes, I'm no great Jobs fan) is the number of things attributed to him that simply aren't true. I saw a breathy news cast last night broadcasting from "outside the garage where Jobs invented and assembled the first Apple II", which really drove me nuts.

So you can't feel sad for someone dying without it being idol worship? And what about those of us whose lives he directly changed, is it unfair for us to feel a greater sense of loss?

In fact, it is his humanity that I respect and mourn the most: his drive to better himself and the world around him, an uncompromising vision in the face of adversity, and an unwillingness to give up.

Not being sad someone died isn't the same as being glad someone died.

Perhaps it's a generational gap. I am under 30, so I only became familiar with Macs in the mid-90s. I can understand those of you who grew up in the late 70s - mid 80s and have much more nostalgic sentiments towards Apple and the Macintosh. It created industries and careers that didn't previously exist.

I feel the exact same way. This is the first time I've felt truly sad to see someone die who I did not know personally. I never had a chance to meet him, but I had always held out hope that maybe someday I would be able to simply tell him "Thanks" and shake his hand.

If it weren't for him and his team totally disrupting the phone market with a truly futuristic device, I wouldn't have discovered my passion for making games or be making a living doing so!

In every aspect, are you serious? You have to diversify your influences...

I'm pretty sure MatthewB didn't say he had only one hero.

Nor did he imagine Enrique Inglesais's "I Can Be Your Hero" being sung by Steve Jobs.

Influential role model is probably more accurate.

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