We'll miss you Steve

As Steve Jobs resigns his role at Apple, perhaps the most appropriate send off is remembering another innovator/inventor who changed our lives, while we recognize that delivering on an acknowledged need isn't innovation.

In the words of Henry Ford:

'If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.'

If Jobs had asked you what you wanted in Y2K, what would you have told him? Could you have even imagined a MacBook, an iPhone, iPod or iTunes back in 1999? Can you imagine where technology would be if Jobs had listened to only the consumer, and ignored what he thought might be was possible?

Agile development may be the best option we've got, but if it has a shortcoming, it is this: consumer led design will always be flawed as giving a customer something they already know they need will never lead to innovation.

Visionaries see both the need AND the solutions most of us never dreamed of. Steve Jobs was a visionary, and whether you like his vision or not, his influence can be felt throughout the technological world. I only hope that not all our best and brightest are spending their gifts on Facebook-y silliness and other marketing crap trying to get consumers to click on some annoying bit of advertising. We need more visionaries, and a lot less marketeers .... *

Thank you Mr. Jobs, get well and godspeed for all your future endeavors.

* on of the advantages of writing a very infrequent blog - you can say all sorts of things that might tick someone off :)