When we think about what Jobs meant to turn-of-the-millennium America, this is the place to start: not just with the technical wizardry behind Macs and iPhones and iPads, but with the Apple founder's eye for grace and style, and his recognition of the deep connection between beauty and civilization.

There would have been some sort of desktop computer without the Macintosh, some sort of popular smartphone without the iPhone, some kind of big-screen computer animation without Pixar. But there was no guarantee that any of these technological wonders would be so exquisite, or that the age of information would also be an age of artistry.

Jobs wasn't an artist himself. But he was a curator, a critic and a patron. Whether he was deciding that the first Macintosh computer would feature beautiful typography or telling Pixar's animators to "make it great," he played a decisive role in restoring a kind of defiant aestheticism to American life.
Up From Ugliness
If they learn anything from Jobs, it should be that their vocation isn't just about uniting commerce and technology. It's about making the modern world more beautiful as well.

Up From Ugliness