Inspirational Quote

Okay, in the interest of full disclosure ... I don't own any Apple products, and aside from the standard sadness I always feel over the untimely passing of someone before their time, I am not particularly affected by the passing of Steve Jobs. In fact, you could even say that I've been somewhat cynically annoyed by the level of veneration of the man that I've seen around the internet and among my social circles for the past couple of days.*

That being said, this now-famous quote of his definitely seems like something that needs to be posted here for my fellow current and aspiring postacademics, as well as for the current academics who find this blog through searches about how much they hate grad school and academia:

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and  intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Damn. He wasn't talking to a postacademic audience, but he may as well have been.

I may not think much of the hubbub around him today, but the man had a point. You won't live forever, so why waste your time being miserable and chasing a life that someone else has told you that you should keep pursuing, even when your inner voice is screaming at you to leave? Life is way too short to ignore what you know will make you happy.

I will probably never buy an iPhone, but I deeply appreciate this advice, Mr. Jobs. RIP.

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*Certainly, he made a lot of important contributions to the world of technology and should be remembered and honored for those contributions. And of course, my deepest condolences absolutely go out to his family and friends for his untimely passing. That being said, I find the comparative public response to his death as compared to the Civil Rights icon who died on the same day to be pretty disturbing.