{"id":6973,"date":"2015-10-09T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T07:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/?p=6973"},"modified":"2015-10-28T20:10:03","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T03:10:03","slug":"the-letter-to-steve-jobs-i-should-have-sent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=6973","title":{"rendered":"As Steve Jobs film opens, my HuffPost on the letter I should have sent him before his death"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"As%20Steve%20Jobs%20film%20opens%2C%20my%20HuffPost%20on%20the%20letter%20I%20should%20have%20sent%20him%20before%20his%20death\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/peter-lance\/the-letter-to-steve-jobs-_b_7622828.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-6975\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 11.51.36 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-17-at-11.51.36-PM-253x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"202\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-17-at-11.51.36-PM-253x300.png 253w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-17-at-11.51.36-PM.png 306w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a>By Peter Lance\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0October 9th, 2015\u00a0<\/strong>I bought my first Macintosh computer in 1987. At the time I was a correspondent for ABC News and my news division\u2019s first attempt to \u201cwire\u201d its reporters was by giving us small Tandy TRS-80\u2019s \u2013 effectively keyboards that displayed 8 lines and 40 characters. This was the early cyber equivalent of the quill pen.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Huff Post\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/peter-lance\/the-letter-to-steve-jobs-_b_7622828.html\"><strong>CLICK IMAGE<\/strong><\/a> for piece as it ran in the HuffPost<\/p>\n<p>But when the first Mac 128K hit with its WYSIWYG\u2013 \u201cwhat you see, is what you get,\u201d user interface I had to have one.<\/p>\n<p>I remember that when I left ABC News for a million-to-one shot working for Michael Mann on his new series \u201cCrime Story\u201d I had to convince the TWA flight attendant to let me stow the large gumdrop shaped \u201cpersonal\u201d computer with the crew luggage because it wouldn\u2019t fit under the seat in front of me or in the overhead compartment.<\/p>\n<p>Since January of 1987 when I came to \u201cHollywood\u201d and became a staff writer and later \u201cshow runner\u2019 on a number of great <strong><a title=\"PL tv series\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=4584\">dramatic series<\/a>,<\/strong> I wrote every word of every script on a Mac \u2013 even though the studio system was still a hopeless slave to Microsoft.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-15-at-11.27.17-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-6976\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-06-15 at 11.27.17 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-15-at-11.27.17-PM-300x208.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"166\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-15-at-11.27.17-PM-300x208.png 300w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-15-at-11.27.17-PM.png 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Two years later in 1989 I plunked down $6,500 for the first Mac portable and ever since then, on one Apple product or another, I have written more than 30 hours of\u00a0<a title=\"pl imdb\" href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0004145\/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1\"><strong>dramatic television,<\/strong><\/a> <a title=\"amazon authors page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Peter-Lance\/e\/B001HD1116\/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1425767896&amp;sr=1-2-ent\"><strong>two novels, four non-fiction books<\/strong><\/a> for HarperCollins and hundreds of <strong><a title=\"Death On The America\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=3153\">news pieces<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I wanted to tell all of this to Steve Jobs after I\u2019d heard he\u2019d been diagnosed with cancer in 2003 \u2013 but I put it off. After he went into remission I thought to myself, \u201cI have time now to let him know how much I think he changed the creative world; not just for me but for millions of others who lacked the patience to embrace the complicated and duplicative world of Windows.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-17-at-11.53.59-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6977\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 11.53.59 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-17-at-11.53.59-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"142\" height=\"190\" \/><\/a>Even six years later when word came that Jobs, then in relapse, announced a six month leave, I held off; making the mistake we often do by waiting to tell those who mean so much to us, just how much they really mean.<\/p>\n<p>But this week after I received my Apple Watch \u2013 the seventh Apple product I own \u2013 and realized what a breakthrough device it was &#8211; I had to send this expression of thanks to Steve, no matter how hopelessly late it was.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nTHE JOY OF LIVING IN THE APPLE WORLD<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Once, in the last years of my career in episodic I was forced to use a PC laptop because the series I wrote for demanded that we crank out teleplays in the Windows format of <a title=\"Final Draft\" href=\"http:\/\/store.finaldraft.com\/final-draft-9.html?mkwid=sKVQJRBjj_dc&amp;pcrid=39314169805&amp;pmt=e&amp;keyword=final%20draft&amp;pdv=c&amp;src=%5Boffer%5D&amp;mm_campaign=4ba1af906554aede504a53d63e96a2c9&amp;MarketingPartner=Google&amp;AdType=CPC&amp;gclid=CjwKEAjw2ImsBRCnjq70n_amv14SJAChXijNezCkdWDGefYqYiXbssED1bKwWVywl7Ybymq-O7nOChoCiQjw_wcB\"><strong>Final Draft<\/strong> <\/a>\u2013 the world\u2019s greatest screenwriting software.<\/p>\n<p>I needed a new printer driver installed and the show\u2019s IT director had to send a tech to my home to do it \u2013 a process (in Windows time) that took nearly an hour.<\/p>\n<p>Mac users know that this exercise that could have gone down in the time it takes to plug in a USB cable, but such was the burdensome world that Bill Gates had created in his lifelong effort to emulate what Wozniak and Jobs had long ago accomplished.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-17-at-11.44.02-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6978\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 11.44.02 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-17-at-11.44.02-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"129\" height=\"211\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Why did I need an Apple Watch, you might ask? I do most of my writing on an iMac and a MacBook Air when I travel. I own an iPhone and a mini iPad, so why another device?<\/p>\n<p>It was the health app that first attracted me when I upgraded to IOS 8.3 \u2013 the ability to track my caloric intake and, ultimately measure my heartbeat as I become more and more interested in longevity.<\/p>\n<p>But this watch , which I wear under my wrist, is so much more. I recently downloaded a Sleep App to investigate how often I fall into REM each night \u2013 the most creative period of unconsciousness.<\/p>\n<p>I love the ease at which I can send text messages or even retrieve phone calls, and sure, while all of the Messages, Contacts and Calendar functions are easily accessed via my iPhone, they seem significantly more useful now.<\/p>\n<p>And don\u2019t get me started on Passbook, which allows me to blast through retail transactions with the swipe of my wrist.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LIFE AFTER STEVE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Like all loyal Apple users I was worried about what would happen when Jobs\u2019 influence on the company was finally done. But the Watch is the first significant device released under the leadership of Tim Cook and there\u2019s little doubt now that he\u2019s got a steady hand on the tiller.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-18-at-12.12.58-AM1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-6994\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-06-18 at 12.12.58 AM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-18-at-12.12.58-AM1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"262\" height=\"131\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-18-at-12.12.58-AM1.png 323w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-18-at-12.12.58-AM1-300x150.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 262px) 100vw, 262px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve customized my Watch face to let me know, the temperature in Santa Barbara where live, the time in Melbourne, where my youngest daughter lives, my daily status in the various Exercise Apps \u2013 one event prompts me regularly to Stand Up from my chair as I spend my day filling blank pages with words \u2013 and the amount of reserve power I have along with the date and, oh yeah, the time of day.<\/p>\n<p>But with a single swipe up I can monitor my heart rate. On one level that seems like the most egocentric of all pursuits, but at its most basic, it reminds me that the Genius device of all time is the human body and that the pump in my chest keeps working day in and day out, constantly preserving my ability to tell stories.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">So Steve, wherever your fierce spirit has taken you, I celebrate all that you \u2018ve accomplished. You made filling an empty page, or an blank canvas or a vacant sheet of music, so much easier.<\/p>\n<p>You helped give the world a common axis for expression that transcends, language, national borders or ideologies. You\u2019ve succeeded in effectively lengthening our lives by making the process of living so much more efficient and downright fun. Godspeed.<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-17-at-11.44.39-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-6981\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 11.44.39 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-17-at-11.44.39-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"448\" height=\"125\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-17-at-11.44.39-PM.png 553w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-06-17-at-11.44.39-PM-300x83.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"As%20Steve%20Jobs%20film%20opens%2C%20my%20HuffPost%20on%20the%20letter%20I%20should%20have%20sent%20him%20before%20his%20death\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>By Peter Lance\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0October 9th, 2015\u00a0I bought my first Macintosh computer in 1987. At the time I was a correspondent for ABC News and my news division\u2019s first attempt to \u201cwire\u201d its reporters was by giving us small Tandy TRS-80\u2019s \u2013 effectively keyboards that displayed 8 lines and 40 characters. This was the early cyber equivalent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[886,895,896,891,897,898,893,894,892,887,888,889,890],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6973"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6983,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973\/revisions\/6983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}