Former Apple software engineer David Gelphman shares a pair of very intimate, personal interactions with late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, revealing a softer, more human side to Jobs’ personality that is rarely seen in mainstream media reports.
David Gelphman (via The Loop)
In March 2010, just a couple of weeks before the iPad was due to be released publicly, I had a reason to contact Steve. A friend of mine was dying of liver disease and I was going to San Francisco to hopefully see and communicate with her while it was still possible. She was a friend from my Adobe days and was very much into technology. I thought it would be a treat for her to see an iPad. And I had one. But until the product was officially released I could not show it to anyone without permission from Apple management.There was no way I was going to take the iPad with me unless Steve personally approved it. I knew that asking anyone in my direct management chain was a non-starter. I knew that nobody would take the risk. Only in the higher levels of iOS development would they be able to approve such a request and it seemed like a waste of time to bother trying. The easy answer was “No” and that is what I would hear. Nobody would care.So I wrote Steve. […]
After sending a heartfelt, sincere request to Jobs, Gelphman reveals that he got a response within 3 minutes, approving his request. It’s a pretty awesome story – check out Gelphman’s blog for the full text of his message to Steve, and Steve’s response.
