Dave Winer and Steve Jobs

Yesterday I wrote about how much respect I had for Keith Richards regard for his heroes -- particularly once most of his contemporaries were worshiping themselves.  On the theme of heroes, and not on my being Keith Richards but rather following his example, here are two of mine:

Dave Winer:  A cantankerous techie who has returned to New York for yet another chapter of his career. If you are not already a follower, there is a pretty good page about him on Wikipedia here.  His blog Scripting, and his podcast Rebooting the News with Jay Rosen are two that I follow, but he has done/is doing so much (see the links on his Scripting blog).  I have never met him, but would thoroughly enjoy a beer and a lively discussion about tech -- particularly on his self removal from the middle of the circle in Silicon Valley to foster the growth of a new circle in NYC.  

Steve Jobs:  I am hardly the first guy to say that Steve Jobs is a hero.  His work over the past 14 years at Apple says alot of it.  Not that market cap is a true indicator of value, but here is a chart of the stock VS the NASDAQ since his return in 1997.

 

I imagine a moment when Steve is looking at prototypes of the iPod Touch, to this day I think it is the most amazing of his amazing machines, sometime in 2006 deciding on the size, what to have in or out, the fine points of the form factor...  Mine lasted for three years, the third of which I was often heard marveling about how I used it every day and the magic was still there.  The guy has a passion for what he does.  Unbelievable.

Upon meeting him I would ask:  have you ever hung out with Keith Richards?

Later:  Links added and if you want to hear one of the best podcasts ever, listen to yesterday's Rebooting the news with Dave Winer, Jay Rosen, and Doc Searls (guest).  There are some podcasts that I skim through at 2X, this one I am going to listen to twice.