by geoff on March 26, 2012
I just read that Annie’s is going public. For anyone who doesn’t know, they are the folks behind a series of delicious and mostly organic mac & cheese products. Yum!
I’ve been a fan for a long time. So much so that in 1997 I wrote them a later singing their praises. This was back in the day, so it was an actual printed letter that I no longer have, because, well, they have it. (It was around the time of the Mars rover and my recollection is that I suggested Annie’s Mac & Cheese was the bigger accomplishment.) What I do have is the response that Annie herself wrote out by hand and sent back to me, along with some coupons for free product and a fridge magnet that she references in the P.S. Here it is:
I was an Annievangelist prior to that, but became even more fervent as a result. 15 years later, they’re going public. That’s a long road, and they sure travelled it in style.
Way to go, Annie.
by geoff on October 5, 2011
Steve Jobs is an inspiration to me, and it is almost unbearable that he’s gone. He came to embody everything that design stands for: the human experience, the relentless focus on core truth, the power of saying no, the joy of saying yes, and the indomitable spirit of making things better until they’re great.
We may all be poor players on the stage of an inevitable history, but for the time we are here we are moved by people, and some of them even after they leave. He was one of those, and our world wouldn’t be the same without him.
The thing is, he’s not really gone, and never will be. He lives on in the incredible companies he founded, the insanely great products we use every day for every thing, and perhaps most of all in each of us through the standards of excellence he pushed us all towards. The understanding that a pixel matters, that accessibility matters, that technology today is no different than it ever was – needing people to give it meaning. The drum he marched to so transcendently is the beat we all strive for now; even if it feels to have slowed today, we will each pick it up tomorrow, and do our best to carry it forward. And for that, I have only two words:
Thank you.
