Forget protest movements and populist politics, to say nothing of academic blogging and scholarship — if you want to change the world in your lifetime, this is the guy you ought to emulate. RIP Steve Jobs, one of the greatest practical visionaries of our time.

PS note that Jobs’ inspiration for the typography on the Mac was a college course … a perfect testimony to the indirect but important influence that we academics can have on the world. Our students, not our research, are our near-term legacy — even, perhaps, our “failed” students who end up doing insanely great things with our theories and concepts and ideas.