By now you’ve probably heard that the guy who made Apple what it is, Steve Jobs, died Wednesday. There’s not a lot of neighborhood, hyper-local introspection I can bring to bear on that news, other than to acknowledge that just about everything we do at the Advocate utilizes Apple technology or technology inspired by Apple.

What Apple did, and what other innovative companies have done as a result of what Apple did, have forever changed journalism and the way we prepare news and the way you consume it. And although there are plenty of times when that fact is frustrating and unsettling to those of us trying to remain employed in the business, that is all good news for those of you who can now receive whatever news you want in whatever form you want virtually without cost or obligation or bias, if you so choose.

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A neighbor passed along a brief online link to some little-publicized things Steve Jobs said over the years as he went from a young entrepreneur to an older rich guy to a fabulously wealth and famous man who couldn’t innovate or talk his way out of certain death.

Jobs may have been many things — insufferable, arrogant, a taskmaster and charismatic in addition to all of the good things people are saying about him now that he’s gone — but he was unique, and he recognized and acted upon some basic life principles that most of us tend to forget as we meander through the day.