Every February, Tim Cook does something predictable yet touching: he pauses his CEO duties to honor Steve Jobs. This year, marking what would’ve been Jobs’ 70th birthday, Cook took to X (formerly Twitter) with a tribute that felt both personal and poetic. “Steve saw the world not just as it was, but as it could be,” he wrote, neatly summing up why Jobs’ shadow still stretches across every iPhone, MacBook, and AirPod today.
Cook’s posts are more than corporate nostalgia—they’re a window into how Jobs, even 13 years after his passing, remains Apple’s guiding spirit. The two Steves (Jobs and Wozniak) famously started Apple in a garage in 1976, but Jobs’ second act—returning in 1997 to rescue a floundering Apple—is the stuff of tech legend. He didn’t just save the company; he reinvented it with the iMac, iPod, and iPhone, turning Apple into a cultural force.
In interviews, Cook often paints Jobs as equal parts mentor and debate partner. “He loved to argue—but only if you could out-argue him,” Cook once told The Wall Street Journal. Their dynamic? Think of it as a high-stakes tennis match where ideas, not egos, won points. Jobs, Cook admits, taught him to obsess over the journey, not just the destination. (Translation: Even trillion-dollar companies need to stop and smell the roses—or at least the unboxing experience of a new product.)
Cook’s yearly ritual isn’t just about honoring the past. It’s a subtle reminder of the philosophy that still fuels Apple: simplicity, boldness, and making tech feel human. Jobs’ obsession with design—like insisting fonts look perfect on a screen—is why your iPhone feels less like a gadget and more like an extension of your hand.
So, next time you double-tap a photo or FaceTime your grandma, spare a thought for the college dropout who believed computers could be “beautiful.” And maybe thank Tim Cook, too—for keeping that spirit alive, one birthday tribute at a time.
