This morning John Furrier wrote “In memory of Steve Jobs let all of us try to do some ‘amazing’ and ‘share’ it with everyone.” That’s a great challenge and one that everyone, Apple fan or not, should aspire to rise to. Earlier today I posted about this 1996 interview with Steve Jobs. It’s a particularly candid interview, from when Jobs was still at NeXT before returning to Apple. It has some insights from Jobs himself, older, wiser and cynical yet optimistic about changing the world and the role technology plays.

We obviously love technology at SiliconAngle, but you don’t have to agree with Jobs that the problem with the education is unions to agree that technology alone won’t fix the problem. Here’s an excerpt from the interview to keep in mind as we ponder the impact Jobs had on the tech industry and the world, and consider how to live our own lives to the fullest:

The problem is I’m older now, I’m 40 years old, and this stuff doesn’t change the world. It really doesn’t.

That’s going to break people’s hearts.

I’m sorry, it’s true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much – if at all.

These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I’m not downplaying that. But it’s a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light – that it’s going to change everything. Things don’t have to change the world to be important.

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Lincoln did not have a Web site at the log cabin where his parents home-schooled him, and he turned out pretty interesting. Historical precedent shows that we can turn out amazing human beings without technology. Precedent also shows that we can turn out very uninteresting human beings with technology.