I’ve avoided writing about many things over the last few years of William’s long illness. Writing his obituary was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. He lived an amazing life full of discovery, wonder and terror. Selecting just a few vignettes to illustrate his character and strength of will was difficult. I miss him terribly.
For the last six months of his life and the first three months of his death, I avoided the Los Gatos office we shared over the years. There are so many projects we planned that are now left undone. Some I can finish. Others I must deconstruct. Some are lost forever, except in my memory.
But now here I am in the little office I shared with William, surrounded by the relics of technologies and products and startups past. The passion is never extinguished, but only delayed a little.
Much in the world has changed but still stays exactly the same. Things William and I and others no one else remembers get rediscovered again and again. Things that shouldn’t be get dug up and instantiated with a “This time for sure” enthusiasm that belies sense. All for fame, or fortune, or just because it’s fun. It’s the Silicon Valley way.
And because memory is in the end all we have.