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[OT] My Email to Mr. Steve Jobs



Dear Emacs-Users,

a couple of weeks ago I wrote an Email to Mr. Steve Jobs. A few days later I got a very personal answer. I think it is worth sharing my Email to Mr. Steve Jobs. Feedback is welcomed. Thanks!

Stefan Strohmeier
Lichtenau 2011
Member of the church of Emacs


Here is my mail:

An: sjobs@apple.com, Steve@Apple.com, sj@pixar.com, theboss@apple.com
Betreff: Connecting the dots...



Dear Mr. Steve Jobs,


time told you and you told me.


I am a 29 year old boy happened to be born in Germany, the land of Sauerkraut, fancy cars and fresh air. Albert Einstein was born here without whom your GPS would be set off 10 km in one day, within one week it would be useless. Also Konrad Zuse was born here, the engineer who build the first programmable computer.


My three biggest fears:

1) Have my parents attend my funeral

I am not afraid to die and I love my parents. I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma cancer in July 2006. In a 12 hour surgery three vertebras were removed and replaced by a titan cage. I guess there are only a handful of people on this planet who can do this surgery. The titan cage was introduced by a guy named Prof. Dr. Jürgen Harms. I am still alive and I can walk. Since a few weeks I am on a "Primal Diet" and I feel better than ever. 
I have read your cancer story...


2) Losing the love of my life

I cheated on my girl friend with a beautiful sporty blonde. I told her this. I smoke(d) and she deadly hates it. During a severe psychosis I even forgot her name. She is still with me. This must be true love. I cannot ask for more.

She was raised as a only child because her parents could not afford to have another baby. She is very smart, beautiful and funny. Now she is about to finish her PhD in biochemics and bioinformatics. She is from Rosario, the home town of Che Guevara and the football star Messi. She introduced me to Malbec wine and great meat...


3) Having another psychosis and thus doing something stupid

In 2010 I had another tumor in one of the vertebras. It was irradiated and then I had a high dose chemotherapy with stem cell transplantation at the DKFZ in Heidelberg. To support the chemotherapy I was given a very high dose of cortisone. This messed up my system. I ate like a pig and gained 10 kilos in three weeks. At a certain point I could not sleep for four days and I started to get hallucinations. I believed I was Jesus. This is something thought by many people having a psychosis. I could also see some analogies to the case of John Forbes Nash. I have seen the movie "A Beautiful Mind". Unfortunately, he was treated with heavy electric shocks which must have been very painful. I got haloperidol (Haldol) and many other drugs for a few weeks. It was one of the worst experiences in my life. Now, I am doing quite fine again...



I admire you very much and your products have made my time at the hospitals as good as possible. I listened to the Beatles with my iPod and I could work on my diploma thesis on a white Macbook 2006. My parents bought it for me because I suffered so much. At this point in time I only make about 10 Euros an hour but maybe one day I can afford a Macbook Pro with a mighty fast SSD.

I do research related to CO2 emissions and global warming at the BayCEER. Yesterday I listened to a talk at my university by a former MIT fellow named Jochem Marotzke. His conclusion on the global warming issue was, as far as I understood, that the rich countries might be able to manage it but the poor countries might get into serious trouble. Something should be done about this. Sometimes I am frustrated with the way science is done. And I thought about getting a real job after listening to your speech at Stanford on youtube. But it's the "pleasure of finding things out" that might keep me in the science business.


Maybe we can meet one day or you could introduce me to some US American cancer and back specialists.

It would be a great honor for me to get in touch with you one day. I can invite you to my place but it is a very shitty two room apartment with no heating in the bathroom...

That's it. I just wanted to share my story. Please excuse the selfish tone, the many I's and words.

By the way, I think that you can even connect the dots forward to some extent. This would not be possible without the works of Blaise Pascal and Mr. Fermat...


I wish you all the strength, believe, love and knowledge that is necessary to deal with your latest health issues.


In case you are an employee related to Steve Jobs please forward this to him. Thank you!

Please reply to stefan.strohmeier(@)gmx.de, st.strohmeier(@)googlemail.com or to my brand new iPhone 4 under the number +49 151 50493336.

I am also looking for a real job because I might drop my PhD thesis. Can you offer me a job at apple.com? If so where should I apply to?

Connect the dots and define your fears...


Stefan Strohmeier,

Bayreuth 2011
City of Composer Richard Wagner,
Friedrich Nietzsche was here in 1872


Sent from my innovative Dell-oPhone. Just kidding...