This breaks my heart. I used to work next to Larry—literally sat next to him—on Yahoo’s central design team. We were in frequent meetings together, but didn’t talk one-on-one often. One evening commuting from work, during one of many Caltrain failures, he noticed me as I waited outside the train and offered me a ride home. I remember sitting nervously in the car, a bit awestruck, and I finally got up the courage to ask him “Did you really invent copy and paste?!”
“Yes.”
From then on the ice was broken and we chatted more freely: fun discussions about the (then) up-and-coming voice recognition UIs (I compared them to CLIs which he liked), wearables, design, and cycling.
I consider him a friend. Didn’t expect us to lose him so soon.
To clarify, as the dialogue could be construed otherwise, Larry was actually very humble. While he was not as famous as he should have been, he had so much influence on the industry, it could easily go to your head. He was very approachable and helpful, and overall a generous and kind person. Will be sorely missed.
It’s ok, I think anyone would realise that the fact he gave you a lift meant he was a pretty nice guy. I really enjoyed reading your story. I’m sorry you lost a friend.
“Yes.”
From then on the ice was broken and we chatted more freely: fun discussions about the (then) up-and-coming voice recognition UIs (I compared them to CLIs which he liked), wearables, design, and cycling.
I consider him a friend. Didn’t expect us to lose him so soon.