What Everyone Is Too Polite to Say About Steve Jobs

[MisterP]

We mentioned much of the good Jobs did during his career earlier. His accomplishments were far-reaching and impossible to easily summarize. But here's one way of looking at the scope of his achievement: It's the dream of any entrepreneur to effect change in one industry. Jobs transformed half a dozen of them forever, from personal computers to phones to animation to music to publishing to video games. He was a polymath, a skilled motivator, a decisive judge, a farsighted tastemaker, an excellent showman, and a gifted strategist.

One thing he wasn't, though, was perfect. Indeed there were things Jobs did while at Apple that were deeply disturbing. Rude, dismissive, hostile, spiteful: Apple employees—the ones not bound by confidentiality agreements—have had a different story to tell over the years about Jobs and the bullying, manipulation and fear that followed him around Apple. Jobs contributed to global problems, too. Apple's success has been built literally on the backs of Chinese workers, many of them children and all of them enduring long shifts and the specter of brutal penalties for mistakes. And, for all his talk of enabling individual expression, Jobs imposed paranoid rules that centralized control of who could say what on his devices and in his company.

...

And just last month, in the creepiest example of Apple's fascist tendencies, two of Apple's private security agents searched the home of a San Francisco man and threatened him and his family with immigration trouble as part of an scramble for a missing iPhone prototype. The man said the security agents were accompanied by plainclothes police and did not identify themselves as private citizens, lending the impression they were law enforcement officers.

...

"You've tarnished Apple's reputation," he told them. "You should hate each other for having let each other down."

http://gawker.com/5847344/what-everyone-is-too-polite-to-say-about-steve-jobs

technically the article's about Apple, and it is Gawker, but it's generally a good overview of the negatives

[secondwind]

1. Nobody is perfect, and your timing is lousy. He was a perfectionist.

[truedelphi]

4. We are all adults here, and when a person dies, people review that person's life.

It's just how reality works.

Granted some want to canonize the man, but he was human.

Though in fairness to him, bringing up recent injustices done in the name of Apple might not have been something he, or any other human being in his situation could undertake to stop, as he was basically a dying man for the last so ever many months.

[treestar]

2. It seems often true that being an asshole is necessary

to make a whole lot of money. Don't know if there is real proof of that, though. But I've met examples.

[sharp_stick]

3. Too bad your timing sucks to high heaven

happy to unrec just for that.

[raouldukelives]

31. I agree,. Awful timing.

I wouldn't be shocked if this same person doesn't wait very long after Dick Cheney's death to say something disparaging about him too.

[CoffeeCat]

5. I have two friends....

...who are also colleagues. We work in the same field and they worked for Steve Jobs. Oh
boy do they have stories. He was very, very difficult to work with and both of them said
that they were in tears every day. He screamed a lot and told them that their work was "shit".

However, they also recognized how intelligent, tenacious and what a visionary he was.

He was incredibly talented and a he could be very difficult. However, how they described
Jobs was pretty much on par with a couple of CEOs with whom I have worked. One in particular
was a complete psychopath and a mysognist. He loved to intimidate people and he thrived off
of it when people feared him.

There are quite a few people with dysfunctional personalities--and probably mental illness--who
rise to the top. Their very intense, dynamic personalities are like a coin. One side of it
creates incredible companies and fortunes for themselves and others. The other side is dark.

I think it's pretty typical. It doesn't make it right, but these people aren't the heads of
companies because they're nice people. They're there because of their minds, vision and creativity.

Sometimes that translates into asshattery.

[spooky3]

11. I think some of it is that they have the power to get away with behaving badly

so they don't bother to control themselves or to take the time to consider other people's feelings. And sometimes people who believe you DO care about their feelings use that to manipulate you. So a lot of people rising through the ranks learn that they have to deal with a lot less of that if they just don't care and make it clear they don't.

For some CEOS who like power, seeing people cower feeds that. You can get a lot done quickly if you don't care how others are affected by your actions.

[awoke_in_2003]

26. "Sometimes that translates into asshattery"...

very well said (as I type this into my 24" iMac)

[AntiFascist]

30. These are the types of personalities...

who are celebrated as being "masters of the universe" and are vitually allowed to rule our economy. It's sad to have to use Jobs as an example, but this is probably the key problem with the US today. Imagine this type of personality multiplied amongst banking and financial CEOs, etc.

[CreekDog]

6. he had a genius, but i never realized that was supposed to make him a saint

did i miss something?

[whathehell]

10. Nope, not a thing.

One can have "genuis" and still be

a less than lovely person...I thought most

grownups knew that...I guess I was wrong.:eyes:

[polichick]

7. When someone in the limelight passes, a lot is published about him or her and...

I find myself reading up about sides of the person I didn't know. Yeah, Jobs was sure no angel - imo the part about denying paternity and refusing to support his child is disturbing. (This article doesn't mention the child support issue.) And the other issues ain't pretty either - but I'm sure glad he walked among us.

[Old and In the Way]

12. I think they reconciled.

From what I've read, he put her through college (Harvard) and she's legally recognized as a heir. I don't think she's going to have any financial worries for the rest of her life.

[polichick]

15. I read that too - and that she spent some of her teen years with Steve...

...and his wife and other kids. She's a writer who lives in Europe.

[sunwyn]

8. Poor timing but the truth is what it is...

Cattle die and kinsmen die,
thyself too soon must die,
but one thing never, I ween, will die, --
fair fame of one who has earned.

Havamal 75

[Diclotican]

18. sunwyn

sunwyn

Nice to se someone use verse from the old Norse Håvamål;

Even tho the orginalthe orginal goes like this in verse 76 http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/H%C3%A5vam%C3%A5l


76.
Døyr fe;
døyr frendar;
døyr sjølv det same.
Men ordet um deg
aldri døyr
vinn du eit gjetord gjævt.


Diclotican

[whathehell]

9. He also hated unions with a passion

according to Thom Hartmann, who has more credibility

with me than Jobs.

[lunasun]

21. Those factories could have been in USA and if fair wages/hours were assigned they

would not be jumping out of windows commiting suicide in China .

But they kindly put up nets so they did not die after about the 15th death hit world news I think.
Most likely sent them back on the line after denetting .

And Foxconn makes more than Iphone too so he was just one of the crowd .
He didnt really stand out from other US manufacturers' abuse of workers there also too for more profit than if they made the product here in USA and had to give $$/hrs. and some benie$ to the workers.
Just the same but he could have been different

Modern day Pullmans all of them -Pullman, who of course was " a great man " in history too!

[whathehell]

25. Precisely,

which is why I don't even come close to "adoring" him

Beyond taking his company out of the US and the

despicable treatment of workers at Foxconn,

he was hardly a philanthropist...He stopped all

corporate philanthropy when he returned to Apple in 1998.

You'll notice that none of his obits include the word "humanitarian".:eyes:


Edited to add that I own NO apple products and never will.

[Locrian]

13. celebrity CEO

Jobs is the embodiment of the cult of apple, in terms of the cult of ceo worship.

[MisterP]

14. there's an even more detailed critique of the Apple "look and feel" or Apple "mystique" itself

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x630907

[left coaster]

16. Not a member of the Cult of Apple, so I'm happy to recommend. nt

[leftyohiolib]

17. he made shinny objects of distraction.

and has now become an icon of detached hero worship

[MisterP]

19. for all those saying "too soon"--what was he to you?

what is the motive behind this personal CEO/consumer connection, why people identify, feel emotionally invested--branded--in one corporation and its CEO but not others, what is the motive behind this "speak no ill of the dead." I didn't find the timing at all caddish, and am curious why exactly it's supposed to be so gauche.

and besides, I waited three days :evilgrin:

[awoke_in_2003]

27. "what was he to you?"

To me, he was a person that Apple Computer relied on for success (just look at what happened when they sacked him). When Apple goes, I will have to break down and buy an inferior computer with an inferior operating system (probably go linux again- I have to deal with Windows at work, ain't gonna deal with it at home).

[rury]

20. Recced

I don't have any use for that old adage about not speaking ill of the dead.

[Jello Biafra]

22. The things you have to do...

to be in the top 1%.......

[rpannier]

23. He was a jerk in life

His corporate behavior was abhorrent
He treated people like crap, cheated his partners, profited off the misery of others, was anti-union and seldom gave back to the community (charity).

Never liked him.
I own ZERO apple products and god willing, never will.

[exboyfil]

24. Interesting when he is compared to Bill Gates

who used a different set of tactics (the best me too approach) to dominate the PC market so that Apple became the only commercial rival to him. While Bill Gates has some "charitable" activity in which we can disagree (school reform), he has expended a great deal of resources on 3rd world disease prevention and treatment. I don't think Jobs has done much to this point (I don't know how his will is structured).

Remember that the Mac icon driven windows was originally in another product (Xerox).

You can look at the exploitation of Chinese labor two ways. The first is that would the later Apple products even exist without that labor (they already command a price premium and what would the additional labor cost due to the ability to market these products). Apple does not operate in a vacuum, and, if other competitors are introducing me too products using cheap labor, it won't be long before Apple is not introducing anything because they would be out of business. Changing that dynamic involves changing trade relationships and exercising the power of the federal government. What can be said is that Apple did employ alot of high tech U.S. people in the development of their products. Also the production, logistics, and marketing arms in the U.S. benefitted from the demand created by Apple's successful marketing.

I would like to see a hypothetical study in which the cost to produce an IPAD in China is compared with producing such a product in Detroit for example (a city in need of some level of relatively unskilled manufacturing jobs).

[awoke_in_2003]

28. "Remember that the Mac icon driven windows was originally in another product (Xerox)"

True- but what was Xerox doing with it? Nothing. Had the mac not been a success, do you really think we would be using anything other than DOS? Innovation is exactly Microsoft's strong suit.

[exboyfil]

29. I call Microsoft me too and it is true

Xerox was doing nothing with the interface just like IBM did not perceive the power of its own operating system. In some ways Apple has been a me too company as well (in particular in its iconic first break through product). They obviously have been in the driver's seat pushing technology forward (will Bill Gates sniffing behind with me too products and his market power to exploit every innovation).

A me too strategy without the distasteful antitrust aspects of Microsoft's approach is a completely valid market strategy.

[awoke_in_2003]

32. Regardless of the OS you use...

we all benefitted from the competition between Gates and Jobs. While they may not be direct business competitors, as Microsoft is a software company and Apple is a hardware company that makes software to sell hardware, the two primaries were fiercely competitive. As to bad business practices, though, Apple has its share :)