I wouldn't hold Steve up as a paragon of truthfulness. I think he preferred to be truthful when possible, but it was a secondary matter. I think he was generall

I wouldn't hold Steve up as a paragon of truthfulness. I think he preferred to be truthful when possible, but it was a secondary matter. I think he was generally concerned about landing his pitch, and if the truth had to be bent or broken to do that, so be it. My first Silicon Valley job was at Apple, and my second was at NeXT. I was back at Apple for the introduction of the iMac, and I was at the Apple all-hands meeting where Steve announced the new product to the employees. (I use the word "new" in the loosest sense. The iMac was old technology in a colorful new package.) I attended with a friend who was, like me, an Apple programmer at the time. I had met Steve a few times and seen his presentations before. I knew what to expect. My friend did not. My basic impression, as I remember it, was, "thank God Steve is into tech marketing, not politics." He could really work a crowd. I never understood how the world's great demagogues had managed their terrible achievements until I saw what Steve could do with a crowd. As we were walking out of the auditorium, my friend said to me, shaking his head, "I don't understand it--I believed him! I work on some of that stuff. I knew he was lying, and yet I still believed him!" I felt like that said it all. I guess I still feel that way.