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I don't admire Steve Jobs's personality, but I find myself talking about him all the time, for two reasons: 1) Steve Jobs had a vision for the appearance, func
by quacked 5y ago
I don't admire Steve Jobs's personality, but I find myself talking about him all the time, for two reasons:
1) Steve Jobs had a vision for the appearance, function, and marketability of his products, and enforced his tyrannical will on his team until that vision was met, or at least it was impossible to enforce any more. The fact that his vision changed along the way or that he was inconsistent at times isn't as important as the fact that he was a central authority that was allowed to keep the resultant products consistent and stable. People who try to behave like Steve Jobs rarely have the level of vision that he did, and mimic his behavior rather than his principles.
2) Everything the teams under Steve Jobs produced has been cargo-cult mimicked ad nauseam by people today, to the point where every modern software looks like someone tried to redesign Apple software from memory. Unfortunately, it all sucks (compare Jira to Windows 95 Email in terms of form and its relation to function).
- dehrmann 5y agoI hadn't realized this, but one of the reasons I don't have much respect for Elon Musk is he sells himself like he's Steve Jobs, and he has the asshole thing going, but he doesn't have the focus, obsession with detail, and micro-executes, not micro-manages.
- quacked 5y agoI don't get the sense the EM sells himself as SJ, but some of he people I know that have worked a few levels under him definitely don't have the same kind of awed respect SJ's acolytes did, although they respected him a great deal.
- drummojg 5y agoI was thinking "cargo cult" reading your first point, and was quite happy to see it mentioned in the second.
- quacked 5y agoI think it's one of the most important concepts ever noted down. It's applicable to every learned behavior. Are you mimicking behavior, or are you understanding principles?
- xyzzy123 5y agoI think (1) works best when your vision is coherent and consistent. People familiar with it should be able to explain it well themselves, and predict with some reliability whether a given product or experience will meet expectations. In this case, the vision is unifying and improves your ability to execute. If the vision is not coherent or consistent then you lose the ability to execute without micro-management. Staff will be unhappy because they feel subject to the whims of an unpredictable dictator. You can have both experiences in the same company if there are some people who "get it" and other people who don't.
- quacked 5y agoI couldn't agree more. Coherent vision at every possible level of the company will add more value than "hard work" or a dictatorial fanatic at the helm ever could.