3 ms·
I'm not sure I would say 'changed the human trajectory for everyone', but I certainly think its fair to say that he was instrumental in substantially disrupting
by drunkenmagician 5y ago
I'm not sure I would say 'changed the human trajectory for everyone', but I certainly think its fair to say that he was instrumental in substantially disrupting/transforming or created new markets in the technology (personal and business) space. The Apple 2 and Mac certainly disrupted personal computing in numerous ways (although perhaps the PC clone is a better example here). The Next box was a commercial failure, but a technological step forward for software. Mobile phones / tablets were clunky and did not have a great touch or internet experience before the iPhone. Apps / app stores have enabled a whole new paradigm for how users access global distributed services (and before someone says - mobile web, that experiences still is generally, subjectively a worse user experience than most apps).
While there are plenty of stories about his abusive behavior (usually to his staff) especially in his younger days, there are equally plenty of positive anecdotes about him as a human. Personally I don't think I would have enjoyed working for him, but I feel it would have been an experience I would have not regretted. Like all of us, he was flawed in some areas, good in others.