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I'm immediately skeptical of anyone I meet in the tech industry who doesn't think Steve Jobs was an absolute raging asshole. Yes, he accomplished some interesti

I'm immediately skeptical of anyone I meet in the tech industry who doesn't think Steve Jobs was an absolute raging asshole. Yes, he accomplished some interesting product shipments. But the number of direct first person anecdotes of him being a complete dick to people is too great to ignore. I'm writing this from a Macbook Air. One of the reasons why I use MacOS is because it's based on the NeXT heritage. There was some amazing stuff there. But Steve was just not a nice person.

elisbce 5y ago
And why does he have to be nice to the people around him? To be a leader, he needs to say things other people can't say, or won't say. He is brutal, yes, but without this brutality, the products or teams or the company would be mediocre. Everyone is happy with nice words, but nice words don't always get you nice products and results.
- barbazoo 5y ago
  I know it's part of corporate lore but I'd like to see some evidence that you have to be "brutal" for your company or products not to be mediocre.
- protastus 5y ago
  A leader can be brutally honest, relentless about quality and ethical, all at the same time.
bananabreakfast 5y ago
Nearly all great leaders in history can be described as "not a nice person". It doesn't redeem them. Nor does it redeem Jobs. But being an asshole doesn't, in any way, diminish one's outsized impact on society.
- yifanl 5y ago
  Depends on what he was known as an asshole for. For one, what he did to his daughter's mother puts him a bit past the "only tips 5%" end of the scale of assholery.
  - outworlder 5y ago
    He used the handicap parking space just because he wanted to.