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You know you're a big deal when the president of the United States makes a statement about your death just hours after the news breaks.

bodyfour 15y ago
Also, if your obituary is simultaneously all 25 top stories on HN.
- scarmig 15y ago
  Top 33, by my count.
pwelch 15y ago
Can't agree more.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
rphlx 15y ago
It saddens me that the engineers and workers who actually designed and built the stuff will die unknown. Just reinforces that fame, popularity, charisma, self-promotion, wealth, and the ability to "manage" trump deep technical abilities.
- kamechan 15y ago
  https://twitter.com/cperciva/status/121744770480615425 https://twitter.com/cperciva/status/121744770480615425 a retweet (not me). but, it struck a chord with me.
  - goblin89 15y ago
    Harder to evaluate the value of scientist's legacy. And, apart from being entrepreneur's inspiration, Steve is a bit of a pop figure. Or it's simply that salesmen are more popular as it's them who bring the results of scientists' work to lives of millions.
  - bad_user 15y ago
    People care about faces they know about. Normal people don't have knowledge about scientists or engineers in our field that helped changed the world. It is partly sad, as they do know about the crackheads that appear on MTV, and I would bet it would be major news if Britney Spears would die. Personally I am not offended that Steve Jobs is getting so much attention. At least here's someone that we can partly identify with, here's someone that did bring real value and who's death does reach normal people. And I don't know how much has Steve changed my life with the work he did on Apple, but he definitely changed my life with his speech at Standford, which I watched on Youtube from hundreds of miles away from where it happened, on an iPod Touch.
  - Locke1689 15y ago
    The fewer people that can understand your accomplishments, the fewer will notice and mourn your passing.
  - ubi 15y ago
    "Why do we care more about salesmen than scientists?" Saying Jobs was /just/ a salesman is beyond incorrect. But on a deeper level: making a useful widget is one thing, succeeding at convincing the world that they need it is quite another. ideas are nice, products are better, but Jobs could execute like none-other
  - tychobrahe 15y ago
    Why do we care so much about genius scientists but dismiss genius dilletantes? Also, why do we have to dillute our opinion on people and reduce them to the stereotypes? Is it something we do just to feel better? Saying that Steve Jobs was just a salesman is as incorrect as saying that Edsger Dijkstra was just an arrogant man. I'm sorry, but both were MUCH more than that.
- evgen 15y ago
  Without the assistance of a person (or people) with all of those other characteristics, deep technical abilities accomplish nothing. If it were not for Steve the engineers and workers who actually designed and built the stuff would still have died unknown and they would have also probably died without having anything of significance to point to and say "I helped create that."
  - lukifer 15y ago
    Steve gave massive credit to the talent and sweat of Apple's engineers and designers in nearly every keynote. He was as humble as you could expect of a CEO.
    - microtherion 15y ago
      Yes, he did thank the engineers and designers in his keynotes – COLLECTIVELY. However, he also specifically abolished the previous practice of naming all software engineers involved in OS releases. Admittedly, there were plausible reasons given for this, but I felt that ultimately, the reason why Pixar gives personal credit to their movie contributors, while Apple does not do the same for its engineers, is that our industry is not unionized.
      - rplacd 15y ago
        I don't think Pixar's unionized - not under IATSE, at least...
        mikeash 15y ago
        There are often consequences to working in a largely unionized industry even when your particular company isn't unionized, though.
      - lukifer 15y ago
        I read somewhere that this was because of concerns with talent getting poached by other companies (which was especially a concern in the early days of OS X, when Apple was still "beleagured". Still, point taken; there are lot of unsung heroes within Apple's ranks.
- anactofgod 15y ago
  This is an appropriate topic for HN, since it has to do with roles & responsibilities w/i a company. So, let's try to correct some misconceptions. Steve Jobs was the CEO of Apple. And... “A CEO does only three things. Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders. Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company. Makes sure there is always enough cash in the bank.” (from Fred Wilson, Venture Capitalist icon, requoting something he was taught early in his professional career) Jobs showed that he was able to do all three of these things extremely well, arguably better any other CEO of our time. He did communicate a vision and strategy [#1], and he used that vision and strategy to recruit the very best talent for Apple [#2], people better than Jobs himself was at getting done what needed to be done (i.e., the people you lament "will die unknown"). His ability to do both those things - and to make sure that everyone performed and delivered in line with the vision [#!, again] - is why Apple is projected to have $90+BILLION in cash reserves at the end of the year [#3], climbed from $10/share to $400/share, and is the highest valued tech company in the world. Remember, too that history reinforces that technical ability minus a clear vision and strong leadership doesn't produce Mac OS X/iOS, MacBook Airs, iPods, iPhones or iPads. They produce Pink/Taligent, 20th Anniversary Macs, Newtons, MacTVs and Pippins. And a company that loses its leadership position, is valued at $10/share, and comes within sight of bankruptcy.
- partition 15y ago
  I agree that this is suboptimal. But it's true that you need both business and technical skills to get something out the door competently. And for these engineers and workers, the feeling of fulfillment that they have working for Steve is real and satisfies what I believe to be an actual human need: to feel competent and useful. I just wish there was some other way to go about things than for, basically, impressionable technical types to be manipulated into doing work for narcissists. Maybe the problem is, again, education. School generally doesn't prepare you to be a good salesman, which is unfortunate because that's the only kind of skill you need to actually get ahead in the real world.
- nupark2 15y ago
  As one of those former engineers at Apple, I can say definitively that Steve deserves it. Without him, we'd never have had the canvas on which to paint. He made our contributions possible.
- gospelwut 15y ago
  I'm not a Mac person myself, but I do respect their design philosophy in the sense you don't have to do wild new things -- just standard things really well. So, by proxy I respect their engineers quite a bit. My only beef, really, was with their marketing department and some of their draconian business decisions.
- bennesvig 15y ago
  Steve didn't manage, he led. Big difference.

bodyfour 15y ago

Also, if your obituary is simultaneously all 25 top stories on HN.

scarmig 15y ago
Top 33, by my count.

pwelch 15y ago

Can't agree more.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

rphlx 15y ago

It saddens me that the engineers and workers who actually designed and built the stuff will die unknown. Just reinforces that fame, popularity, charisma, self-promotion, wealth, and the ability to "manage" trump deep technical abilities.

kamechan 15y ago
https://twitter.com/cperciva/status/121744770480615425 https://twitter.com/cperciva/status/121744770480615425 a retweet (not me). but, it struck a chord with me.
- goblin89 15y ago
  Harder to evaluate the value of scientist's legacy. And, apart from being entrepreneur's inspiration, Steve is a bit of a pop figure. Or it's simply that salesmen are more popular as it's them who bring the results of scientists' work to lives of millions.
- bad_user 15y ago
  People care about faces they know about. Normal people don't have knowledge about scientists or engineers in our field that helped changed the world. It is partly sad, as they do know about the crackheads that appear on MTV, and I would bet it would be major news if Britney Spears would die. Personally I am not offended that Steve Jobs is getting so much attention. At least here's someone that we can partly identify with, here's someone that did bring real value and who's death does reach normal people. And I don't know how much has Steve changed my life with the work he did on Apple, but he definitely changed my life with his speech at Standford, which I watched on Youtube from hundreds of miles away from where it happened, on an iPod Touch.
- Locke1689 15y ago
  The fewer people that can understand your accomplishments, the fewer will notice and mourn your passing.
- ubi 15y ago
  "Why do we care more about salesmen than scientists?" Saying Jobs was /just/ a salesman is beyond incorrect. But on a deeper level: making a useful widget is one thing, succeeding at convincing the world that they need it is quite another. ideas are nice, products are better, but Jobs could execute like none-other
- tychobrahe 15y ago
  Why do we care so much about genius scientists but dismiss genius dilletantes? Also, why do we have to dillute our opinion on people and reduce them to the stereotypes? Is it something we do just to feel better? Saying that Steve Jobs was just a salesman is as incorrect as saying that Edsger Dijkstra was just an arrogant man. I'm sorry, but both were MUCH more than that.
evgen 15y ago
Without the assistance of a person (or people) with all of those other characteristics, deep technical abilities accomplish nothing. If it were not for Steve the engineers and workers who actually designed and built the stuff would still have died unknown and they would have also probably died without having anything of significance to point to and say "I helped create that."
- lukifer 15y ago
  Steve gave massive credit to the talent and sweat of Apple's engineers and designers in nearly every keynote. He was as humble as you could expect of a CEO.
  - microtherion 15y ago
    Yes, he did thank the engineers and designers in his keynotes – COLLECTIVELY. However, he also specifically abolished the previous practice of naming all software engineers involved in OS releases. Admittedly, there were plausible reasons given for this, but I felt that ultimately, the reason why Pixar gives personal credit to their movie contributors, while Apple does not do the same for its engineers, is that our industry is not unionized.
    - rplacd 15y ago
      I don't think Pixar's unionized - not under IATSE, at least...
      - mikeash 15y ago
        There are often consequences to working in a largely unionized industry even when your particular company isn't unionized, though.
    - lukifer 15y ago
      I read somewhere that this was because of concerns with talent getting poached by other companies (which was especially a concern in the early days of OS X, when Apple was still "beleagured". Still, point taken; there are lot of unsung heroes within Apple's ranks.
anactofgod 15y ago
This is an appropriate topic for HN, since it has to do with roles & responsibilities w/i a company. So, let's try to correct some misconceptions. Steve Jobs was the CEO of Apple. And... “A CEO does only three things. Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders. Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company. Makes sure there is always enough cash in the bank.” (from Fred Wilson, Venture Capitalist icon, requoting something he was taught early in his professional career) Jobs showed that he was able to do all three of these things extremely well, arguably better any other CEO of our time. He did communicate a vision and strategy [#1], and he used that vision and strategy to recruit the very best talent for Apple [#2], people better than Jobs himself was at getting done what needed to be done (i.e., the people you lament "will die unknown"). His ability to do both those things - and to make sure that everyone performed and delivered in line with the vision [#!, again] - is why Apple is projected to have $90+BILLION in cash reserves at the end of the year [#3], climbed from $10/share to $400/share, and is the highest valued tech company in the world. Remember, too that history reinforces that technical ability minus a clear vision and strong leadership doesn't produce Mac OS X/iOS, MacBook Airs, iPods, iPhones or iPads. They produce Pink/Taligent, 20th Anniversary Macs, Newtons, MacTVs and Pippins. And a company that loses its leadership position, is valued at $10/share, and comes within sight of bankruptcy.
partition 15y ago
I agree that this is suboptimal. But it's true that you need both business and technical skills to get something out the door competently. And for these engineers and workers, the feeling of fulfillment that they have working for Steve is real and satisfies what I believe to be an actual human need: to feel competent and useful. I just wish there was some other way to go about things than for, basically, impressionable technical types to be manipulated into doing work for narcissists. Maybe the problem is, again, education. School generally doesn't prepare you to be a good salesman, which is unfortunate because that's the only kind of skill you need to actually get ahead in the real world.
nupark2 15y ago
As one of those former engineers at Apple, I can say definitively that Steve deserves it. Without him, we'd never have had the canvas on which to paint. He made our contributions possible.
gospelwut 15y ago
I'm not a Mac person myself, but I do respect their design philosophy in the sense you don't have to do wild new things -- just standard things really well. So, by proxy I respect their engineers quite a bit. My only beef, really, was with their marketing department and some of their draconian business decisions.
bennesvig 15y ago
Steve didn't manage, he led. Big difference.