14 ms·

Steve Jobs Worked on Apple Until His Last Day

90 points by ashishgandhi 15y ago

JeremyBanks 15y ago
Alternate interpretation: Cook made up a cover story because Jobs' health wasn't public knowledge.
- bcrescimanno 15y ago
  And I think your interpretation is far more likely. As much as I know everyone wants to believe that Steve was involved until the very end; I've seen people in the final week (and final minutes--my grandfather) of pancreatic cancer. They're not "working" on much of anything other than taking their next breath. It makes for one hell of a story; but, I think the better story is to think of a man who spent his last 24 hours alive with those closest to him--his family.
  - philwelch 15y ago
    This is kind of off topic, but isn't it a bit of an unchecked assumption that Steve actually died of pancreatic cancer? He had pancreatic cancer, seven years ago, but it was operated on, and his more recent health problems involved a liver transplant. How do we know that it was a reoccurrence of pancreatic cancer (which wasn't supposed to happen, and which reportedly didn't happen when Jobs had his earlier health issues) and not some other problem caused by a side-effect or complication of the Whipple procedure or something?
    - asifjamil 15y ago
      Official Death Certificate: Respiratory arrest was listed as the immediate cause of death, with 'metastatic pancreas neuroendocrine tumor' listed as the underlying cause
      - philwelch 15y ago
        Citation? I didn't know death certificates in CA were public records, though it is an obvious place to check.
        bcrescimanno 15y ago
        Simply google "steve jobs death certificate" and you'll find copies of it everywhere.
    - yock 15y ago
      Not a doctor, but my wife is a nurse who cares for renal and GI diseased patients for a living. She has told me that liver problems are common alongside pancreatic cancer and that patients often receive extensive treatment for liver problems, sometimes including transplant depending on the prognosis following remission of the cancer. There's no doubt in my mind that the liver transplant was directly necessitated by his pancreatic cancer.
- aneth 15y ago
  Precisely. While I'm sure Steve communicated with Cook the day before he died (he knew he was dying - the PA police had been notified), and I don't doubt he expressed his last ideas for the future of Apple, I'm sure he was far more concerned with more transcendent things than the pixel density of the iPhone 5. Steve was not a shallow man. Given that Cook no doubt knew Steve was about to die, I don't think it's reasonable to think he would tell the truth. Just imagine what he might have said if he had.
dbbo 15y ago
How was he "working" for the company after he had resigned?
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- nirvana 15y ago
  He was still an Apple employee and Chairman of the board. He resigned the CEO position, but hadn't left Apple.
  - dbbo 15y ago
    I actually wanted to know what he was really doing, since the article just says he wanted to talk to Cook about the next product. Had I known a simple question was grounds for reproof here I wouldn't have asked.
    - Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
      I think people took exception to the quotes around working which implied disbelief.
nirvana 15y ago
Steve Jobs could have retired when forced out of Apple in 1985. He had $140million (or so, that's the figure I remember) in Apple stock. More than enough to live very well for the rest of his life. He could have even blown some of it on US festivals with Wozniak and still lived well. Instead, he built NeXT, Pixar and then later, rebuilt Apple. I think that his continuing to work is the most charitable act I've observed in my lifetime. He touched billions of people and made their lives better. Sure, he got richer doing it, but it seems he never did it for the money. (I think he did it for the pleasure, personally, but the end result was massive human good.) This is why I honor Steve Job's life.
- tobtoh 15y ago
  > I think that his continuing to work is the most charitable act I've observed in my lifetime. Really? I doubt he did any of the stuff for our express benefit. Steve had a personal drive to produce good products, to achieve his personal goals, and he did that really well and is rightly admired for pursuing his internal drive and making it such a success. Was his drive mainly for altruistic reasons? For the benefit of mankind? Come on - I'm all for admiring the guy, but let's not fawn over him. He's not a saint. If he is, I guess all those mega-rich CEOs of the Samsungs, Ford, General Electics of the world are also so admirable because they 'charitably' continue to work when they financially don't need to.
  - rayiner 15y ago
    Look at it this way. With $140 million in 1985, Steve could've invested all of his money in a hedge fund and probably come out ahead of how he did investing in Pixar, Apple, etc. From $140 million to $7 billion over 26 years is about 16.5% return per year, which is less than the annual return of Berkshire Hathaway over the last 20 years (almost 19%). He's not a guy who took his millions and invested it in the questionably useful products of Wall Street. Instead, he built things that people loved. That doesn't make him a saint, but I think it makes him someone worthy of respect.
    - tobtoh 15y ago
eulo 15y ago
int careFactor = 0;
jayfuerstenberg 15y ago
When you love what you do it's not called "work" anymore.
- happypeter 15y ago
  If I know steve, he is a buddist. If one know buddism, he should not work for the world. If steve really worked till his last moment, he tried his best to enjoy his own life, and his life is a nature harmony, a beautiful flower. Being a flower is much more important than being great, and most of the time works better than being charitable.
  - rebelidealist 15y ago
    He should not work for the world? Are you saying all the products he help made is only for his own enjoyment?
smutticus 15y ago
Dennis Ritchie was working almost until he died as well. But I don't see HN posts about him on the frontpage anymore. I'm so tired of all these Steve Jobs posts. Please stop with them. Dennis Ritchie did far more than Steve Jobs for hackers. And if this really was Hacker News we would be talking about his contributions instead of Steve's. Is it because Jobs was rich while Ritchie was just a researcher? Is that why you folks care about him more? Is it because he was more visible and presentable? These aren't very Hackerish reasons in my opinion. But they probably explain why this community is more interested in Jobs than in Ritchie.
- mcav 15y ago
  You don't have to pull down Jobs to bring up Ritchie. Both impacted the field immensely.
- vacri 15y ago
  Someone recently mentioned that Hacker News was originally Startup News, the name change made to catch more eyeballs. So it's more a 'business + tech' place than a 'tech infrastructure' place, so it's less surprising that Jobs carries more weight than Ritchie.
- jamesrom 15y ago
  I don't know why some people keep trying to compare Steve Jobs and Dennis Ritchie. One created an extremely successful, ubiquitous, and powerful programming language and OS. The other was a driven, successful, visionary, leader, and businessman. It's mainly people claiming that Dennis Ritchie did not get the attention he deserved. But I have also seen Steve Jobs' fans defending the attention he got because of the ways he changed the world. To both parties: STOP TRYING TO CHEAPEN THE DEATH OF ONE OF THESE MEN BY COMPARING THEM TO THE OTHER.
- tlrobinson 15y ago
  And please stop whining about Steve Jobs getting more attention than people you happen to respect more. You don't get extra votes by posting complaints here.
- kds 15y ago
slowpoke 15y ago
I know I will get downvoted for this, but who the fuck gives a shit? These recent Steve Jobs articles are getting more and more ridiculous.
- kleiba 15y ago
  If you get downvoted then probably for the tone rather than the content of your post. I do share your general feeling though: Jobs didn't know he would die the next day. Apparently he was feeling well enough that day to talk to Cook on the phone, so why wouldn't he? If he died two days later, no-one would make such a big fuzz about it. But now all of a sudden this call is presented as an almost heroic act. Strange.
johnny1941 15y ago
Oh. My. God. I just came sooo hard. He worked until his last day? Can we have him knighted AND sainted please?
jritch 15y ago
I think it shows how dedicated he was to his own cause, to create great products for those who followed apple. Do I think he done it for the money? Definitely not. As pointed out already he could have retired a rich man when he first left apple, instead he went onto to create next & pixar and eventually took apple from being what they were to one of the biggest companies in the world. Despite the fact he was a billionaire he lived rather modestly and never rested on his laurels. The only thing I could say he gave in charity was his time, I know that after diagnosed with cancer the last thing I would have done is keep working, especially if i was in the same financial bracket as him. Regardless tho he worked on until the day he died, that alone gets my respect regardless of the great things he done prior to his death......RIP
thepointyhat 15y ago
I feel sorry for his family.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
- intour779 15y ago
  This is my first attempt at a blog, and the blog folks tell me I can feel free to write what I wish. I wonder if they might have had me confused with someone else and when they come to their senses I’ll get a polite note. In any case – here goes… http://www.intour.com.vn/du-lich-nha-trang.html http://www.intour.com.vn/du-lich-nha-trang.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-trong-nuoc/ http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-trong-nuoc/ http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-nuoc-ngoai/ http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-nuoc-ngoai/ http://www.intour.com.vn/dich-vu/visa/ http://www.intour.com.vn/dich-vu/visa/ http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-trong-nuoc.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-trong-nuoc.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-nha-trang-3-ngay.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-nha-trang-3-ngay.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-mui-ne-2-ngay.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-mui-ne-2-ngay.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-da-nang.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-da-nang.html http://www.intour.com.vn/phan-thiet.html http://www.intour.com.vn/phan-thiet.html http://www.intour.com.vn/ha-noi-ha-long-sapa.html http://www.intour.com.vn/ha-noi-ha-long-sapa.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-ninh-chu.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-ninh-chu.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-vung-tau.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-vung-tau.html
kstenerud 15y ago
Regardless of whether this story is true or not, it's sad to see dedication to work and devotion to the company over all else idolized to such a degree. The only other place I've seen this is in Japan. I'm pretty sure someone's taking the piss, but I won't be completely certain until I start hearing reports to the effect that his last words were "I wish I'd spent more time at the office".
goatforce5 15y ago
Spoke to someone at Apple the day after Jobs' death and he said he was surprised as his team was getting product feedback from him on the Monday - 2 days prior.
rphlx 15y ago
Look, it's an incremental update to a phone. Will it be loved by millions? Probably. But, seriously, it's just a phone. I guess I don't get it.

90 points by ashishgandhi 15y ago

JeremyBanks 15y ago

Alternate interpretation: Cook made up a cover story because Jobs' health wasn't public knowledge.

bcrescimanno 15y ago
And I think your interpretation is far more likely. As much as I know everyone wants to believe that Steve was involved until the very end; I've seen people in the final week (and final minutes--my grandfather) of pancreatic cancer. They're not "working" on much of anything other than taking their next breath. It makes for one hell of a story; but, I think the better story is to think of a man who spent his last 24 hours alive with those closest to him--his family.
- philwelch 15y ago
  This is kind of off topic, but isn't it a bit of an unchecked assumption that Steve actually died of pancreatic cancer? He had pancreatic cancer, seven years ago, but it was operated on, and his more recent health problems involved a liver transplant. How do we know that it was a reoccurrence of pancreatic cancer (which wasn't supposed to happen, and which reportedly didn't happen when Jobs had his earlier health issues) and not some other problem caused by a side-effect or complication of the Whipple procedure or something?
  - asifjamil 15y ago
    Official Death Certificate: Respiratory arrest was listed as the immediate cause of death, with 'metastatic pancreas neuroendocrine tumor' listed as the underlying cause
    - philwelch 15y ago
      Citation? I didn't know death certificates in CA were public records, though it is an obvious place to check.
      - bcrescimanno 15y ago
        Simply google "steve jobs death certificate" and you'll find copies of it everywhere.
  - yock 15y ago
    Not a doctor, but my wife is a nurse who cares for renal and GI diseased patients for a living. She has told me that liver problems are common alongside pancreatic cancer and that patients often receive extensive treatment for liver problems, sometimes including transplant depending on the prognosis following remission of the cancer. There's no doubt in my mind that the liver transplant was directly necessitated by his pancreatic cancer.
aneth 15y ago
Precisely. While I'm sure Steve communicated with Cook the day before he died (he knew he was dying - the PA police had been notified), and I don't doubt he expressed his last ideas for the future of Apple, I'm sure he was far more concerned with more transcendent things than the pixel density of the iPhone 5. Steve was not a shallow man. Given that Cook no doubt knew Steve was about to die, I don't think it's reasonable to think he would tell the truth. Just imagine what he might have said if he had.

dbbo 15y ago

How was he "working" for the company after he had resigned?

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
nirvana 15y ago
He was still an Apple employee and Chairman of the board. He resigned the CEO position, but hadn't left Apple.
- dbbo 15y ago
  I actually wanted to know what he was really doing, since the article just says he wanted to talk to Cook about the next product. Had I known a simple question was grounds for reproof here I wouldn't have asked.
  - Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
    I think people took exception to the quotes around working which implied disbelief.

nirvana 15y ago

Steve Jobs could have retired when forced out of Apple in 1985. He had $140million (or so, that's the figure I remember) in Apple stock. More than enough to live very well for the rest of his life. He could have even blown some of it on US festivals with Wozniak and still lived well. Instead, he built NeXT, Pixar and then later, rebuilt Apple. I think that his continuing to work is the most charitable act I've observed in my lifetime. He touched billions of people and made their lives better. Sure, he got richer doing it, but it seems he never did it for the money. (I think he did it for the pleasure, personally, but the end result was massive human good.) This is why I honor Steve Job's life.

tobtoh 15y ago
> I think that his continuing to work is the most charitable act I've observed in my lifetime. Really? I doubt he did any of the stuff for our express benefit. Steve had a personal drive to produce good products, to achieve his personal goals, and he did that really well and is rightly admired for pursuing his internal drive and making it such a success. Was his drive mainly for altruistic reasons? For the benefit of mankind? Come on - I'm all for admiring the guy, but let's not fawn over him. He's not a saint. If he is, I guess all those mega-rich CEOs of the Samsungs, Ford, General Electics of the world are also so admirable because they 'charitably' continue to work when they financially don't need to.
- rayiner 15y ago
  Look at it this way. With $140 million in 1985, Steve could've invested all of his money in a hedge fund and probably come out ahead of how he did investing in Pixar, Apple, etc. From $140 million to $7 billion over 26 years is about 16.5% return per year, which is less than the annual return of Berkshire Hathaway over the last 20 years (almost 19%). He's not a guy who took his millions and invested it in the questionably useful products of Wall Street. Instead, he built things that people loved. That doesn't make him a saint, but I think it makes him someone worthy of respect.
  - tobtoh 15y ago

eulo 15y ago

int careFactor = 0;

jayfuerstenberg 15y ago

When you love what you do it's not called "work" anymore.

happypeter 15y ago
If I know steve, he is a buddist. If one know buddism, he should not work for the world. If steve really worked till his last moment, he tried his best to enjoy his own life, and his life is a nature harmony, a beautiful flower. Being a flower is much more important than being great, and most of the time works better than being charitable.
- rebelidealist 15y ago
  He should not work for the world? Are you saying all the products he help made is only for his own enjoyment?

smutticus 15y ago

Dennis Ritchie was working almost until he died as well. But I don't see HN posts about him on the frontpage anymore. I'm so tired of all these Steve Jobs posts. Please stop with them. Dennis Ritchie did far more than Steve Jobs for hackers. And if this really was Hacker News we would be talking about his contributions instead of Steve's. Is it because Jobs was rich while Ritchie was just a researcher? Is that why you folks care about him more? Is it because he was more visible and presentable? These aren't very Hackerish reasons in my opinion. But they probably explain why this community is more interested in Jobs than in Ritchie.

mcav 15y ago
You don't have to pull down Jobs to bring up Ritchie. Both impacted the field immensely.
vacri 15y ago
Someone recently mentioned that Hacker News was originally Startup News, the name change made to catch more eyeballs. So it's more a 'business + tech' place than a 'tech infrastructure' place, so it's less surprising that Jobs carries more weight than Ritchie.
jamesrom 15y ago
I don't know why some people keep trying to compare Steve Jobs and Dennis Ritchie. One created an extremely successful, ubiquitous, and powerful programming language and OS. The other was a driven, successful, visionary, leader, and businessman. It's mainly people claiming that Dennis Ritchie did not get the attention he deserved. But I have also seen Steve Jobs' fans defending the attention he got because of the ways he changed the world. To both parties: STOP TRYING TO CHEAPEN THE DEATH OF ONE OF THESE MEN BY COMPARING THEM TO THE OTHER.
tlrobinson 15y ago
And please stop whining about Steve Jobs getting more attention than people you happen to respect more. You don't get extra votes by posting complaints here.
kds 15y ago

slowpoke 15y ago

I know I will get downvoted for this, but who the fuck gives a shit? These recent Steve Jobs articles are getting more and more ridiculous.

kleiba 15y ago
If you get downvoted then probably for the tone rather than the content of your post. I do share your general feeling though: Jobs didn't know he would die the next day. Apparently he was feeling well enough that day to talk to Cook on the phone, so why wouldn't he? If he died two days later, no-one would make such a big fuzz about it. But now all of a sudden this call is presented as an almost heroic act. Strange.

johnny1941 15y ago

Oh. My. God. I just came sooo hard. He worked until his last day? Can we have him knighted AND sainted please?

jritch 15y ago

I think it shows how dedicated he was to his own cause, to create great products for those who followed apple. Do I think he done it for the money? Definitely not. As pointed out already he could have retired a rich man when he first left apple, instead he went onto to create next & pixar and eventually took apple from being what they were to one of the biggest companies in the world. Despite the fact he was a billionaire he lived rather modestly and never rested on his laurels. The only thing I could say he gave in charity was his time, I know that after diagnosed with cancer the last thing I would have done is keep working, especially if i was in the same financial bracket as him. Regardless tho he worked on until the day he died, that alone gets my respect regardless of the great things he done prior to his death......RIP

thepointyhat 15y ago

I feel sorry for his family.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

intour779 15y ago
This is my first attempt at a blog, and the blog folks tell me I can feel free to write what I wish. I wonder if they might have had me confused with someone else and when they come to their senses I’ll get a polite note. In any case – here goes… http://www.intour.com.vn/du-lich-nha-trang.html http://www.intour.com.vn/du-lich-nha-trang.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-trong-nuoc/ http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-trong-nuoc/ http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-nuoc-ngoai/ http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-nuoc-ngoai/ http://www.intour.com.vn/dich-vu/visa/ http://www.intour.com.vn/dich-vu/visa/ http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-trong-nuoc.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-trong-nuoc.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-nha-trang-3-ngay.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-nha-trang-3-ngay.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-mui-ne-2-ngay.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-mui-ne-2-ngay.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-da-nang.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-da-nang.html http://www.intour.com.vn/phan-thiet.html http://www.intour.com.vn/phan-thiet.html http://www.intour.com.vn/ha-noi-ha-long-sapa.html http://www.intour.com.vn/ha-noi-ha-long-sapa.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-ninh-chu.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-ninh-chu.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-vung-tau.html http://www.intour.com.vn/tour-du-lich-vung-tau.html

kstenerud 15y ago

Regardless of whether this story is true or not, it's sad to see dedication to work and devotion to the company over all else idolized to such a degree. The only other place I've seen this is in Japan. I'm pretty sure someone's taking the piss, but I won't be completely certain until I start hearing reports to the effect that his last words were "I wish I'd spent more time at the office".

goatforce5 15y ago

Spoke to someone at Apple the day after Jobs' death and he said he was surprised as his team was getting product feedback from him on the Monday - 2 days prior.

rphlx 15y ago

Look, it's an incremental update to a phone. Will it be loved by millions? Probably. But, seriously, it's just a phone. I guess I don't get it.