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"Even today, long after becoming the sole supreme leader of North Korea, Kim refuses to allow graduates of the Namsan School in his inner circle. After all, tho
by vnorby 15y ago
"Even today, long after becoming the sole supreme leader of North Korea, Kim refuses to allow graduates of the Namsan School in his inner circle. After all, those who have known Kim Jong Il since youth are bound to see him as human -- not the center of a god-like cult of personality."
In the new Steve Jobs biography, Walter Isaacson quotes Steve on why he didn't let his parents come to his school's campus: "I didn't want anyone to know I had parents. I wanted to be like an orphan who had bummed around the country on trains and just arrived out of nowhere, with no roots, no connections, no background."
Interesting how powerful people manipulate the story of how they got to be where they are. Speaking of which, I was raised by wolves.
- jayair 15y agoYou too? I'm not sure if it is just powerful people. I think in many ways we all want to live in a world that fits with our image of ourselves. And some work harder than others to make it happen.
- SeamusBrady 15y agoYes another piece of evidence to backup my nascent opinion that there is very little to admire in Steve Jobs.
- jpdoctor 15y ago> I didn't want anyone to know I had parents. As anyone who is the parents of teenagers can tell you: That describes pretty much describes a large fraction of that age group. There is a psychological growth phase which involves separation, and that is one manifestation.
- jseliger 15y ago"There is a psychological growth phase which involves separation, and that is one manifestation." I wonder if this phase is actually about teen social structures and hierarchies as they've developed in Western countries. I'm reminded of something pg wrote in "Why Nerds Are Unpopular:" http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html : I'm suspicious of this theory that thirteen-year-old kids are intrinsically messed up. If it's physiological, it should be universal. Are Mongol nomads all nihilists at thirteen? I've read a lot of history, and I have not seen a single reference to this supposedly universal fact before the twentieth century. Teenage apprentices in the Renaissance seem to have been cheerful and eager. They got in fights and played tricks on one another of course (Michelangelo had his nose broken by a bully), but they weren't crazy. So I wonder if a large fraction of the age group want to reject their parents because of the way they've been raised and schooled. You obviously didn't argue that this phase is universal, but I still find the idea interesting.
- ams6110 15y agoHistorically most people had "adult" responsibilities much earlier than they do today. At 13 or 14 many people were done with formal schooling and either working at farming, learning a trade or "seeking their fortune." They didn't have time to sit around wondering about the meaning of it all.
- zandor 15y agoI guess most people find the whole idea of a prodigy child rising up from nowhere without any family support all by himself kind of enticing. P.S: Yes, but did you also escape from Nazi Germany in a sub?
- SoftwareMaven 15y agoIt's not weird for a teenager to not want to admit to childhood. It is when a middle aged person won't.
- code_duck 15y agoIn Jobs' case, it could be psychologically related to the fact that he was adopted.