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Read about his treatment of his daughter Lisa (he finally came around but jeez...) Ripped off the Woz... Parking in handi-cap spots... Buying a new mercedes

Read about his treatment of his daughter Lisa (he finally came around but jeez...) Ripped off the Woz... Parking in handi-cap spots... Buying a new mercedes whenever it came time to register his car cause he hated license plates... His collusion with publishers to artificially inflate the cost of e-books... The likelihood that he bought his way to the top of the donor list for a kidney transplant (that's more of a strong rumor than verifiable fact) Or don't I don't care... I respect his drive and his vision for his company and products, and how he got a lot of good work out of some talented people. That's it though.

billforsternz 13y ago
While most of your examples do suggest assholery of one kind or another, I am not so sure about the liver (note, not kidney) transplant. If you were a billionaire and you needed a liver to survive, wouldn't you pay whatever it cost to get that liver ? Maybe the world is a bad place and money shouldn't enter the equation at all, but resisting the temptation to take advantage of your wealth in this situation is not an asshole/not asshole test. It's more like a saint/not saint test.
- wavefunction 13y ago
  Unfortunately you're asking the wrong guy, because I wouldn't. I'd instead turn my formidable wealth towards "grow me a new liver tech" while waiting it out on dialysis. Shitty for me maybe, but I'm a big believer in egalite, as the French put it. I could then probably turn around and roll-out the new liver tech at an affordable cost for everyone and recoup my R&D, if I had survived long enough.
  - billforsternz 13y ago
    Well good for you, but this doesn't address my point. My point is that your decision would make you a saint. Making the other decision would make you a non-saint rather than an asshole. Incidentally, you really need to let go of the kidney/dialysis thing. There is no equivalent of dialysis for liver disease. If your liver stops working they cannot hook you up to a machine, you either get a liver transplant in a day or two or you die.
    - wavefunction 13y ago
      you're right, I just woke up and my first thought was "why the heck did I talk about dialysis" when we were discussing livers. Also weird that it was my first thought upon waking! my only excuse last night was that it was late, I was exhausted from a long day, and I kept conflating the two for some reason cheers

billforsternz 13y ago

While most of your examples do suggest assholery of one kind or another, I am not so sure about the liver (note, not kidney) transplant. If you were a billionaire and you needed a liver to survive, wouldn't you pay whatever it cost to get that liver ? Maybe the world is a bad place and money shouldn't enter the equation at all, but resisting the temptation to take advantage of your wealth in this situation is not an asshole/not asshole test. It's more like a saint/not saint test.

wavefunction 13y ago
Unfortunately you're asking the wrong guy, because I wouldn't. I'd instead turn my formidable wealth towards "grow me a new liver tech" while waiting it out on dialysis. Shitty for me maybe, but I'm a big believer in egalite, as the French put it. I could then probably turn around and roll-out the new liver tech at an affordable cost for everyone and recoup my R&D, if I had survived long enough.
- billforsternz 13y ago
  Well good for you, but this doesn't address my point. My point is that your decision would make you a saint. Making the other decision would make you a non-saint rather than an asshole. Incidentally, you really need to let go of the kidney/dialysis thing. There is no equivalent of dialysis for liver disease. If your liver stops working they cannot hook you up to a machine, you either get a liver transplant in a day or two or you die.
  - wavefunction 13y ago
    you're right, I just woke up and my first thought was "why the heck did I talk about dialysis" when we were discussing livers. Also weird that it was my first thought upon waking! my only excuse last night was that it was late, I was exhausted from a long day, and I kept conflating the two for some reason cheers