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The only way pg's article makes any sense if is you read it as "successful people don't act like internet trolls in real life" Self-control is certainly requir

The only way pg's article makes any sense if is you read it as "successful people don't act like internet trolls in real life" Self-control is certainly required to win in business. Only stupid or mentally ill people would ever be overtly "mean" in a situation where they couldn't get away with it (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Linus, etc know they can get away with it)

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lenn0x 12y ago
Do they? I wonder if it just comes natural to them and they aren't thinking about what they can and can't get away with it.
- _nedR 12y ago
  On the contrary. I have read that Steve Jobs had the best (or worst) of both worlds. Take for example the quality of empathy - It consists of 2 aspects :- 1.The intellectual ability to put oneself in others shoes. 2. Too feel emotional pity/sympathy when something bad happens to them. It is shown that empathy is a key aspect lacking in psychopaths. As PG points out - empathy helps us to navigate the social world. Hence, such people have difficulty handling social situations. Steve Wozniak who is a genuinely nice person had a strong sense of empathy and was motivated by it to help others (eg:- giving significant portion of his own shares to someone who was shortchanged during Apple's IPO) On the other hand Steve Jobs was what you would call a "highly functioning sociopath" - Someone who had strong emotional intelligence which could be used to great success in charming and manipulating people into doing one's bidding while at the same time, having an almost pathological inability to feel any sympathy for others or remorse for one's actions.(Take the same example where he refused to help out said employee or the time when he screwed over Woz). Unless I am mistaken, this aspect of Jobs's character is hinted at in Walter Isaac's biography of Steve. I believe this rare combination of both high emotional intelligence and cold ruthlessness was one of the key factors (among many others) in Steve Job's success. I don't want to over-exaggerate things or to imply that Jobs had absolutely no empathy (As a counter-example Jobs clearly loved his adoptive parents and felt great remorse over a relatively minor incident mentioned in the book) but he does seem to be an unusually mean person (much more than Bill Gate IMO).
mreiland 12y ago
I can't believe you just put Linus is the same boat as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. You may not like how the man presents himself, but that is just flat out unfair.

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lenn0x 12y ago

Do they? I wonder if it just comes natural to them and they aren't thinking about what they can and can't get away with it.

_nedR 12y ago
On the contrary. I have read that Steve Jobs had the best (or worst) of both worlds. Take for example the quality of empathy - It consists of 2 aspects :- 1.The intellectual ability to put oneself in others shoes. 2. Too feel emotional pity/sympathy when something bad happens to them. It is shown that empathy is a key aspect lacking in psychopaths. As PG points out - empathy helps us to navigate the social world. Hence, such people have difficulty handling social situations. Steve Wozniak who is a genuinely nice person had a strong sense of empathy and was motivated by it to help others (eg:- giving significant portion of his own shares to someone who was shortchanged during Apple's IPO) On the other hand Steve Jobs was what you would call a "highly functioning sociopath" - Someone who had strong emotional intelligence which could be used to great success in charming and manipulating people into doing one's bidding while at the same time, having an almost pathological inability to feel any sympathy for others or remorse for one's actions.(Take the same example where he refused to help out said employee or the time when he screwed over Woz). Unless I am mistaken, this aspect of Jobs's character is hinted at in Walter Isaac's biography of Steve. I believe this rare combination of both high emotional intelligence and cold ruthlessness was one of the key factors (among many others) in Steve Job's success. I don't want to over-exaggerate things or to imply that Jobs had absolutely no empathy (As a counter-example Jobs clearly loved his adoptive parents and felt great remorse over a relatively minor incident mentioned in the book) but he does seem to be an unusually mean person (much more than Bill Gate IMO).

mreiland 12y ago

I can't believe you just put Linus is the same boat as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. You may not like how the man presents himself, but that is just flat out unfair.