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Apple CEO Tim Cook offered Steve Jobs part of his liver, but he refused

• ericfrederich 12y ago
  Why do a proven medical procedure with a high success rate that makes logical sense (replace a busted liver with a healthy one) when you can use homeopathy, witchcraft, prayer, etc
  • savanaly 12y ago
    For the record, Jobs did get a liver transplant later that same year. According to the article.
    • toomuchtodo 12y ago
      He also put off treatment far too long because of his beliefs in alternative medicine.
    • SCAQTony 12y ago
      Also for the record Jobs was offered a life saving surgery when initially diagnosed and chose "...alternative treatments like dietary supplements and juices." I am astonished that somebody as worldly as Jobs chose to do that. http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2011/10/24/steve-jobs-cancer-treatment-regrets/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2011/10/24/steve-jo...
      • mhurron 12y ago
        Religion is not required to have irrational fear.
      • xroche 12y ago
        > I am astonished that somebody as worldly as Jobs chose to do that. It is incredibly difficult to take rational decisions when your life is at stake. You are then probably the least capable person of taking good decisions.
      • nashashmi 12y ago
        > As worldly as jobs #1 Anyone who is "worldly" cannot achieve the high success rate he achieved. His motto was "stay hungry, stay foolish". #2 Jobs was buddhist but I dont remember where I got that info from.
      • Amezarak 12y ago
        You might be interested in the Isaacson biography. It's not really much of a surprise. Jobs has always been quite a bit out there. Even in the early days, he would go on all-apple or all-carrot diets. Heck, the name "Apple Computer" probably came about because of the apple-orchard/commune he went to all the time. He also reportedly was not a big fan of bathing for similarly esoteric reasons. "Worldly" is not the adjective I would apply.
    • mavdi 12y ago
      Yeah after witchcraft had failed.
  • deleted 12y ago
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    • amyjess 12y ago
      The fruit diet was something he tried years and years ago because he believed that if he only ate fruit, he wouldn't have to bathe. So he ate nothing but fruit and never washed himself. He was wrong. He stunk, and he eventually gave it up after everyone in his vicinity complained.
  • nothrabannosir 12y ago
    Because a good friend offered to cut out part of his own liver and give it to him, who would probably be dying soon, anyway? He took a transplant later. The article is about refusing Cook from cutting half his liver out. Jobs refused Cook, not the transplant.
    • Shivetya 12y ago
      also do not discount the idea that many refuse such of friends and acquaintances because they do not wish to feel indebted to them. anonymous donors are fine. seeing the person who helped save your life each day may not, you may feel incorrectly they think they have a right to question you when they don't feel the same
  • deleted 12y ago
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  • 3327 12y ago
    He did what he did. Belief is stronger than any medicine be it western or "witchcraft".
  • drzaiusapelord 12y ago
    Weirdos are going to be weirdos. I'm not sure why we expect these characters to act like level-headed middle-class people when they've spent their life acting the opposite. Health typically ties to religious faith often and Jobs was a pretty faithful California-style Buddhist and naturalist. Or maybe Jobs didn't want to go under the knife unless he had to. Who really knows. I don't begrudge anyone who is afraid of surgery as it scares me as well, even "routine" ones. This type of outsider judgement reminds me of the people who meet their favorite authors or other creatives and expect this Hollywood-esque falling in love scene, but in reality just get brushed off by an overly busy or overly neurotic creative person with poor social skills (how can you develop those wonderful social skills when you stare at a word processor or IDE 12+ hours a day obsessing over trivial details?). Every week there's a new AskReddit about, "Tell us which celebrity is really an asshole" full of stories of meeting someone you respected who didn't instantly become your best friend or spread his or her wealth out in an overly generous fashion to the help. I find overly successful people are messed up in more than a few ways. Nice, balanced people don't usually engage in entrepreneurship or the arts. Or if they do, they're beaten down by the guy willing to burn himself out and destroy his family life to succeed. In an overly competitive society, the people who reach the top levels are half-crazy as wanting to get to that level is a half-crazy prospect in itself. Non-eccentrics just don't seem to break through. This is currently a big struggle in my life. The next level for me financially is kinda risky, if not crazy. When do I tell myself to stop? When do I tell myself to be happy with what I have? The people in my life who are well-balanced and well-rounded don't seem to have this struggle. They're not obsessed with "making it" like I am. If I do "make it" I'm sure people will find me to be more than a little eccentric compared to the norm. Good or bad, that's just how I am and that's not going to change if mega-success comes my way. If anything, it'll just get worse.
    • nashashmi 12y ago
      +1, except those people are NOT "messed up". They think different. They think selfless. And they think there needs to be better ways of doing things. Herbal organic treatment was one way of possibly doing it better and Jobs tried it.
      • 12y ago
  • Alex3917 12y ago
    > when you can use homeopathy, witchcraft, prayer, etc While it's known that Jobs used 'alternative medicine', it's unknown what he actually tried. It's possible he was using homeopathy, but it's also possible he was using an FDA-approved drug off label, using some drug still undergoing clinical trials, etc.
  • Raphmedia 12y ago
    At some point, you don't want to fight any longer. It is easier to escape into make-believe beliefs. Even if you don't admit it to yourself. Hell, that's how religion managed to get so popular.
    • Raphmedia 12y ago
      Could somebody explain the down votes?
• heyalexchoi 12y ago
  steve jobs will come again. after apple releases the 7" iphone 7, he will return to cleanse our world - punishing the wicked, and rewarding the righteous.
• deleted 12y ago
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• Bedon292 12y ago
  Anyone else think it should be titled 'potentially life-saving' instead? There was no guarantee it would have, though it did have more potential than the transplant he received later in the year. edit: titles -> titled
  • nkozyra 12y ago
    No, not really. Life extension is life saving, after all.
    • sigzero 12y ago
      No, not really.
      • akerl_ 12y ago
        Can you name a procedure that's actually life-saving, then? As far as I can tell, any medical procedure maxes out at "extending life"
        • mikeash 12y ago
          Personally, I'd define the difference as being whether or not you ultimately die of the same incidence of the same disease you're treating, or of something else. If you're treated for brain cancer and you live some more years but ultimately die of that brain cancer, it's life extending. If you're treated for brain cancer and die of an unrelated heart condition, it's life saving. I don't know how meaningful that difference ultimately is, but I think that's how I'd use the terms.
      • 1ris 12y ago
        In the end, we all will die.
      • nkozyra 12y ago
        Unless you know of someone who lives forever, yes it is. Getting another second is all the live-saving we have.
• tuna-piano 12y ago
  I wonder where Apple would be today / a year from now if he were still around. Would anything major be different?
• Finbel 12y ago
  "Steve only yelled at me four or five times during the 13 years I knew him." am I the only one who think being yelled at by your boss is... a bad thing? Like, at all.
  • jason_allen 12y ago
    Yelling isn't great, but in high-stress situations, it can happen. What I take away from the "4 or 5 times in 13 years" is that it shows that the yelling was probably meaningful. I suspect Steve was reacting authentically rather than being a constant yeller. Ironically, I suspect he yelled because he cared. I'd rather work for someone like that than places where people don't yell because either they don't care, or they're passive aggressive.
    • Finbel 12y ago
      I can see how yelling can be interpreted as caring, but I can also see it as just another poorly way to handle conflicts (kind of like being passive aggressive which I've seen a few examples of Steve Jobs being). I suppose I'd rather work in a place where my boss handle conflicts without yelling nor being passive aggressive.
• Lewton 12y ago
  This has popped up three or four times on the front page today. Why? This is the least interesting piece of information I have heard in years
• simulate 12y ago
  Of all the people in the world to donate a portion of their liver to Steve Jobs, Tim Cook was the worst possible choice. Companies have travel policies where senior execs can't travel on the same plane together because, if that plane goes down, the organization loses leadership continuity. Hundreds of thousands of people rely on Apple for their livelihood and, from Apple's perspective, losing both Cook and Jobs would have been devastating. It was shockingly irresponsible of Cook to suggest this idea.
  • pjzedalis 12y ago
    Some people value friendship and family more than their stock price. They were already wealthy and had lived good lives. Was it best for Apple stockholders? Maybe not. However I can see that they were truly friends and I envy it. Most ego-maniacs at the top are willing to cut each others throats and heres two who would do anything for each other.
• carbocation 12y ago
  1. He turned down proven therapy and allowed his disease to progress while pursuing alternatives which had no chance of success. Shame onto those who offer false hope. May the tide of law someday turn against you with vigor. 2. In the context of the above, is it not possible that Mr. Jobs felt uneasy with the idea of putting Mr. Cook at risk (yes, liver surgery is a procedure with risk)? 3. Getting more speculative, it is also possible that by the time that Mr. Cook discovered he was an appropriate donor, the disease had become more widely metastatic (thus limiting the value of any donation).
  • tosseraccount 12y ago
    <i>may the tide of law someday turn against you with vigor.</i> The government should force unwanted treatments on informed, responsible adults?
    • carbocation 12y ago
      > The government should force unwanted treatments on informed, responsible adults? Of course not. It should punish people for peddling shams.
    • jewel 12y ago
      No, he's saying that those that sell alternative treatments that don't work should be persecuted for fraud.
    • thaumasiotes 12y ago
      >> Shame onto those who offer false hope. May the tide of law someday turn against you with vigor. This is pretty clearly referring to purveyors of alternative medicine, not Steve Jobs.
    • skywhopper 12y ago
      I suppose the question would be: Are you truly "informed" if you believe false information about particular treatments? I'm guessing the laws being suggested would relate to fradulent claims about the contents or efficacy of particular substances or treatments.
• known 12y ago
  Religion was born when the first con man met the first fool.