How Steve Jobs' Legacy Has Changed

On the anniversary of Steve Jobs' death, reader SternisheFan sends in a story from CNN about how the Apple co-founder's legacy has changed since then. "... in the 12 months since, as high-profile books have probed Jobs' life and career, that reputation has evolved somewhat. Nobody has questioned Jobs' seismic impact on computing and our communication culture. But as writers have documented Jobs' often callous, controlling personality, a fuller portrait of the mercurial Apple CEO has emerged. 'Everyone knows that Steve had his "rough" side. That's partially because he really did have a rough side and partially because the rough Steve was a better news story than the human Steve,' said Ken Segall, author of Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success.' ... In Steve Jobs, Isaacson crafted a compelling narrative of how Jobs' co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak, got pushed out of the struggling company a decade later and then returned in the late 1990s to begin one of the most triumphant second acts in the annals of American business. But he also spent many pages chronicling the arrogant, cruel behavior of a complicated figure who could inspire people one minute and demean them the next. According to the book, Jobs would often berate employees whose work he didn't like. He was notoriously difficult to please and viewed people and products in black and white terms. They were either brilliant or 'sh-t.' 'Among Apple employees, I'd say his reputation hasn't changed one bit. If anything, it's probably grown because they've realized how central his contributions were,' Lashinsky said. 'History tends to forgive people's foibles and recognize their accomplishments. When Jobs died, he was compared to Edison and Henry Ford and to Disney. I don't know what his place will be in history 30, 40, 50 years from now. And one year is certainly not enough time (to judge).'" Apple has posted a tribute video on their homepage today.

Comments

Re:If you don't care about people

[BasilBrush]

I never met, let alone worked for Steve Jobs, but I did have a teacher that outsiders might have described like this:

"But he also spent many pages chronicling the arrogant, cruel behavior of a complicated figure who could inspire people one minute and demean them the next. According to the book, Jobs would often berate employees whose work he didn't like. He was notoriously difficult to please and viewed people and products in black and white terms. They were either brilliant or 'sh-t.'"

(Substituting student for employee, and work for product. And note this was a teacher of adults, not children.)

The outsider would be wrong in thinking that the teacher didn't care about his students - he wanted the best for them. It's that he taught Via Negativa, a pedagogical technique more common in continental Europe. That the way to get people to produce the best, original work is to heavily criticise that which is not good or average or unoriginal. Those without talent will fall by the wayside, but those with talent end up producing their best work.

Those who have never experienced it, or who fell by the wayside, won't understand the rewards of working under this technique. But the proof is in the results.

Re:Last sentence

[serviscope_minor]

your life has been irrevocably changed along with the majority (50.4%) of the United States population.

Um, you are aware that Apple didn't actually invent the smartphone? They produced a particularly well refined model of smartphone, but the term smartphone itself wasn't even new when the iPhone came out.

To have a nice car analogy. Ferarri make very nice cars (if you like that wort of thing). However, if Ferrari fans were like Apple fans, most of them would claim that Ferarri invented the fast car, the car, the steering wheel, the idea of gears and all sorts of other things.

Naturally, noone is silly enough to make the claim about Ferarri. But id doesn't detract from the vehicles they make. However, Apple fans seem to insist the same for Apple products.

Just the other day, I was arguing with a chap here who claimed Apple invented the thin light laptop. I pointed to the X505, which debuted many years before the Air. The response was ah but it's not the same because (a) it's black and (b) didn't have a trackpad. So, therefore Apple invented the thin light laptop.

You, apparently feel the same about smartphones.

If you suggest that Apple made computing mobile to any previous user of a PalmPilot, Sharp Zaurus, Nokia N95, hell or TRS 80 for that matter, not to mention a thousand other plaftorms, you will be mocked for your ignorance.

You may at this point claim you're referring to the masses (you weren't), but what has that got to do with me or many of the people here. We were using portable computing devices before and we will keep using them. Apple has had no bearing on my life in this regard.