[gjm11]

I wonder whether in fact the Apple engineer was glad to have official permission from the boss to do the Right Thing.

It's not exactly uncommon to have the choice between one option that's clearly better technically, and another that's easier to implement with the limited time and resources you have, or more compatible with customers' peculiar needs, or a better fit for now-clearly-unwise decisions made in the past.

And usually you pick the technically inferior decision with a little sigh and a feeling of regret that the right business decision isn't the right technical decision.

But if the CEO has just shouted at you that you have to do the technically right thing ... well, getting shouted at is seldom fun, but it's got to make a pleasant change to be not just allowed but instructed to do whatever it takes to go with the design you think is "ideal".

[nicoburns]

I think you might have hit upon why Steve Jobs was so successful despite seemingly having poor social skills "being an asshole": his product/business decisions were very good.

And I have to say, I think I'd rather work for someone who shouted at me when I'd genuinely got something wrong, but listened to me when I was right than someone who was always polite, but made bad decisions.

Of course this wouldn't work for everyone, and of course it would be better if he was nicer to people, but still...

[meuk]

I think you're over-romanticizing. I've read his biography and Steve Jobs was extremely friendly to people higher in the hierarchy, and humiliated people lower in the hierarchy. He also had a habit of dismissing your idea as terrible, and presenting it as a brilliant idea of his own later.

[drawnwren]

To take it one step further -- I wonder how likely it is that a fairly smart programmer, who has showed enough managerial aptitude to become an engineering director, might drop words like 'ideal' in front of Jobs to get the marching orders they wish they had.

[jkw]

yes yes yes