Ask HN: What about Steve Jobs?

[clevershot]

Steve Jobs was very successful. Everybody agrees on that. However, his character traits are very controversial. There is the notion that he was successful despite his flaws and thus you should not emulate him if you seek success.

I wonder what HN is thinking about these points:

(a) Was he really as “bad” as people think/say he was? I’d love to hear from people who actually worked with him

(b) Do you think that he was successful despite his traits or is this whole notion of “soft skills and being a coach and supporter” just BS?

[smt88]

Regarding (b), a lot of success is related to timing, background, and resources -- basically luck. It would be impossible to try to separate all those factors out and draw a conclusion, especially because it's a single data point.

There are, however, studies with more than one data point. These can isolate factors to some extent. These suggest Steve Jobs would've been more successful if he were less emotionally explosive/unpredictable and more open[1].

1. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0953732090349858...