[monkeydreams]

> If you worked with Steve, you were going to be challenged. If you cowered, gods help you. But if you knew what you were talking about, you'd be fine, in the end he'd respect you more.

So he was a bully who only targeted those people who wouldn't fight back?

[CharlesW]

He was a bully who expected you to fight back, because if you didn't, it meant that you either didn't know what you were talking about, didn't have the courage of your convictions, or both.

To be clear, I don't idolize Jobs and am not defending toxic behavior by a broken person who either thought the ends justified the means, or (more likely) who didn't think about it at all.

[goto11]

How on earth is "fighting back" supposed to be correlated with "know what you were talking about"? All experience shows these are not correlated whatsoever. I have certainly met many people who didn't know what they were talking about but nevertheless was very combative about it. And conversely people who was very smart but (perhaps naively) thought ideas would win on merit, not on who shout the loudest, and therefore didn't "fight".