[truthseeker]

Next up on HN:

Blog post from housekeeper of Mr. Steve about how exacting he is on some occasions and how kind he is on other.

I think Steve Jobs and his contributions to the tech world are extraordinary. I wish him well and hope he lives happily for a long long time. Just as I wish for anyone I know or do not know, that they live happily.

Steve is not a friend of either you or me. I do not need to know how he was as a neighbor, his driving record, his family life or anything that does not concern his work. I am not interested in those details of Steve or Salma Hayek or Steve Ballmer.

Can we stop senselessly idolizing people in areas that are not their expertise?

[runjake]

There may be some idolizing, but I think it's more about premature eulogizing of a man who's made huge contributions to technology, whether you buy Apple products or not. Ballmer isn't even in the same realm.

Personally, I'm interested in his life beyond Apple. He was an out-of-the-box thinker who went through many serious failures and successes. How could he NOT be interesting? I feel I could learn a lot from him. I certainly learned a lot from his now-classic Stanford(?) speech.

We all really do hope for the best for his health, but we all have this unspoken belief that his days are very numbered.

I suspect that like me, many others feel the need to thank him for what he's accomplished, and reviewing and celebrating his life is the next best thing to shaking his hand.

[matwood]

premature eulogizing

I mentioned this to a friend the other day. If I only read all of the stories coming out about SJ I would have assumed he died and not just left his CEO position.

[jemfinch]

You understand that he left his CEO position because he's dying, right?

[psychotik]

There's still a difference though - he's not a vegetable; he's very much alive today. Pseudo-eulogizing a person who is still alive isn't good taste - save them for when he is gone. It's not like the story will change, or will be any different then.

[shithead]

He may be enjoying it.

Not everybody gets to attend their own eulogy, and in this case, in tone and volume, it verges on deification.

Speaking of which, is there a comedian with balls to publish an Apocolocyntosis?

[ellyagg]

The debate over whether your complaint is valid could seriously span volumes. Frankly, if you truly respected Steve Job's contributions and simultaneously found his personal life of zero interest, I would find that extremely odd.

Most, probably the vast majority of, people become very interested in every aspect of their hero's lives. I'm sure you can think of many reasons why this might be the case, both evolutionarily and practically. The fundamental attribution error notwithstanding, discovering what relationship a particular aspect of genius has to other traits of a person is powerfully interesting to human beings.

Perhaps you literally don't have any curiosity over your heroes beyond their strict niche. Perhaps you have no heroes. Perhaps you don't think Jobs deserves to be anyone's hero. But don't be surprised at everyone else's outpouring of interest, because most people aren't like you.

[TheloniusPhunk]

I disagree. I think this story humanizes the guy and helps to dispel the Steve Jobs, Jedi Master, myth.

[microtonal]

I agree, but such accounts can be read differently: he's just a normal person. Every normal person has potential to do something great.

[inovica]

I personally think that its sometimes the small details that make up the man (sorry, or woman!) and because Steve Jobs is seen as such a success people want to look at what he does partly to look for traits to emulate and naturally partly as curiosity. Yes, there are elements here which are purely 'celebrity' but the interesting thing for me about some of these stories is just how 'ordinary' the guy is. I read one article about his house which is not ostentatious at all. There's a lot that can be learned from people like this and you have the choice to read (or not read) them.

[ryandotsmith]

I bet there aren't any biographies on your shelf.

[dasil003]

Maybe so, but in today's era of celebrity gossip, I'm thankful for someone to be famous for actually doing something memorable than the endless stream of minutiae about a sequence of borderline NPDs whose only talent is capitalizing on media exposure.

[reinhardt]

+1, just flag these posts and hope that enough us keep doing the same.