[vph]

>Revolutionizing textbooks may seem a bit ho-hum by Jobs’ standards, but it’s pretty clear that Jobs was passionate about the U.S. education system, and felt this country was falling behind.

Oh please, Steve Job showed very little -- if not zero -- passion about the US education system. He was an inventor and entrepreneur.

If these guys want to talk about someone who is passionate about the US education system, talk about Bill Gates. It's time to end the Steve Job's love fest.

[SkyMarshal]

They might be juxtaposing Jobs and his wife, who apparently does have a strong interest in education.

http://duckduckgo.com/?q=laurene+jobs+education

[technoslut]

Jobs showed little of himself outside of keynotes and interviews with Mossberg, Swisher and Pogue.

There are anecdotes that he did care about education such as an Arrington article leading up to the iPad which said he wanted to use use the iPad to change education. He was also an active parent, though not as much as he may have liked.

It's not that much of a stretch to believe that someone like Jobs would think about ways to change education. There are excerpts from the book stating this.

[samstave]

Jobs was an amazing capitalist.

He was the epitome of an exploitrepreneur.

We are happy with what he achieved - but lets have no delusions about how he operated and built his position and fame.

Take 5K for building something he paid Woz $375 for (breakout)...

[grkhetan]

He was young that time -- that does not mean he was dishonest for the rest of his life. And secondly, Woz loves him. Who are you dislike him, based on what Steve did to Woz, who knows what their relationship was...Since Woz loves him, I think this resolves the matter. Remember Steve made Woz a multi-millionaire by creating Apple, by providing his vision, entrepreneurial, marketing, business skills to his technical skills.

Similarly, people criticize him for bad behavior to his employees, but I see all apple employees love him (and love him much more than employees in most other companies love their leader) -- since I am an apple employee myself, I know. So I am not sure other people should dislike him for that when the actual employees that he talked to liked him (obviously there would be exceptions, some people obviously did not like him, but most did)

[samstave]

>Since Woz loves him, I think this resolves the matter

No it does not.

That is NOT what I am arguing - you are putting emotion into a technical claim.

Apple's products are amazing - but to say that Jobs was anything less than SHREWD is just naive.

EDIT:

I DO NOT DISLIKE Jobs.

I am making the point that he was an amazing shrewd businessman - I am not calling him dishonest - I AM calling his tactic exploitative.

Good luck saying they are not. Quality and Success are NOT an issue I am discussing.

[samstave]

That's not what I said - being dishonest and being exploitative are not synonymous per se.

SJ and Apple have been fantastically successful at leveraging their position. The company has produced amazing products, but you'd be foolish to think that their margins aren't anything but ridiculous.

[technoslut]

I don't think anyone is trying to portray Jobs as a saint. If look into any great man, or anyone else for that matter, you are going to find things that you do not like.

[chugger]

Steve Jobs was passionate about education. You need to read more about him.