[victork2]

I have read Steve Jobs biography and this is definitively a cautionary tale and a great warning for anybody, but for other reasons that stated in this article.

I am no Apple fan, as a matter of fact I don't like the look and feel of their product but I gained a great admiration for Steve Jobs because he seemed like a man in immense suffering. I'm not talking about the obvious physical pain of cancer and all his crazy diets ( we share something in common ) but mentally he seemed like a sad sad person. I don't want to do bar stool psychology but it seemed pretty obvious that he was missing something in his life and he probably never found it.

But he's the paragon of the self made man, in the Ayn Rand sense and people ( especially here, where there's something approaching a cult ) look up to that and as soon as they encounter problems they imagine themselves in the shoes of this man and try to act tough... or act Steve Jobs.

If there's one paradoxical lesson that should be taken from his biography it is that you should never to listen to anybody that tells you how to act, don't try to fit in a mold, even in the mold of a great man, because you fundamentally don't have the same substance and thus you won't come out the same way: ie successful nor happy. Be your own man, forge your own mold and challenge the statu quo.

[stcredzero]

...I gained a great admiration for Steve Jobs because he seemed like a man in immense suffering

Russian? Hungarian?

it seemed pretty obvious that he was missing something in his life and he probably never found it.

Does it seem that he was in some sense, "alone?"

But he's the paragon of the self made man, in the Ayn Rand sense...

Many of Ayn Rand's characters seem to me to be tortured or somehow alone.

[saraid216]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byronic_hero

[CamperBob2]

I am no Apple fan, as a matter of fact I don't like the look and feel of their product but I gained a great admiration for Steve Jobs because he seemed like a man in immense suffering.

People tend to forget that the word "passion" itself is rooted in suffering and sacrifice. By (classical) definition you can't be passionate about something unless you sacrifice for it.

[saraid216]

Thank you. This is something I try to explain to people who think passion is merely generic but forceful emotion. Similarly, compassion isn't airy-fairy altruism but rather the capacity to suffer-with.

[adavies42]

> But he's the paragon of the self made man, in the Ayn Rand sense [...]

I was just thinking this. I'm sure Jobs hated Rand, given his politics, but he sounds an awful lot like Hank Rearden in TFA.

[s_baby]

As a Buddhist maybe not. Buddhism and Enlightenment Era ideology are both anchored in the idea of the "self". There's a great synergy between the two. To get what I mean look at the former CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey. The staunchest of Libertarians, a legitimate Buddhist, and a pioneer of "Core Values" Branding( e.g Apple ).

[gruseom]

While it may be the case that many Western Buddhists have found a way to merge Buddhism and selfishness, I'm pretty sure that this is a modern and specifically Western distortion of Buddhist teachings. At least I haven't found anything like that in the Buddhist sutras I've read. On the contrary, to the extent that the self appears there at all, it is to be effaced.

[s_baby]

>On the contrary, to the extent that the self appears there at all, it is to be effaced.

Within the context of Theravada. Mahayana embraces the "small" self. All Buddhist acts of compassion are anchored in self-interest. Just how you caring for your family is simultaneously compassionate and self-serving.

Just how we try to create real "value" through meritocracy Buddhism preaches giving and skillful means. The overlap is significant.

[gruseom]

I am skeptical of this as it gets applied in consumerist Western societies. It's all too easy to become the same ego you were before, only now with a spiritual varnish. In my observation, there is a lot of rationalization around this. When you have no roots in a tradition, it's easy to twist it to be whatever you feel it should be. Typically it turns into an accoutrement. George Westerholm brilliantly summarized this as "Does Taoism make me look fat?"

[s_baby]

>It's all too easy to become the same ego you were before, only now with a spiritual varnish. In my observation, there is a lot of rationalization around this.

Can you think of anything more self-centered and intoxicating then conflating your ego with the "Ground of Being". Narcissism is the cliche sticking point of westerners. Than again Westernized lineages systematically address this. Mondo Zen being a good example.[1]

Historically, Buddhism doesn't export cultural context. It embeds itself in what is already there. Zen exists along side Shinto. Tibetan Buddhism envelopes the local shamanic beliefs. Trying to export the cultural context of Tibet or Japan to the West is a mistake.

[1] http://www.mondozen.org/

[seehafer]

According to the Woz, Atlas Shrugged influenced Steve:

http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/How-influential-was-Atlas-Sh...