[imgabe]

It is childish. I think it would be nearly impossible for a normal adult to act that way, because part of growing up and becoming an adult is learning to repress emotional outbursts like that and most people are not even going to feel very strongly about design details in the first place.

The lesson is that design details do matter, and when you pay attention to them it has a cumulative effect that results in a much better product. You do have to develop a certain amount of callousness to pursue your vision. You don't have to scream and berate people, but when you're sending a design back for the tenth time, you're bound to start thinking "Gosh, this designer is going to think I'm an asshole." A lot of people will just accept something that's not exactly what they want just to avoid potential bad feelings from someone else.

The emotional aspect made it easy and natural for Steve to pursue the design until it was exactly what he wanted. Indeed, it probably made it nearly impossible for him to do anything else. The rest of us have to consciously override social impulses that value getting along and being liked higher than small details. The upside is that we get to manage our response so we can motivate with something other than fear.

[silvestrov]

It's an USAism to think that "growing up" mandates "repressing emotional outbursts".

In many parts of Europe it's expected that grown men have emotional outbursts. Repressing them gives the impression of rigrid and cold humans which you should not trust.

[imgabe]

It is very American, but I think we get it from the English. They of the stiff upper lip.

[saraid216]

And the English got it by trying to make themselves seem like the opposite of the French.

[mitsche]

I don't think the OP meant it that way.

To me part of being a grown up includes the ability to act with reason and tact under great distress. I've managed to do this once in my life when I was attacked by a good friend in a very harsh way because of complex reasons, and our friendship might have ended right at that point if I had let my emotions get the best of me.

I once had a boss who had an emotional breakdown almost every day at the office because things weren't going as he expected them to. He did not inspire me to do good work. He just instilled a fear in me that syphoned energy away and kept me from fully focusing on my work.

It was depressing, really. I will never know what Steve Jobs was like to work with, but I don't think I would have liked working for him, although he obviously got some good stuff out of his people.