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by SilverBirch 4 days ago
Always worth remembering that as well as being an innovator, Steve Jobs was often a cruel and petty man.
7 comments

Is this not a common trait among most of the high-level tech CEOs? We hear of lack of humanity across much of the tech industry when you get up to that level. All the stuff that is said about Musk, and all the others.
If we are seeking role models, dont seek out petty people.
Or, everybody is flawed and we shouldn’t adopt petty traits while respecting other traits and still having aspirations.
"In animals with hierarchical societies, aggressive behavior is thought to help individuals gain and maintain higher social status. It has been shown that aggressive behavior, especially the experience of winning, has rewarding properties in animals and repeated aggressive experience may lead to compulsive, pathological aggression that is highly reinforcing."

From the 2017, uh, molecular neuroimmunosociobiology survey paper Aggression, Social Stress, and the Immune System in Humans and Animal Models by Takahashi, Flanigan, McEwen & Russo – https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00056

(These are serious, credentialed people. The tl;dr is that "losing" is proinflammatory and subjugating others is antiinflammatory. In the brain. Which is behavior-modifying.)

I read he leased a fresh car every 90 days to keep driving on dealer tags.
hyperbole. a few years earlier, the story was every 6 months since that was the california dmv limit to get plates.

i was there. his mercedes sl often just had the mercedes barcode that sits under where plates would be mounted, with no plates. rationale unknown, but perhaps to make a stubborn point?

I thought it was discovered that was the reason.

I remember back then cars just purchased had NO tags until they came in the mail.

I think you had to have registration information taped to the front windshield with the VIN facing outward and usually the person's name folded inside so it couldn't be read.

Paper tags were only introduced in 2019.

And used his wealth to obtain and subsequently waste a liver that could have saved an actual important person with a family.
Sad comment really. I could make a counterargument that it could've gone to an alcoholic who wasted his liver, which would be equally uncalled for.
What OP might be (crudely) referring to is that Jobs had a rare (~1% of cases IIRC) curable form of pancreatic cancer, and ignored his doctors' advice to have it treated and removed in favor of some kind of special diet. By the time he accepted actual medical treatment, the cancer had spread and it was too late.
Maybe the press his story got might convince other people with the same diagnosis to have it treated in a timely fashion.

I don't know that I can blame him though. Having been involved in friends and family members with medical problems, there are SO many people that muddle through understanding, and then deciding what to do. Conflicting advice will come from all directions.

It seems only doctors, usually with a lifetime of experience, have medical directives ready and they are usually DNR type decisions.

If I was diagnosed with cancer, I would follow the advice of my medical team, _especially_ and without question if they told me that the cancer was curable in a high percentage of cases if I act now to have surgery.

It doesn’t make sense to me why someone would see the numbers in a case like this and decide not to act.

> I could make a counterargument that it could've gone to an alcoholic who wasted his liver

If you're still an alcoholic, you're not getting a new liver. There is required sobriety and testing first. You may have had issues that caused you to get there, but you will be sober before you get the liver.

Not the same thing. Jobs example (and I don't inherently agree with the GP, just saying) would be more like being able to drink up to the point of your transplant and then keep on going like you've just had a pit stop.

Alcoholism is a recognized disease. Narcissism and self aggrandizing is not.
> an actual important person

importance is now how organ donations are managed.

It is? Really? Or did you mean "not"?
The biography regarding how NeXT came to be is quite relevant in how it all went, and how lucky it was that Apple ended up going with NeXT instead of Be.

"Steve Jobs and the Next Big Thing"

Also interesting is Ken Kocienda's 2019 memoir:

"Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs"

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=ken+kocienda&i=stripbooks&crid=37...

Haven't read that book, but I am Listening to the Audiobook of "Steve Jobs in Exile: The Untold Story of NeXT and the Remaking of an American Visionary" on commutes etc. Really like the book, and you get a another view of Steve Jobs, the people behind NeXT and the industry at that time.

There is actually a Youtube video from The Computer History Museum on the book with the author and key figures from NeXT’s history [Recorded May 26, 2026] (haven't seen it yet, but looking forward to): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnNdb2wa_NE

Name a big tech CEO who isn’t.
Having met Jeff Bezos personally once (ex Amazon employee), he seemed very down to earth. His mannerisms were almost awkward nerdy guy like, you definitely didn't feel like he was above you in any form and way. I dunno if that changed at all since then, but this was back in early 2010s.
Ah yes, the company the fires warehouse workers and delivery drivers for needing a washroom break. I bet sure is down to earth catching a tan on his giga yacht.
No the company that donates millions to education, support programs, and improving quality of life for everyone.
Your honor my client can’t be a bad person for kicking a puppy, he bought a birthday present for my dad one time!
In my case, its reversed. Amazon does more good than harm.
I think some of them do a better job of limiting their cruelty to their job.

Jobs allegedly spent years lying about whether his daughter was his daughter. That's not necessary for Apple to succeed. That's just being a dick.

While I don’t love Google (it’s hard to love) I actually think Sundar isn’t an asshole fwiw. Also I’m not sure if you’d put Dario in big tech circles but he seems half decent. A little too AGI pilled perhaps but definitely standing up for what he believes in.

The bar is pretty low among that population, though.

Dario's attemoting to use legislative capture to stop open source models as we speak.
I mean, they gave money to a PAC that is trying to get legislation to control all models. He’s fine with legislation affecting Anthropic as far as I can tell, as long as it’s evenly applied. Open weight models built outside the US are going to be pretty hard to control, though.
I believe hampering US use of models (see the recent issue with the company having to use Kimi to respond to a security incident) is not decent.
to call him an innovator is a slap in the face of everyone who is an actual innovator.

The only thing he was good at as lying to create a brand image.

dont get to that level without being an asshole.