Steve Jobs has six weeks left.

Miscellaneous General
1

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/apple-ceo-steve-jobs-has-just-six-weeks-to-live-report-86159

So while it seems that Steve Jobs’ health has currently deteriorated so badly that all his muscle and body mass is rapidly wasting away, I thought I may post some quick reflections on Jobs. This is not exactly an early obituary, so much as an attempt to gather my thoughts on this man once and for all.

I will not talk about any of the negative aspects of Jobs - such as the emotional torture he was rumoured to inflict on employees by cruelling disparaging them in his office before firing them or the general lack of humility seen in fast rising businessmen in their young days like him. I will just focus on why Steve Jobs genuinely matters and can not be taken for granted.

In today’s cynical world, nobody will believe you if you said that a child of a single mother adopted by parents without a formal education would ever really head one of the most successful business ventures ever known. Such a thought would contradict popular notions of class warfare, about the impossibility of getting anywhere in a supposedly cronyist world without privilege and connections. Of course, even when a man like Steve Jobs does exist, people will tell you that he is an exception, not a rule. Of course, he is both - an exceptionally good proof of the rule that even the poorest regularly become the richest or the most distinguished. Jobs has only done what an illiterate beggar like Woolworth, what a barely educated farmboy like Ford did, what a minor clerk like Walton did, and so on.

So what makes Jobs so unique? The astute observer will not how pervasive social mobility is. Well, while even the best businessmen like Lee Iococca merely repeat ordinary business in a much better fashion, it’s few like Juan Trippy who change their respective industry. See the list of following groundbreakers.

John D. Rockefeller brought the price of oil to a tiny fraction of what it used to be with his innovations in transporting oil.

Henry Ford made mass-produced automobiles possible.

Juan Trippy jumpstarted commercial airlines to a point where they could be considered to be in the reach of even middle class peole.

But Jobs? What was his groundbreaking feat? HINT: There wasn’t just one. Instead, Jobs revolutionized music, internet, cinema, and cellular technology in a single decade. The kind of gamechanger that happens every 20 years instead happened several times in 2000-2009, and all done by Jobs. Thanks to Jobs, downloading music became so quick and easy that piracy ceased to be a major concern and the entire music publishing industry had to change its model. Thanks to Jobs, even the most Luddite man like Thomas Fleming once emailed me a message with a “Posted from my iPhone” at the bottom. Thanks to Jobs, watching Bladerunner while going on a long road trip was something I can now take for granted. Thanks to Jobs, my brother could edit his films on MacBook so easily, he has already made several films that won awards at festivals and got him enrolled into a good filmschool.

“But wait, Prateek, you are too generous. It’s not what Job does. It’s what his employees do.” Wrong. Jobs micromanages the entire technology of his product and afterwards markets it exactly as per his instructions, with complete secrecy before release. Like the secret of Greek fire, only he possesses the entire formula, always. Nothing was delegated by Jobs - else he couldn’t have done it so differently.

When Jobs goes away, it will be a damn shame. A damn shame. Who’ll replace him? Not even legends like Ford or Rockefeller come close.

2

He created a cult out of Apple. Succesful businessman or brainwasher?

3

Frankly, I’ve never used an Apple product in my life.

4

Is there a difference? Business and capitalism are so evil !!!!~

Really, though, that guy has been so great at creating an image for Apple and himself.

5

Neither have I, Caley. But I am surrounded by people who do, and I see Apple influence everywhere - such as when my brother showed me Bladerunner from his device.

You could be a bicyclist and even you might not be able to deny the significance of the first Rockefeller on your day to day life.

6

Rapidly reducing the cost of oil far surpasses all the work of Jobs,

7

On the other hand, everything else Rockefeller did makes up for it.

8

According to the Rockefeller Kid in the documentary “Born Rich”: “Everybody was a crook back than.”

9

On the other hand, everything else Rockefeller did makes up for it.

I doubt it, almost every facet of life has improved due to the price of oil being slashed. Plus the Foundation that he started funded the Work of Mises himself.

10

He also started the Federal Reserve.

11

He also started the Federal Reserve.

I believe that was his son John Jr.

12

I don’t see how selling opium in crooked per se.

13

What have they been brainwashed to believe or do?

14

He’s also helped prevent competitors from making ‘similar’ products, hindered the adoption of open source standards into web media, and produced gadgets with absolute minimum functionality. Nothing special.

15

I find it interesting no one has pointed out that the source for this “6 weeks to live” stuff is National Enquirer.

16

I am simply talking about his marketing tactics, especially, looking at it from different point of view it’s obvious, that many his customers/clients don’t even think about alternatives anymore once they get hooked by shiny Apple, they just want Apple apple apple, everything with an i prefix on it.

I don’t think he is a bad man or evil “capitalist” like many marxists would tend to claim, I think he is a great business man, but his custumers (not all, but many of them) don’t think for themselves and he has his own audience “dumb down” so to speak to buy his products. I know that saying this to american people should sound like blasphemy, but from where I come from, it is obvious and simple to see that kind of things.

Again, to repeat myself, it’s a way of business, to make your clients go crazy over your products and that’s understandable, yet at the same time I find it disgusting. No offense to anyone :wink:

17

“What have they been brainwashed to believe or do?” - Daniel Muffinburg

There is an Apple cult of sorts, basically people who tend to tie their identity in with the products themselves and in doing so look down on anything else as inferior. I don’t know why people make a big deal out of it, but it is a rue phenomena. And it has its roots in simple service and quality: Apple generally makes very intuitive products that work out of the box with minimal fuss. And if there’s one thing Apple does best, it’s UI, or user interfaces. I love my iPhone. Could give a crap less about most other Apple products. I may get an iPad if the functionaliy ever approaches PC levels. Personally I have a problem with Jobs because of how he treated people, but only because I work in HR and know how destructive that kind of behavior is to employers. I’ve worked in environments where people were treated as such, success was achieved in spite of that behavior, not because of it. Unforunately those amongst us with the drive to accomplish great things often have quirks or deviations from the norm in their personalities that make them, to be blunt, intolerable for many people. Having worked with such an innovator myself I can speak from experience. I like my anonymity, but the company I worked for was owned by a guy who basically started an entire industry. In terms of learning experience and responsibilities I never learned so much at one company in such a short period of time. In terms of personalities I can say I never worked with a more boarish, obnoxious, belligerant, unprofessional group of people in my life.

We all make trade offs.

18

I follow what you’re saying. I consider myself an anti-consumerist capitalist.

19

Same here, Giant Joe.

Every time I see a mall, I have a mental picture of it being bulldozed. That’s how disgusting I find them.

20

I regularly purchase Apple products, and I’m one of the most non-fad-crazy people I know. Yet if others enjoy using the products also as a fashion statement, or as a “collector”/fanboy, I don’t see how that’s disgusting at all. Apple products satisfy customers; end of story. Whether they did so solely by anticipating consumer wants, or also by stimulating the consumer’s imagination, doesn’t change that fact.

And anyway, it is a bit strange to contend that the success of a company whose new products have initiated entire new product categories which have had huge ongoing demand, not only for Apple but for other companies as well, is mostly brand-based.

And I don’t shop much at malls, but I love that they exist, since other people seem to enjoy shopping there.