What Everyone Is Too Polite to Say About Steve Jobs

An interesting story on Steve Jobs.

As for his charity giving.....It doesn't bother me. It's not my business nor anyone else's business what he does with his money.

And the only reason any company "gives" to charity is because of marketing and pressure from society.

I wonder which Chinese slave worker made my phone.

I seem to remember stories of him browbeating his employees into working 100 hours a week.

but those could just be stories.

And there was the fact that his daughter (and her mother) were living on welfare even after Jobs was a multimillionaire in no small part because Jobs wouldn't acknowledge his fatherhood.

That said, I'll always admit I'm wary when the accolades come out when someone dies.

He was a control freak and an asshole. I'd have hated to work for him. He deserves and is getting credit for his creations, not his personality.

(Opera voice)
Un-less it's Reagaaaaaaaaan!!!

The movie "The Pirates of Silicon Valley" I think did a decent job of portraying Steve Jobs as a first rate asshole.

No doubt the man had issues! The Paternity issue is horrible. The 100 hour work week was, I believe, during the Lisa project. If I remember correctly, he learned from that.

I don't think I'm lazy.

But unless it was a matter of life and death, if I was told to work more than sixty hours a week I would say the hell with it.

I have worked plenty of 80-100 hour work weeks. In this economy, anyone not willing to do so is saying, "I'm not willing to work hard!"

There is a huge difference between "working hard" and "working yourself into an early grave".

Once you get beyond 12 hours a day you're flirting with the latter.

Good article. This is stuff that people need to be aware of.

He was a great man but also a very flawed man.

Newton was an asshole. Edison killed animals in public to warn people about the dangers of electricity. George Washington loved killing people in combat, one of his favorite sounds was his gun going off.

All these big figures seem to have flaws. I see no problem with talking about them. Gives history a little more color. I know when I learned about the darker side of historical figures, I found myself studying history more closely than before.

I'm not going to work myself to death so some asshole can buy another yacht. If it were a project that I had created or had a major investment in, I'd work a 10-12 hour day if that's what was needed. But 100 hours every week? Screw that.

I'm not gonna work myself to death even to buy myself a yacht. My free time is worth more than that to me, even if all I do with it is lift weights, kick Thai shields, walk my dog, smoke herbs and play video games.

Ok, for reference, 100 hour work weeks means you are working FOURTEEN or FIFTEEN HOURS EVERY DAY (all seven of 'em).

No corporation deserves that much work from me, unless I'm non-exempt.

Quickly followed by a divorce, heart attack and kid who thinks the guy mommy is screwing is "daddy."

Every man is flawed somewhere.

"It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sonofabitch or another."

People keep quoting that. Who said it?

Wait, he is not a God? Could have fooled me from the comments about him on other threads and rep

It's a quote ffrom the Firefly episode, "Jaynestown".

Mal Reynolds.

Probably true. But it's often the sons of bitches who change the world.

Ah. Never got into it.

I've heard the same about Bezos and Amazon in general. Different versions of 'the best slave driver you'll ever work for.' Yeah, dress code is non-existent (you are actually warned in the email with your interview info NOT to wear a suit), the cafeterias are top notch and the perks are bordering on the ridiculous, but be prepared to give up your life and soul if it is decided that what your working is top priority.

I've actually not heard that about M$ which considering that in popular culture it's the Evil Empire seems odd.

I'm more left of center than most people here and I really don't find much of this too damning at all. I find it hard to believe that people were expected to work 100 hour weeks for any significant period of time. I have on occasion worked 100 hour weeks during a "crunch time." A period where a project was due and it was my or my team's responsibility to get it done. I'd do it again if I had to. If people had a problem with their compensation, then that's the issue.... Not the crunch time schedule.

Locking down a platform you created is your prerogative, IMHO. If a competitor comes along and makes an open platform that suits the public need better than yours, well, it sucks to be you. I am an iPhone user and I like the interface and responsiveness of the device. I'm convinced that is because Apple keeps stringent standards of what is offered on their platform. When another device outperforms Apple and offers more or better resources, then I will switch. Simple as that. The writer of this article sounds like he himself wanted to add something to the App store and was denied.

We've discussed child labor laws in foreign countries ad infinitum here and while I will stop short of saying I don't care, I think it's important to look at our own standards here in the states when we had similar GDP numbers as these countries we criticize.

As far as Jobs being an asshole to his employees, I wonder how the ones he made rich feel about him. 'Nuff said.

Yeah, I can't get too worked up about any of this.

He pushed his employees hard? I get the impression he was hard on himself as well.

He was verbally abusive to employees that disappointed him? I've done that too, and I've had it done to me. Sometimes employees really do need a verbal kick in the ass.

He's protective of his trade secrets? He has every right to be.

Conditions in China aren't great? You can throw that accusation at any company that does business in China.

There's two sides to every story about paternity or child support.

The only thing that bothers me, if it is true at all, is the charity thing. When you've got an enormous amount of money, I consider it a personality defect to not give the largest part of it to charity after you've fulfilled your personal wishes. People like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet get this one exactly right.

I can't agree with this at all. I have never verbally abused or shouted at people who worked for me. I have been stern and I have kept to my word if I threaten them with consequences. An employee is far more likely to respond to a polite suggestion that they will be more likely to find themselves redundant if they don't pull their finger out, or if you give them a discipliniary if they act up, than being verbally abusive.

All verbal abuse does is make an employee miserable and resentful. People come to work for the most part because they have to in order to make ends meet. I do not think it is the job of an employer or a boss to make that as unpleasant as possible just for the sake of flexing power trip muscles.

A good quality employer or boss gains the respect of his troops, but, at the same times, maintains disicpline so that they know he or she is not a walk over. Far, far more effective.

It really depends on the employee. It's definitely not something I've ever done to a good employee, an employee that just needed further training or better direction, or even an employee that just wasn't up to the task. My abuse was reserved for people that knew exactly what to do and just didn't bother doing it, after being asked politely several times. My rants were generally along the lines of "I have ample cause to fire you for your poor performance, but I've chosen to yell at you today instead. Next time I wont yell at you, I'll just fire you."

It actually worked quite well with some of my employees, generally either younger, less experienced employees that didn't take the job seriously, or more conservative immigrants that respected "strength" and saw an approachable leader as a "weak."