Anybody who worked anywhere near Jobs will observe he was one of the biggest assholes around. I know quite a few people who worked in, or near his sphere - and they are all pretty consistent on this point.
And yet, who else in modern history has driven as many companies to such such success, and lead the creation of so many great products?
We had a ton of the NeXT machines at my university, and I still believe they, more than anything, demonstrate the height of Steve's capability of creating a company and product. Anybody who used Sun's Desktop OS and associated applications 5 years later saw how far ahead of the market NeXT was. I thought it was a far superior product to the Macintosh, which, by 1993/1994, was starting to get long in the tooth, and by 1996/1997 had fallen behind Windows in platform power/flexibility, causing me (never particularly religious about the platform I worked on - best tool for the job and all) to leave the Mac behind and switch to Windows (Followed by a switch back in 2003 when OS X took the lead again)
Does anyone honestly think Apple would exist today (and certainly not in it's current dominance) were it not for this single individual?
And, is it really a coincidence that Pixar rose to the heights it did with Steve at the helm?
Sadly (speaking as one) - technologists are for the most part fungible, you can swap out one for another. Designers/Architects are somewhat more rare, but they can be identified, recruited, and hired.
But Geniuses/Leaders - they come but once in a lifetime, and we admire them for that uniqueness.
Certainly doesn't mean we have to like them as people though.
And yet, who else in modern history has driven as many companies to such such success, and lead the creation of so many great products?
We had a ton of the NeXT machines at my university, and I still believe they, more than anything, demonstrate the height of Steve's capability of creating a company and product. Anybody who used Sun's Desktop OS and associated applications 5 years later saw how far ahead of the market NeXT was. I thought it was a far superior product to the Macintosh, which, by 1993/1994, was starting to get long in the tooth, and by 1996/1997 had fallen behind Windows in platform power/flexibility, causing me (never particularly religious about the platform I worked on - best tool for the job and all) to leave the Mac behind and switch to Windows (Followed by a switch back in 2003 when OS X took the lead again)
Does anyone honestly think Apple would exist today (and certainly not in it's current dominance) were it not for this single individual?
And, is it really a coincidence that Pixar rose to the heights it did with Steve at the helm?
Sadly (speaking as one) - technologists are for the most part fungible, you can swap out one for another. Designers/Architects are somewhat more rare, but they can be identified, recruited, and hired.
But Geniuses/Leaders - they come but once in a lifetime, and we admire them for that uniqueness.
Certainly doesn't mean we have to like them as people though.