Jobs was a semi-decent asshole. He was simply an asshole, but had semi-decent behavior. So not a complete asshole.
Quote from JamesL:
I saw that last night. The part that really piqued my interest was the use of the iPad with Autistic children. If you have such a child, even moderately autistic, you know how important this is or can be.
Quote from lwlee:
He was visionary. One of the reason I wanted to read his biography was to understand what his impact was on Pixar. He bought it in 1986 and persevered with the company for 9 years before they finally hit it big with Toy Story. He sunk tens of millions into Pixar and never gave up hope (well he did think about selling a few times but didn't). The real genius at Pixar was John Lassetter. Jobs' greatest strength was his ability to be able to exploit the potential that he found.
At Apple (first time), he had Woz.
For the Mac, he had Andy Herzfeld, Bill Atkinson (another guy he screwed in compensation), Burrell Smith.
At Next Computer, he had Avie Tevanian.
At Pixar, John Lassetter.
At Apple (second time), he had Jonathan Ive.
If he had only done it once, then all this praise is unwarranted but he did it over and over again.
Quote from lwlee:
He was visionary. One of the reason I wanted to read his biography was to understand what his impact was on Pixar. He bought it in 1986 and persevered with the company for 9 years before they finally hit it big with Toy Story. He sunk tens of millions into Pixar and never gave up hope (well he did think about selling a few times but didn't). The real genius at Pixar was John Lassetter. Jobs' greatest strength was his ability to be able to exploit the potential that he found.
At Apple (first time), he had Woz.
For the Mac, he had Andy Herzfeld, Bill Atkinson (another guy he screwed in compensation), Burrell Smith.
At Next Computer, he had Avie Tevanian.
At Pixar, John Lassetter.
At Apple (second time), he had Jonathan Ive.
If he had only done it once, then all this praise is unwarranted but he did it over and over again.
Quote from Rehoboth:
This does not make him a visionary, it makes him a good evaluator of talent. I cant believe so many brilliant minds fell for his act. Besides the original Mac OS, Jobs or his companies created nothing new.
I think the greatest lesson that jobs leaves behind is that if a doctor tells you that you have an operable form of cancer, you dont tell them to fuck off, you get the operation.