If after working with him for a decade you have to take a deep breath before you can give him your honest opinion on something, then he's not a busy executive who prioritizes efficient information exchange, he's an asshole.
Memories of Steve
81–90 of 163 posts
Re: Memories of Steve
#82Why are we still talking about this guy. I'll bet my life savings that when Woz dies, we'll talk about it for around 2 months.
Re: Memories of Steve
#83Re: Memories of Steve
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with you on principle, however, the story does not end here. Woz himself said the following: "What Steve does on the good side — like the music scenario [in which] we didn't bring just a music device called the iPod, we brought a whole music system: a store that sells it, a computer that manages and organizes it. And an iPod is just a satellite to your computer. Plug it in and it works. You don't have to do a…
> "[Everybody is] going to have cases where they did something bad to somebody, said something nasty to them and maybe regret it later." > I think that's a more enlightened point of view. This kind of argument is weak. It's just a bland kind of truism that everyone can agree with that is unrelated to the original argument - when someone says that some one is a bad person, there is an implicit comparison to most peopl…
But you can’t just name one bad thing a person did and say they are a bad person, no more discussion about it. That just makes no sense at all. It’s such a minor thing, too. His wage fixing together with Google and other companies is much more recent, relevant and much worse.
At the very least Steve Jobs was an intensely interesting person. I don’t think characterising him as a bad person makes much sense. This is such a simple-minded worldview.
Re: Memories of Steve
#85I had to stop reading. I also worked for a micro managing CEO/President and I HATED EVERY MINUTE. Knowing that if you did the slightest misstep or were falsely accused you were fired and there was a morning meeting the next day to tell everyone that so and so was no longer with the company. NO THANK YOU!!!
Slow down. Breathe. It's over. You no longer work there. You are safe now.
Re: Memories of Steve
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get it either and I have no idea why you're being downvoted.
I can explain. a. It was bought on-campus. b. If he stopped all donut services because of one guy who looked unhealthy, then it again shows how capricious he was. One person who looked a little unhealthy ate a donut on one occasion and he removed donuts from every single store on campus for every single person for no reason other than he didn't like to see someone who looked pasty and obese walking around eating a do…
Could sympathy not have played a part? Given his position, Jobs could conceptually have held himself responsible for enabling poor nutrition.
Indeed, most organizations that offer on-site catering have such paternalistic concerns. Google historically (I don't know if it still does) limits and effectively taxes unhealthy food, while providing healthy food for free. Does that make Sergey and Page sociopaths?
I will add the disclaimer that what is healthy or not is a passing fancy, enduring unending change. But people act on the best knowledge they have, and often the best intentions.
Re: Memories of Steve
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Congratulations on being oblivious to user experience twenty years after even Microsoft got it.
I am a user. Am I oblivious to my own experience? :)
You're oblivious to user experience not your own user experience. A good usability person can put him/her-self in someone else's shoes, rather than assume everyone else thinks like they do. Since software engineers think very differently from most people good usability people are rare. (Steve Jobs was actually such a person. People forget he knew enough programming and electronics to be dangerous.)
The thing Apple did with the iPod was offer a seamless end-to-end user experience, to allow "normal" people to buy a song and have it appear on their devices legally, simply, and at a reasonable price. This involved software, UI design, hardware design, negotiating compromises with the RIAA (e.g. iPods did not simply act as a file system to prevent casual piracy while not seriously inconveniencing users). This combination of software, hardware, design, and legal wrangling was not replicated by anyone, even approximately, for several years (Sony and Microsoft eventually managed to get something vaguely comparable, but it was too little too late.)
Re: Memories of Steve
#88According to Wozniak, Jobs told him that Atari gave them only $700 (instead of the offered $5,000), and that Wozniak's share was thus $350.[65] Wozniak did not learn about the actual bonus until ten years later, but said that if Jobs had told him about it and had said he needed the money, Wozniak would have given it to him.[66] --- End of story. Before continuing celebrating Jobs, ask yourself a question, do you want…
You can admire Jobs for the good things he did while acknowledging the bad things. We are all human, all fallible, even our heroes. Sometimes, it's our bad deeds of the past that propel us towards the good deeds of later. Does that moment fully describe Jobs' life? Does his initial denial of his daughter Lisa describe his later relationship with her? I am sure not. Humans are not simple creatures.
Re: Memories of Steve
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am a user. Am I oblivious to my own experience? :)
A HN user's idea of "user friendly" likely varies from the average.
If anything I'm less technical than most HN users. I certainly was back when the ipod was new-ish. I was probably more technical than the average user at the time, though.
I gave concrete examples of the usability of the ipod. I would like it if people argued against those points, rather than some smartass, sarcastic response like the grandparent.
Re: Memories of Steve
#90I was reading and hoping there was an explanation why Safari for Windows discontinued. It is the only popular WebKit browser ( after Chrome fork to Blink ) on Windows. Otherwise another great piece.
Just speculating, but probably Safari on Windows was a strategic play, to try to increase the adoption of WebKit and lessen the death-grip IE had on the internet then (and to encourage/give an easy way for web devs to target+test on more than just IE).
Much different landscape now. Most devs are running macs now anyway, Chrome exists and is very popular, etc.