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"Steve Jobs was not a visionary. He put the dots together and saw where they led." That's what being a visionary/genius is -- seeing things and making associations or "connecting the dots" before others do. It's having a rare and valuable perspective on the world.
This is the authors point :)
I HATED this list. A few rebuttals to point out why... Steve Jobs did not create products he created an organization. No. He was partially responsible for the creation. He sat in on design meetings and offered input and feedback. Plus he vetoed bad idea (just as important) Steve Jobs did not wrest market share from competitors he created new markets: Tell that to Creative Labs and Microsoft. Creative labs had an MP3…
You're so close to understanding this essay, and yet I fear you're a thousand miles away. I'm going to kill the poetry by trying to explain it, but try translating each phrase like this: When you read: "Steve Jobs did not [do X], he [did Y]." read it as: "It's not so much that Steve Jobs did [legendary thing X], as that he did [apparently simple thing Y, and did you notice that by doing so he just happened to accompl…
So he doesn't really agree with me. I see your point about poetic license (and I'll be the first to admit I'm dense in the ways of poetry) but if your poetic license leads to factually incorrect statements you've taken it to far.
Steve Jobs also did not share the credit. Like Elizabeth Warren said, "Nobody ever made a million dollars by themself."
What? He shared credit all the time. Go watch an old keynote, it was never "Here's what I built" it's always "Here's what we built".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find such sentences as: >Steve Jobs was not a futurist. He just built the future one piece at a time. to be almost hypnotically devoid of meaning and disrespectful to the reader. Why not just say what's true? A good reader can be stunned by the truth, without needing to be lead through a difficult contradiction for dramatic effect.
Well sure. I mean, Abe Lincoln could have shortened the Gettysburg Address to "Let's free the slaves and reunite the union", but that wouldn't have had the same impact as the speech he did give. There's nothing wrong with presenting a difficult idea that has a more dramatic effect. Do you think Moby Dick or War and Peace are considered great due to their simple ways of communicating ideas?
This is not an argument for being deliberately obtuse.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What? He shared credit all the time. Go watch an old keynote, it was never "Here's what I built" it's always "Here's what we built".
Maybe not all the time. http://everything2.com/title/Breakout
"Steve Jobs was not a visionary. He put the dots together and saw where they led." That's what being a visionary/genius is -- seeing things and making associations or "connecting the dots" before others do. It's having a rare and valuable perspective on the world.
That's what being a visionary/genius is This is the authors point :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're so close to understanding this essay, and yet I fear you're a thousand miles away. I'm going to kill the poetry by trying to explain it, but try translating each phrase like this: When you read: "Steve Jobs did not [do X], he [did Y]." read it as: "It's not so much that Steve Jobs did [legendary thing X], as that he did [apparently simple thing Y, and did you notice that by doing so he just happened to accompl…
I find such sentences as: >Steve Jobs was not a futurist. He just built the future one piece at a time. to be almost hypnotically devoid of meaning and disrespectful to the reader. Why not just say what's true? A good reader can be stunned by the truth, without needing to be lead through a difficult contradiction for dramatic effect.
I would disagree with the list in one respect. I believe Steve Jobs didn't have taste. Well, he had some taste, but he didn't have genius level taste. Steve Jobs did, however, know how to identify and listen to people who did have taste, and he worked very hard to learn from the people who did have it who didn't work for him (Eg: from the past, or people like Dieter Rahms who is retired, etc.)
But this is a great list overall.
I do wish the people who have been bashing Apple out of ignorance, and Steve Jobs out of ignorance and based on their preconceived notions or personal projections of their own faults, would at least wait until his body is in the ground before posting their drivel on the internet (I've seen far too much of this on HN already... making the site a lot less classy.)
In life, Steve Jobs didn't bother to respond to every scurrilous lie told about him, I wish, in death, such people would hold off until he's buried before ramping up the hate again.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're so close to understanding this essay, and yet I fear you're a thousand miles away. I'm going to kill the poetry by trying to explain it, but try translating each phrase like this: When you read: "Steve Jobs did not [do X], he [did Y]." read it as: "It's not so much that Steve Jobs did [legendary thing X], as that he did [apparently simple thing Y, and did you notice that by doing so he just happened to accompl…
That would be fine if his statements were factually correct. For example, the author's point is Steve Jobs built an organization that created great products. But he also ACTUALLY HELPED BUILD great products. Along with creating the organization. So he doesn't really agree with me. I see your point about poetic license (and I'll be the first to admit I'm dense in the ways of poetry) but if your poetic license leads to…
Then there are those who see the process Steve Jobs utilized and recognize that the process is where he really innovated... and further, by studying and understanding this process, we can do better.
It's obvious that you are in the first group. I quote, from your own blog: "To be honest I don’t think you can learn much from Steve Jobs because he had such an extraordinary talent. His instincts were better than the combined rational thought of an entire industry. So in most things you can’t hope to emulate Steve Jobs."
So long as you believe this, you will never learn from him. That's fine. But when you post on HN and blatantly miss the forest for the trees, you're not going to be abel to successfully debate people who are telling you about the forest.