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Steve Jobs has passed away.

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Re: Steve Jobs has passed away.

#261
post #83

I'd be lying if I said I was a big Apple fan. I'm a Linux guy and never saw a need or benefit to pay the premium required for entry through the Apple gates (well, ok, I bought a Macbook for iPhone development, but I didn't enjoy it). That said, Steve was a great force in the world of technology, and whether you liked their products or not, you have to appreciate Apple's effect on competition in the marketplace...they…

Well said - the only Apple product I've had are iPod's and I have no desire to use Macs, but Jobs did make a huge dent and shaped a lot of people all over the world. It's a sad day when a visionary like him passes.

Re: Steve Jobs has passed away.

#264
post #40

What Apple is going to be missing without Steve Jobs isn't creative talent or even someone capable of saying 'no.' It's going to be missing someone who has the absolute credibility to say it. Anyone can be a tyrant. If Steve Jobs was a dictator, it was because people thought he had the right to be.

Considering how apparent it was that Steve’s health was gravely bad and rapidly deteriorating, we all in the back of our minds knew the time we had him in this world was limited and precious. So it comes as a complete shock to me how upset I actually am by Steve’s passing. Even though most of us never knew him, we all feel as if we did know him very well; his inventions, complete labours of love, have become so centr…

This. While I'd done a little scripting, I was never interested in working in software development. It made me think of boring/painful win32 programs. After I graduated college I skipped around through sales jobs I hated and was terrible at. And then I got an iOS device (2g iPod Touch) for my birthday, and I was suddenly very interested in programming. The way that device was so effortless to use, powerful (for its size), and fun captivated me. Within a year of receiving that that device I was roughly a third of the way through a CS degree (post baccalaureate), going to school part time and paying for it with my part time job (working at an Apple Store). I've been a paid professional developer for almost two years now, primarily working on iOS stuff. And I really like what I do. It sounds stupid, but I really don't know what I'd be doing now if I hadn't gotten that iPod Touch.

Thanks Steve, I certainly feel like you've done something for me even though I've never met you.

Re: Steve Jobs has passed away.

#266
Someone I knew said a while back "No tech company has ever come back from decline." I immediately thought of (what I feel is now the canonical counterexample) Apple. So many tech companies, and CEOs who have never been acquainted with failure, and have arrogance that's mostly a result of being in the right place and the right time.

And one who was fired, watched his company driven right to the precipice, and brought it back.

The arc of a hero.

August 6, 1997. Greatness doesn't happen at the top but at the bottom: http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-202143.html

Re: Steve Jobs has passed away.

#267
post #40

What Apple is going to be missing without Steve Jobs isn't creative talent or even someone capable of saying 'no.' It's going to be missing someone who has the absolute credibility to say it. Anyone can be a tyrant. If Steve Jobs was a dictator, it was because people thought he had the right to be.

What Apple is missing is a man whose vision for a product is exactly what the consumer wants....two years ahead of time (at least).

Re: Steve Jobs has passed away.

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's only cognitive dissonance if you're hopelessly egocentric. Death is obviously bad for you as an individual, but is crucial to the long-term survival on a species. Without death, you can't have evolution or adaptability. The only thing wrong here are the people responding with the fallacy of composition.

I cannot even begin to conceive the kind of confusion that has legitimized the "species over the individual" narrative. Just because something is natural doesn't mean that it's good. If you consider it "hopelessly egocentric" to think of death as a bad, bad thing since it's necessary for natural selection, do you also consider it ethically acceptable to kill an individual once he has stopped procreating, since he's n…

The species over the individual "narrative" exists because it is a fact of evolution. Life is a pattern of self-replication, and it is at the level of the gene that natural selection works to make this pattern more robust. The whole concept of having an individual "over" a species is so quaintly human. The universe, and the physical processes within it that are life, have no concern for such silly concepts. To put so much stock into the individual (and such people are always really talking about themselves), is completely egocentric. We tell ourselves stories about how important and special we are to validate our own existences, and that's fine, it makes some of us feel better. But we ignore the macro-processes that even allowed our existences at our own peril. Guess what, with no species, there are no individuals to glorify.

>do you also consider it ethically acceptable to kill an individual once he has stopped procreating, since he's no longer relevant to the evolutionary game?

The evolutionary game is much more complicated than you imagine it to be. Humans have evolved to be social animals. Someone who is too old to procreate can still watch after young, pass knowledge on to them, etc., which increases their fitness. This is such a fundamental misunderstanding, you have no reason to be so confident in such matters.

Re: Steve Jobs has passed away.

#270
post #164
post #40

What Apple is going to be missing without Steve Jobs isn't creative talent or even someone capable of saying 'no.' It's going to be missing someone who has the absolute credibility to say it. Anyone can be a tyrant. If Steve Jobs was a dictator, it was because people thought he had the right to be.

One could make an entire PoliSci dissertation out of your comment.

As a poli sci major one could make a poli sci comment out of anything.
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