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The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale?

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Re: The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale?

#91

Post by saraid216 »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #85
victork2 wrote: post #3

I have read Steve Jobs biography and this is definitively a cautionary tale and a great warning for anybody, but for other reasons that stated in this article. I am no Apple fan, as a matter of fact I don't like the look and feel of their product but I gained a great admiration for Steve Jobs because he seemed like a man in immense suffering. I'm not talking about the obvious physical pain of cancer and all his crazy…

I am no Apple fan, as a matter of fact I don't like the look and feel of their product but I gained a great admiration for Steve Jobs because he seemed like a man in immense suffering. People tend to forget that the word "passion" itself is rooted in suffering and sacrifice. By (classical) definition you can't be passionate about something unless you sacrifice for it.

Thank you. This is something I try to explain to people who think passion is merely generic but forceful emotion. Similarly, compassion isn't airy-fairy altruism but rather the capacity to suffer-with.

Re: The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale?

#92

Post by saraid216 »

stcredzero wrote: post #63
victork2 wrote: post #3

I have read Steve Jobs biography and this is definitively a cautionary tale and a great warning for anybody, but for other reasons that stated in this article. I am no Apple fan, as a matter of fact I don't like the look and feel of their product but I gained a great admiration for Steve Jobs because he seemed like a man in immense suffering. I'm not talking about the obvious physical pain of cancer and all his crazy…

...I gained a great admiration for Steve Jobs because he seemed like a man in immense suffering Russian? Hungarian? it seemed pretty obvious that he was missing something in his life and he probably never found it. Does it seem that he was in some sense, "alone?" But he's the paragon of the self made man, in the Ayn Rand sense... Many of Ayn Rand's characters seem to me to be tortured or somehow alone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byronic_hero

Re: The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale?

#93

Post by Mythbusters »

rotw wrote: post #62
brandall10 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said anything about money? He changed the game multiple times in multiple industries, and had his greatest successes as he was fighting death. If you compare his net impact vs. actual wealth he was a pauper... and esp if you look at his stake in Apple, as the majority of his wealth was from Pixar/Disney. There are too many 'responsible adults' wallowing in mediocrity who more than anything else actually drag the…

To put it bluntly, Google is happy-clappy hippie wonderland in comparison to Apple, yet there are no stories of the top echelon being absolute cunts to each other. Success is not reliant on dictatorship. You don't have to be a horrible person to be honest, you don't have to be a tyrant to demand and foster excellence.

Exactly because the dictatorial aspect can as much backfire as it can succeed. Remember Jobs had his fair share of successes and failures, its that the successes were mostly accumulated up towards the recent part of his life thus making him look more successful than he probably was.

Re: The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale?

#94

Post by saraid216 »

crag wrote: post #32

Wasn't he a buddhist? Not that that means anything. Buddhist's are more then capable of being shit-heads. But if he was a practicing buddhist.. wouldn't he had recognized what leads to suffering? Desire of course. Desire to be be perfect. Or maybe his desire to prove he was right? There are other words I'd use to describe him (and several other corporate giants); arrogance comes to mind. Sometimes these men think the…

Zen and the Art of Divebombing:

http://www.friesian.com/divebomb.htm

Re: The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale?

#95

Post by VinzO »

pooriaazimi wrote: post #21
michaelpinto wrote: post #2

If we're still talking about him half a year after he's gone he must have gotten something right. I think something that techies don't see is that Jobs real gem is Pixar, a company that Lucas couldn't make work and a company that became Disney's animation studio. My bet is that as these devices go from being cool gadgets to the mundane that Jobs will be remembered for those Pixar films which will seem charming even i…

He almost did nothing for Pixar, except pouring money into it quarter after quarter and using Toy Story's success to rise again. He was a very big visionary, a great manager and he deserves every bit of praise he gets for what he did at Apple in his second coming, but his role at Pixar was only to negotiate and give them money; not that it's an unimportant thing. Pixar would most certainly not exist today if it wasn'…

Could you recommend a good book about pixar?

Re: The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale?

#96

Post by smsm42 »

mcantelon wrote: post #44
crag wrote: post #32

Wasn't he a buddhist? Not that that means anything. Buddhist's are more then capable of being shit-heads. But if he was a practicing buddhist.. wouldn't he had recognized what leads to suffering? Desire of course. Desire to be be perfect. Or maybe his desire to prove he was right? There are other words I'd use to describe him (and several other corporate giants); arrogance comes to mind. Sometimes these men think the…

>Why I love hearing a billionaire say, "I'm a self made man". Oh really? So all the people who worked for you, cooked for you, kept your schedule, managed your companies, investments and life didn't do a damn thing? Really? The individualist "self made man" notion seems a conceit designed to introduce the concept of aristocracy, which humans seem drawn to, to modern capitalism.

The idea of "self made man" is directly opposed to the concept of aristocracy - which derives its uniqueness and elevation from belonging to a long row of elevated ancestors and to a long-living tradition. No aristocrate would ever call oneself "self-made" - that's the same as calling oneself an impostor or a fraud. One can be made an aristocrat - e.g. by a royalty - and fresh-minted aristocrats always were considered the lowest form of aristocracy by the "old" and "true" ones, the length of the family tree always was the main source of aristocratic pride. But one can never be a "self-made" aristocrat, it's a direct contradiction in terms and concepts. I'm sorry, but your theory makes no sense at all.

Re: The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale?

#97

Post by pooriaazimi »

VinzO wrote: post #95
pooriaazimi wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He almost did nothing for Pixar, except pouring money into it quarter after quarter and using Toy Story's success to rise again. He was a very big visionary, a great manager and he deserves every bit of praise he gets for what he did at Apple in his second coming, but his role at Pixar was only to negotiate and give them money; not that it's an unimportant thing. Pixar would most certainly not exist today if it wasn'…

Could you recommend a good book about pixar?

"Pixar Touch"[1] is fantastic. Highly recommended.

Also, the 2007 documentary about Pixar ("The Pixar Story"[2]) is well worth a watch - Extremely well done. There's a shorter, 23 minute mini-documantary about Pixar Shorts ("The Pixar Shorts, A Short History"[3]) that I also enjoyed.

[1]: http://www.amazon.com/The-Pixar-Touch-Making-Company/dp/1400... and http://www.pixartouchbook.com/

[2]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1059955/

[3]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1164983/

Re: The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale?

#98

Post by xiaoma »

rmckayfleming wrote: post #71
dedward wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Canadian, I can say that Americans have more fun in life than just about anyone. Sure, we canucks and the rest of the world like to call them out on their shortcomings all the time, but they brought us disneyland and superman, etc.

You forget that Superman was an American-Canadian co-creation.

>* You forget that Superman was an American-Canadian co-creation.*

You forget that even the "Canadian" one, Shuster, spent his life from the age 9 on in America and both were US citizens and did all their work in the US.

Re: The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale?

#99

Post by nacker »

The lasting cultural influence of Jobs seems to me to be that he made ruthless Machiavellian sociopathy acceptable to a large segment of the population. What does it really matter how shiny and "faux-zen" the design of the perishable toys he sold was? He was to business ethics what Kiefer Sutherland in the show "24" was to law enforcement.

Re: The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale?

#100

Post by s_baby »

gruseom wrote: post #77
s_baby wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Buddhist maybe not. Buddhism and Enlightenment Era ideology are both anchored in the idea of the "self". There's a great synergy between the two. To get what I mean look at the former CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey. The staunchest of Libertarians, a legitimate Buddhist, and a pioneer of "Core Values" Branding( e.g Apple ).

While it may be the case that many Western Buddhists have found a way to merge Buddhism and selfishness, I'm pretty sure that this is a modern and specifically Western distortion of Buddhist teachings. At least I haven't found anything like that in the Buddhist sutras I've read. On the contrary, to the extent that the self appears there at all, it is to be effaced.

>On the contrary, to the extent that the self appears there at all, it is to be effaced.

Within the context of Theravada. Mahayana embraces the "small" self. All Buddhist acts of compassion are anchored in self-interest. Just how you caring for your family is simultaneously compassionate and self-serving.

Just how we try to create real "value" through meritocracy Buddhism preaches giving and skillful means. The overlap is significant.

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