I'm always hesitant to view anyone as standing head and shoulders above the rest of the human race.
There are a couple of people in history who probably fit that category - Albert Einstein, Marcus Aurelius, Mahatma Gandhi - that's about all I can think of.
There are lots of people who accomplish amazing things, but that doesn't mean they aren't like everyone else, they often are!
The bits and pieces that have come out about Steve Jobs the past week, including the fact that he refused surgery that could have potentially saved his life and instead went with 'herbs and vegetables', shows that Jobs wasn't some super human whose frontal cortex was from the year 3055.
He was a genius, he built the most successful tech company in the world, yet, it appears, that he was fundamentally the same as everyone else in that he was prone to the same internal struggle that most people face, balancing critical thinking versus emotive thinking.
Apple changed the world and for that Jobs was a titan of industry, yet it's clear that he had his flaws as well.
I don't think that makes him less amazing. If anything, I think that's what makes him amazing. To be essentially human (and flawed) like everyone else yet to have changed the world nonetheless. It's a testament that our future is not, and never will be, dependent on super human individuals, merely individuals who have a vision and who find a way to try and make that vision a reality. The rest is all horseshoes and four-leaf clovers if you ask me.
It's interesting to watch how the media praised Jobs as some ubermensch and yet two weeks later they begin to slowly pick away at the very persona they helped to create with reports that he could be cruel to employees at times, that he didn't give much to charity, that he had no interest in knowing his biological father, etc.
I don't know, maybe he wasn't the nicest guy, maybe he was (hopefully the biography coming out will separate the man from the myth).
Either way, I'll be happy if Jobs' legacy gets a little rust on it if only because it's far more inspirational to know that success (which Apple is the epitome of today) doesn't hinge on perfection.
There are a couple of people in history who probably fit that category - Albert Einstein, Marcus Aurelius, Mahatma Gandhi - that's about all I can think of.
There are lots of people who accomplish amazing things, but that doesn't mean they aren't like everyone else, they often are!
The bits and pieces that have come out about Steve Jobs the past week, including the fact that he refused surgery that could have potentially saved his life and instead went with 'herbs and vegetables', shows that Jobs wasn't some super human whose frontal cortex was from the year 3055.
He was a genius, he built the most successful tech company in the world, yet, it appears, that he was fundamentally the same as everyone else in that he was prone to the same internal struggle that most people face, balancing critical thinking versus emotive thinking.
Apple changed the world and for that Jobs was a titan of industry, yet it's clear that he had his flaws as well.
I don't think that makes him less amazing. If anything, I think that's what makes him amazing. To be essentially human (and flawed) like everyone else yet to have changed the world nonetheless. It's a testament that our future is not, and never will be, dependent on super human individuals, merely individuals who have a vision and who find a way to try and make that vision a reality. The rest is all horseshoes and four-leaf clovers if you ask me.
It's interesting to watch how the media praised Jobs as some ubermensch and yet two weeks later they begin to slowly pick away at the very persona they helped to create with reports that he could be cruel to employees at times, that he didn't give much to charity, that he had no interest in knowing his biological father, etc.
I don't know, maybe he wasn't the nicest guy, maybe he was (hopefully the biography coming out will separate the man from the myth).
Either way, I'll be happy if Jobs' legacy gets a little rust on it if only because it's far more inspirational to know that success (which Apple is the epitome of today) doesn't hinge on perfection.
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