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| [Oct 09, 2011, 1:49 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
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| 7. |
Re: Sunday Tech Bits |
Oct 10, 2011, 10:51 |
WaltC |
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Well, I think Apple customers, at least the die-hard "I only buy Apple!" kind, are in the throes of yet another Reality Distortion Field. Like the poster here who thinks that Apple technology touched everything that people use to post to the Internet! I can't think of a single thing I'm using right now to post this message in terms of hardware or software that is the result or an offshoot of Apple products or technology.
Apple fans really do think Jobs was some kind of a saint, come to rid the world of the evil influences of X<insert the name of your least favorite company here>. This kind of melodramatic overreaction to Jobs' death, although everyone knew he had been fighting a losing war against pancreatic cancer for the past seven years, is much the same sort of reaction we might see if a US head of state was assassinated. In this case it is way overblown.
There are many unflattering things I could point out about Jobs' career, things that are unarguable facts of record, but I'm willing to let the bereaved grieve for a bit longer before engaging anyone in that kind of dialog...;) I do think it is early yet to unleash the dogs of hindsight.
Here's a tidbit, though. Jobs' approved biographer has recently revealed what Jobs told him about his reasoning behind allowing an official biography to be written. (paraphrased) "I wanted my children to be able to read about the 'real me' and why it was that I wasn't there for them much of the time. I want them to understand me." Well, the only thought that occurs to me is that during the last seven years of his life Jobs had plenty of time to spend with his children so that they could get to know him.
There is much--very much--about himself that he might've personally shared with his children if he had thought it worthwhile. It seems to me that wanting his children to read about him in a biography written by a stranger is a cop-out of supreme proportions, seeing as how he had a seven-year window of warning as to his mortality--which is a lot more warning than most people ever get. But if you don't believe Jobs' answer here as to why he wanted a biography written--then it's a moot point, anyway.
I'm not at all sure that Jobs was very much of a "people person" or a "children person" at heart, and I thought the tale of how he originally perjured himself in front of a court by claiming he was sterile in order to escape claims that he had impregnated his long-time girl friend was a very telling event. Lots of people behave in this way, and other than the perjury part there's nothing illegal about it.
Jobs was in all respects ordinarily human--not a saint--nowhere close to a saint, and certainly not a "genius" on the order of an Einstein (Jobs didn't compare in the brain department.) And I think that's how Jobs should be remembered--as an ordinary guy who worked hard, lucked out, and was often in the right place at the right time. |
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| It is well known that I do not make mistakes--so if you should happen across a mistake in anything I have written, be assured that I did not write it! |
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