So, Apparently, Steve Jobs Died

It turns out that the following may come as a shock to many people who read this - but Steve Jobs was not a nice person.  Nor was he a visionary, or brilliant, or any of the other things we will eventually be renowned for.  It's a shame that a person like him will become so famous for being so great, as none of his achievements were born from his own brain.  Only in america can you become so rich and famous by stealing.  Some people call him an innovator, which is wrong.  A rough and ready definition of innovator stolen from google:


'To begin or introduce something new.'


Jobs created nothing new.  In his entire life, he has never made something new.  The believers in his cult will say, 'oh it's okay, he reinvented previous ideas, that's still innovation.'  Well according to our definition, no it isn't.  But let's humour the cult of jobs lifetime members for a minute.  In the article we quoted below, Jobs didn't actually make a single thing.  Not a single thing was created or improved upon by him, in his whole life.  He did no actual work.


Okay say the cultists, he provided the visionary leadership to facilitate such invention.  If you continue reading (assuming you've not stopped at this point in a rage that his Jobsiness has been criticised, and you're presumably writing an angry death/hate mail below, thus not reading any further) you will find out that in his early career, he wasn't a visionary leader.  He was kicked out of his own company for being the exact opposite.  He had earlier created his own company - apple - which, with a little research, was working on a machine called the 'Lisa,' as an alternative to the Mac.  The popular story goes that Jobs chose the mac over the lisa.  What actually happened: he was kicked off the lisa project and forced onto the mac.  Lucky being interpreted as visionary happens frequently, I'll admit.


(Interestingly, the above writing began as being an apology of sorts.  I know he's dead, and no one wants to besmirch the memory of someone who is deceased, but the more research I did into his life, the more disgusted I became with his cynical self-styling.  He promoted himself as being a saint of electronics, with a brand that is entirely style over substance.  His brand is the perfect reflection of Jobs himself.)


Anyway, onto the story:


So Steve Jobs is a well known bag of asses.  I don't idolise CEO's, nor do I care much to give them a second thought, but in checking out the history of the old apple computers, I came across a number of articles about Jobs.  It was interesting reading, and it turns out that Steve Jobs was a massive dick.  The kind of person you want to punch in the stomach and leave in a pool of his own vomit.


For a quick summary, read this article.  I didn't realise the world was so enamoured with this particular douchebag, but just reading the opening lines I was bemused.  Visionary and father are not two things I would associate with this man, so I read around the internet, and to my astonishment found people falling over themselves to praise this man.  I assumed it was simple coat-tails stuff, but people genuinely seemed to like him (and indicative is the fact that those who praise him most are those who had little, if any contact with him).  Let's see if we can't have a look behind the PR campaigns and veneer.


Reading along, we see:


'But he had a way with words, seemed to have a passion for technology, and probably lied about having worked at Hewlett-Packard.'


So he was a snake oil salesman and a liar.  Awesome visionary?


'But the young, abrasive Jobs didn't fit in. As the various stories go, complaints ranged from poor hygiene to an abrasive attitude.'


So he was not a nice person.


'...making several enemies at the company by openly mocking them and treating them like they were idiots.'


So he was actually really unpleasant as a human being.


'"So, we decided to have a night shift in engineering -- he was the only one in it."'


So the only way to keep him employed was to isolate him from others.  Really great sounding guy so far.


'It took years before I figured out that he was getting Woz to 'come in the back door' and do all the work while he got the credit.'


So he was a liar and a cheat.  A massive fraud.  He certainly is a perfect role model so far.


'After four sleepless days that gave both of them a case of mono (an artificial time limit, it turns out: Jobs had a plane to catch, Atari wasn't in that much of a rush), the brilliantly gifted Wozniak delivered a working board with just 46 chips.'


So the asshole disregarded the health of his colleague in order to create a device within a time-limit that was needless.


'Jobs made good on his promise and gave Wozniak his promised $350. What he didn't tell him -- and what Wozniak didn't find out until several years later -- was that Jobs also pocketed a bonus somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000.'


I'm sorry, but Jobs stole five thousand dollars from Wozniak, the man who made everything, who engineered everything.


Other things of note: Jobs illegitimate daughter whom he disavowed any knowledge of, leaving her to a single parent (while he was worth billions, SUCH A NICE GUY) and being sacked from his own company for being a massive douchebag.  It takes a magnificent kind of douchebagery to be fired from your own company.


Basically, what we learn here is simple.  If you live in america you will become a hero if you steal, cheat and lie.  You will also become very rich.  When you die, people will hail you as king, while the people who created, invented and innovated are left unacknowledged.  At least some of the visionaries that Jobs stole ideas from are rich now (having worked at apple in high-level positions) but most will not be.  He stole more ideas than the whole of china, and is praised for it.  Imagine telling your children to beg, steal, cheat, lie and abuse your way through life.  In any other society that would be tantamount to establishing a prison sentence for that child - in america it's the glorious path to fame and fortune.  Christ almighty.


And no, I don't care that he died.  To be blunt - he was an asshole.  Yesterday tens of thousands of people in china, Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Berkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, the CAR, the Comoros, the Ivory Coast, the DRC, Djibouti, Equitorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Chile, Columbia, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela died from preventable illnesses, or war, or lack of water.  I doubt every single one of those people was as terrible a human being as Jobs, but we're not parading around the streets celebrating their lives.


His company, under his direction, used resources, sweatshops and slave labour from at least some of these countries, while benefiting them not even remotely.


He lied, cheated, stole and abused his way to the top.


Well done Jobs, this is a tribute befitting your 'greatness.'


P.S  My old man worked on the apples back in the day, so this might irk him.  Then again, he's a relatively sensible human, and I doubt he is a cultist.