Comment re: defending Steve Jobs (Score 1) 311
Ok.... I'll bite.
Steve Jobs, IMO, was not at all a "terrible person". He was, however, a person with some personality issues (which by many counts, he did correct somewhat with time and age).
That whole story about Jobs switching vehicles and driving without a license plate neglects to consider it was most likely something he did as a way to protest the concept of assigning government-issued identifying plates on every vehicle. I have several libertarian friends who feel very much like Jobs apparently did about that issue; that you shouldn't be required by law to purchase a license plate and keep paying for "renewals" to keep it current. I don't think Jobs *wanted* someone to give him a designated parking space. That probably wasn't his point. Rather, he'd like to see no such thing as designated spaces enforced by the legal system. (The very idea of a handicapped parking space is tied up in all sorts of government legislation. It's not as simple as a business saying, "Hey... We'd like to make sure our handicapped customers have an easy way to get in and out of our building!" There are laws about how it must be labeled, how many spaces must be reserved as handicapped based on the total size of your company, etc. etc.)
I don't consider myself a Jobs fanboy. (I don't really elevate ANY of the corporate CEO's to that level, personally.) But the man succeeded in building a pretty incredible technology company and managed to gather up and motivate an awful lot of talented individuals to focus on making his ideas and dreams become reality - with products enjoyed by tens of millions of users every day.
Is there evidence he did some really dumb things in his personal life? Absolutely
As CEO's go, I think there's a LOT people can learn from Jobs