How Might Steve Jobs Have Grown?

[Felasco]

Yes, another useless Steve Jobs speculation thread. Go ahead and say it and get it off your chest.

I was thinking of Bill Gates, who has transformed himself from the ruthless dictator of the Evil Empire etc, in to an impressive humanitarian.

Although one never really thinks of Gates as a philosopher like Jobs, it is Gates who has transcended the obsession with small potatoes gadget consumerism and aimed his intelligence at far bigger, more interesting and important issues. The guy Jobs often accused of having no taste or style seems to have found his true purpose.

Sadly, Jobs died quite young, a blazing meteor soon extinguished. What might his future have been if he'd been given more time? Where might his great intelligence have led him?

 

[Carlanga]

While he was "ruling", most of the people didn't consider him the "ruthless dictator" of the "Evil empire"

Also Jobs didn't really help anyone in that big scale and while he died 'young' he is around the same age as Bill and having cancer didn't even make him contribute more to helping world issues. I would have assumed if anyone would have become more of a humanitarian would have been Jobs having cancer and it didn't happen.

 

[MacNut]

Jobs was more a egomaniac, I don't know if he would have changed. I think Apple is changing for the better without Jobs.

 

[SwiftLives]

Jobs was more a egomaniac, I don't know if he would have changed. I think Apple is changing for the better without Jobs.

I think Jobs' greatest creation was Apple itself.

 

[MacNut]

I think Jobs' greatest creation was Apple itself.

Who is more behind Apple Jobs or Woz? Who was the real brains of the operation?

 

[rdowns]

Who is more behind Apple Jobs or Woz? Who was the real brains of the operation?

Jobs, hands down. Woz was content to give away his inventions.

 

[Felasco]

Many thanks to all for your participation in the thread.

A bit more to urge you on...

One of Job's big talents was to see where things are going, and get there first. It may be less a case of Jobs inventing the future than it was Jobs seeing the future.

As example, Jobs didn't invent the GUI, but he saw more clearly than Xerox that this is where things were going, and Jobs decisively grabbed the future led the way there.

I posed the question of this thread because it's possible that where ever Jobs might have gone with the rest of a long life, that could be where we are headed, even though Jobs himself will not be able to join us on the journey.

I have some sketchy theories of my own, but I'll consider them further while considering your remarks.

 

[MacNut]

Jobs made Apple what it is today, but I also think he would have driven the company into the ground had he stayed around another 10 years. His ego would have taken over and he would not have ben able to see clearly moving forward.

Look at Apple now, there are clearer heads in charge but they never would have gotten there if not for Jobs original vision.

 

[Felasco]

Jobs made Apple what it is today, but I also think he would have driven the company into the ground had he stayed around another 10 years. His ego would have taken over and he would not have ben able to see clearly moving forward.

Look at Apple now, there are clearer heads in charge but they never would have gotten there if not for Jobs original vision.

MacNut, your observations seem reasonable here. It's certainly true Jobs had a sizable ego, though it must be said that didn't stop him from creating and building Apple, twice.

However, absolute power does tend to corrupt absolutely, whatever the situation and people involved. Just finishing watching The Tudors on Netflix (for the 2nd time), which does a fantastic job of illustrating this syndrome.

I'm not sure of the degree to which Jobs had "absolute power" at Apple, but given the success of iDevices, it sure would have been hard to turn down his next big idea, even if it sucked.

One of my wonderings is whether Jobs might have turned his focus away from computing, as Gates did.

There is an argument that whatever goes up must come down, and all of us have been really wound up on computing and the net for going on 20 years now. Sooner or later net and device buzz has to cool. Would a visionary like Jobs looked in to the future and seen more gadget product releases?

It's impossible to know, but somehow I can't quite see Jobs as being fully interested in iPhone 16 and iPad 12 and such.

That would be sort of like the Beatles deciding to become a cover band, playing the same old songs over and over. I've always thought that Lennon broke up the Beatles because he had nothing new to say at the time, and refused to become a circus act playing his old stuff again and again (like McCartney seems content to do).

I don't know what Jobs might have done, but I'm guessing he might have aimed at something unexpected, something that would shock us, something that would have kept Jobs in the position of being the interesting person to watch.