I originally posted this the night Steve Jobs died, then pulled it down the next morning: I hadn’t changed my mind about its contents, but had thought better of speaking ill of the dead. A number of people saw it in their RSS readers anyway, and enough of them have sent me notes encouraging me to repost it that I decided I would.
I’m sorry the man is dead. I’m sorry when anyone dies. He accomplished a lot; he made my life better.
But Steve Jobs’ life is a tragedy. Read this interview. And this one. Jobs was a man who understood the problems facing our society. But he was also a man who canceled all corporate philanthropy at Apple upon taking control; who cited profitability concerns as the reason, but who didn’t reinstate those programs even after creating the most valuable technology company in the world. He was, it seems to me, a man who wielded incredible power, but who chose to devote himself and that power exclusively to the creation of beautiful, perfect consumer objects. A man who seemed frightened of trying to address real problems directly.
I think he was absolutely nuts.
Bill Gates might be responsible for foisting a worse operating system upon the world, but you can’t deny that he behaves like a conscientious human being.