Lisa Brennan-Jobs Recalls Memories of Her Famous Father | Hacker News Reader

Lisa Brennan-Jobs Recalls Memories of Her Famous Father

vanityfair.com

61 pointsrustcharm15 comments

All: please refrain from posting yet more comic-book-villain denunciations or superhero exultations. It's not interesting, and it's always the same.

Instead: find something curious and share it. (Hint: something that contains actual information and that hasn't been repeated a ton. On HN, diffs are what's interesting.) Alternatively, you can always not post anything.

Beautifully told anecdote about the Lisa. His reaction in denying her the Porsche seems to me to be about telling her she has to earn such trinkets. But who knows.

He was an ugly little goblin of a man, who made an empire by taking credit for engineering he himself couldn't do.

He was hopefully the last of the great con men.

It is truly amazing how he is hero-worshiped while Bill Gates is vilified. The early secretaries at Microsoft became millionaires from their stock options while many who played key roles in the success of Apple got their salaries and bennies and that's it.

.. and let's not forget the Gates Foundation either.

It is truly amazing how he is hero-worshiped while Bill Gates is vilified.

We in tech need a villain in order to make ourselves feel virtuous. We’ve chosen Microsoft and Bill Gates.

  > “You’re not getting anything,” he said. “You understand?
  > Nothing. You’re getting nothing.” Did he mean about the
  > car, something else, bigger? I didn’t know. His voice
  > hurt—sharp, in my chest.

Yep, a wise father imparting a valuable life lesson to his beloved daughter.

I'm hoping this is sarcasm.

> I'm hoping this is sarcasm.

Is it really not obvious considering that the post to which I was replying said this?

>> His reaction in denying her the Porsche seems to me to be about telling her she has to earn such trinkets.

That is not at all the impression I got. This is just an excerpt from a larger piece but all the cues in this story to me read as if Lisa was made to feel as if she wasn't really Jobs' child. Notice the bit in the beginning about Jobs wife and children ignoring her in the house, the way the introduction ends with Jobs telling her she smells like a toilet, the detail of the paternity suit. My kid asked after my car a few months ago. It never even occurred to me to get angry. Jobs, on the other hand, gave her a nasty speech about how she was getting nothing. That is a fucked up thing to say even if the person you're saying it to didn't grow up almost homeless because of your actions.

I am a fan of Steve Jobs. I don't think he's an "evil goblin" or whatever. But I'm less of one after reading this.

"Lisa was made to feel as if she wasn't really Jobs' child"

Indeed, this also comes across. One could even say, more strongly, that Jobs deliberately and explicitly told her she was not his child, which was both cruel and factually wrong. This has been known for some years now.

She comes right out says that she's present near his death having given up any hope of reconciliation. I don't think there is any sense in which any of these recollections is meant to suggest Jobs was a good father to her.

The Bono bit was the worst.

So interesting to read this first hand from Lisa. Her writing style really brings it alive and you really capture her age as her thoughts are projected.

Parenting and selflessness was apparently not Steve's forte.

If he worked on parenting as fervently as he worked at his job (heck, even 25% as much), this article would have a completely different tone.

Jobs was a real piece of work.

Maybe so (and maybe most of us are too), but please don't post unsubstantive comments here.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com