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Comment by mloc | Hacker News Reader

Even Steve Jobs was not trusted by his board because of lack of "experience". Those with experience tend to always overvalue it and rarely see their own limitations.

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But those without experience tend to undervalue it.

Getting turfed from Apple was the best thing that happened to Steve Jobs. If you read the folklore, he was bit of an enfant terrible, and I'm of the view that the experience of running NeXT and Pixar gave him the insight to turn around Apple.

I'm not nearly convinced that Apple would be the same company it is today if Steve Jobs had not been forced out.

Agreed 100%.

My emphasis was on the fact that even Steve Jobs was not trusted by the board of Apple because of lack of experience. Being turfed from Apple might have been the best thing that happened to him but I don't think it was the best thing that happened to Apple. The company almost died. So, again, without diminishing the value of experience, I think those who have some, tend to overvalue it.

And again, I'll say that it is also true that those who don't have any experience, tend to undervalue it.

Your statement and my statement are not mutually exclusive.

The same goes with education. Those who have one can overvalue it. Those who don't have one can undervalue it.

Given that he is such a micromanager, I am not sure Steve Jobs would have made a good CEO at the time. Apple was already huge at the time, and as the head of a large company you need to be able to see the entire picture (not just your favorite corner of the picture), as well as be willing to delegate. These things require experience, the taste of failure (sometimes), and maturity. Steve was always brilliant, but I am not sure he was wise enough to be a CEO at 25. Apple was already much more than a garage startup at the time.

The guy you have to get to the first level usually isn't the same guy you need to get the second level.

I do wonder how Apple would have turned out if Spindler didn't become CEO. That's when things really started to go downhill.

You call it micromanagement, I call him having high standards. I don't think he acts any different now: all the designs and advertising has to be approved by him, design report directly to CEO, other stuff gets delegated. As for the large picture, I think Jobs gets it much better than most of other CEOs.

>Those with experience tend to always overvalue it and rarely see their own limitations.

Then they are doing it wrong. The single most valuable thing I've learned from experience is where I'm most likely to fail.

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