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I read somewhere that Steve Jobs would figure out if a person was good or not by talking to the person's coworkers and saying the person sucks. If they vehemently denied it and stood up for the person, that was a sign the person was good. If they didn't, the person might indeed suck.

sooo... if the rest of the team posted a statement and people resigned...

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That's very interesting psychology, but it is horrible and psychopathic.

Nobody go out and trash people just to see if it sticks. Please.

SJ was good at his job, but I don’t think he is thought of as “being nice”.

That said I feel there are better ways to find out if people are competent.

Of course not. But hearing from the SJ story how people behave when this sort of thing happens aligns with the staff's determination at the markup.

That would only work if the people Steve Jobs talked to were happy to argue with Steve Jobs.

I'm 99% sure my reaction to that situation would be "I thought X is great, but if Steve Jobs says he's not then I'm probably wrong. I'd better just agree with Steve."

How do you ever give useful feedback with that attitude?

I'm not like that with everyone. Steve Jobs is a bit of a unique case.

This Jobs story sounds like some myth-building BS that shouldn't ever be applied in the real world.

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