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Comment by jjtheblunt | Hacker News Reader

Jobs wasn't like Musk or Bezos, cared deeply about employees, despite the famous youthful tantrum stories (probably also true, but salacious so more famous): my friend's wife had a hard to diagnose condition (autoimmune it turned out, I believe) and Jobs offered unlimited use of his private jet to get her to any doctor anywhere.

I was similarly told to be with my very sick parent, no time constraints, and I was part of an inner sanctum engineering team, and later similar when I had a pet get ill, in all cases because we all had one another's backs, and we all were NOT fungible assets, but, rather, harmoniously integrated by years of working together and a strict hiring filter in the first place.

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Yep. I had a stand-up row with Steve in the elevator in IL1. We stepped out to continue it, so others could use the elevator.

At no time did I think there'd be any retribution or problems because of this. We both had strong (and in this case, contrary) opinions, and Steve respected you a lot more if you voiced those opinions rather than just accept whatever he told you. He was also perfectly happy to over-rule you if you didn't persuade him, but he didn't want Yes-(wo)men around him.

I don't get that vibe from Musk. It's like he read some stories about how a maverick CEO can be an asshole and get away with it in some trashy red-top newspaper, and modeled his entire character around that.

Perfectly said!

Did you had row with Musk?

I'm intrigued, what was the row about?

I'll say it was regarding one of Apple's Pro-Apps at the time, but to say much more would probably "out" me :)

I feel like Hacker News might be the only forum online where you can reliably find ridiculous one-off anecdotes like this on a regular basis.

The outliers compared to the famous stories, I think you mean. I think you're right. Thing is what I wrote is factual as can be.

Your comment made me wonder, how much of Bezos and Musk sociopathy is innate, versus imitation of some excerpt popularly known of earlier successful albeit at times abrasive characters. And how might they be different if the decent stories were so well known, because they do exist.

90 Hours A Week And Loving It!

> one-off anecdotes like this on a regular basis

That's an oxymoron if I've ever seen one...

N=1 samples of M random variables.

I think the word you wanted was "tautological."

Kinda like when Steve Jobs refused to give early Apple employees stock, famously giving them zero shares. Yeah, cared deeply about employees.

Yeah bizarre and i suspect from the young bratty stage, pre attitude adjustment from being fired. Way before my time though

Or withholding Woz’s bonus from the Atari job.

I've been at Apple for 20 years now, and I've received stock every single year. A fair amount of it, actually.

If you don't accept that people new to something will make mistakes, then you're not going to get very far. Steve changed as much as Apple did over the years, and mostly for the better.

>I've been at Apple for 20 years now

Can you please fix CoreBluetooth? It desperately needs async-await APIs :)

Also a non-location-permissions-based bluetooth background wakeup mode would be amazing

While we're at it, not locking new Swift features behind iOS X would be incredible. WWDC each year is basically "here's all the stuff you can use in 3-4 years when you can up the min-spec iOS"

Funnily enough, my ability to change things is limited to the scope within which I work :) Sadly, none of the above fall within my purview...

Darn, well it was worth a shot! If you happen to know people who might work in those areas feel free to pass along the request :)

>Jobs wasn't like Musk or Bezos, cared deeply about employees

I doubt if any CEO can pull it off for the long run without being caring enough about his/her inner circle. Even ruthless dictators have to be 'mostly' nice to their inner circle ( guards, butlers etc.).

The larger point being that often they can be ruthless with people who are not in the 'inner circle', sometime justifiably so and sometime not so justified. I'm basing all of this on typical human behavior, not specifically on Jobs/Musk/Bezos, of whom I know nothing. You will see this trait even in families, the stereotype of the current ruthless man being a gentle and loving father to his kids.

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