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Comment by fab1an | Hacker News Reader

Based on Isaacson's official biography, the 'reality distortion field' ascribed to Jobs by Apple employees was more of a euphemism for his capacity of successfully 'bend the truth' / outright lie for the sake of 'placeboing' the world towards his vision.

"To some people, calling it a reality distortion field was just a clever way to say that Jobs tended to lie. But it was in fact a more complex form of dissembling. He would assert something - be it a fact about world history or a recounting of who suggested an idea at a meeting - without even considering the truth. It came from willfully defying reality, not only to others but to himself." (p. 118)

While it's tempting to 'learn' described techniques, particularly for us entrepreneurial types, one shouldn't forget that their 'mastery' necessarily presupposes a flexible attitude towards ethics and to some extent, basic human decency. Jobs, of course, wasn't exactly a master of either.

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It's not necessary to take it that far.

The lesson that certainty and how you frame your view of the world to other people has a massive impact both on your own world and those around you is valuable, and does not require a flexible attitude towards ethics even though that same lesson can of course be horribly exploited by those that does have a flexible attitude toward ethics.

Most of us distort our own reality. The problem is that a lot of us interpret it more negatively than it really is. E.g. shy or introverted people have a tendency to remember peoples reactions as more negative than they actually are, and to underestimate how well we come across to people we meet in person, and so give up on a lot of opportunities.

Consciously "tuning" your own distortion field more towards certainty and focusing on the positive can be immensely beneficial without requiring you to turn into a liar and manipulator.

Interesting, perhaps there were two reality distortion fields: the one Steve Jobs was said to exert within Apple, and another that affected the outside world.

The former may very well have been mostly based on lies and Jobs was also not above selectively presenting information that suited his narrative. The effect that Jobs had on the outside world, however, is something that I'm sure many people would like to replicate.

Like this article states, it is all about perception. I'm not sure if Apple could have pulled off a product like the iPod (especially the Shuffle) without Steve Jobs. He was able to convince you that you didn't need the features that it lacked over other products. When Steve was on the stage, he pulled you into his reality and made you see the world differently. And then you forked out 1500 for a laptop :P

I agree with your point, My first draft of the post had a paragraph about this.

Up to me, Jobs clearly met the criteria of what we call in psychiatry personality disorders (antisocial: failure to respect others' rights, lying, cheating, borderline: instability in relationships, and histrionic: excessive attention seeking).

Yet, I think the RDF can be used as a communication tool instead of a weapon. An idea is often worthless if it cannot be communicated. Outright stealing of others' ideas is just an extreme.

Oh for gods sake, stop. Psychiatry and the labelling of others using medical terminology is no better than the fourfold system of personality of the ancient greeks, except that unlike the Greek system, its being abused by corporations to make money from human misery.

There is no, repeat no, objective test for mental illness of any kind, and ascribing particular personality disorders to public figures is somewhat like celebrity gossip, but for psychiatrists. Judge the man on his deeds, don't put a pseudo-scientific label on him to denigrate personality traits you don't like.

Full disclosure: I never really liked Steve Jobs, but he accomplished an awful lot while (apparently) being a dick at times. So what? He doesn't deserve to be tagged with the stigma of mental illness by someone who may never have met him in the flesh.

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