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Comment by PhasmaFelis | Hacker News Reader

Interesting how the article explicitly tries to set up a contrast between the image of the entrepreneur in Japan ("selfish, greedy, untrustworthy") and America ("Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg"), when those adjectives accurately describe those people.

Edit to expand on that a bit: Mark Zuckerberg fights constantly to block undermine his users' privacy decisions and feed more personal information to advertisers; Steve Jobs lied to Wozniak's face to cheat him out of $2150, refused to acknowledge his own daughter for years while she grew up on welfare, and didn't allow Apple to give to charity during his life.

Japan's stagnant corporate culture needs shaking up, but Jobs and Zuckerberg are not good role models for how to do that responsibly.

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You may be forgetting Bill Gates, the biggest philanthrop of all times, who are changing Africa with HIS OWN MONEY.

But that isn`t necessary. The good thing in capitalism is that even assholes who only think of themselves can change the world for good.

He was also responsible for actively attacking free and open source software, which we recently learned may be the only way to go for any piece of software that we need to trust.

Like the others, they all have their good sides and bad sides. Nobody is perfect.

Yeah, and then on the other side we have RMS.

>actively attacking free and open source software

And anti-competitive practices

> those adjectives accurately describe those people

I think there's a big difference between someone who blatantly broke the law, like Horiemon, and someone who failed to contribute as much philanthropically as people would have liked to have seen (Jobs). Moreover, we have examples of successful entrepreneurs who have given back (such as Gates).

"untrustworthy" and "lied to his cofounder's face" are usually pretty related...

"who failed to contribute as much philanthropically as people would have liked to have seen"

Given some of the stuff coming out after his death, it seems to be more of the case he didn't satisfy people's need to hear about it as opposed to doing it. And since he died very early, we will really never know what the final word would have been.

I guess I would be a horrible billionaire too, since my father taught me it is impolite and improper to brag about giving. I can see why Gates does it (publicity is needed to make his goals), but that is not always the case (and sometimes, it messes up what you try).

The part where he cheated his best friend and his daughter out of large sums of money (child support, in his daughter's case) are at least as important to my evaluation of his character as the charity thing.

I have heard that he'd become somewhat less of an asshole in his later years, and I know he reconciled with his daughter at some point. I hadn't heard about stuff coming out after his death, though. I'd like to see a source on that.

yes, there is a huge difference in humanity between someone in who simply misleads about company finances and someone who actively ignores their duty to care for their own children

It’s all in the marketing.

Is there really a controversy that Steve Jobs wasn't "selfish, greedy, and untrustworthy"?

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