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Comment by MattLaroche | Hacker News Reader

The book The No Asshole Rule talks extensively about Steve, IIRC labeling him a certified asshole and discussing his management style. The conclusion I drew was Steve succeeded in part because he was more often charismatic but people were afraid of disappointing Steve and facing the asshole persona.

Heck, in a way I'm sure it was great working with him - I bet you always knew where you stood.

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It's one thing to be brutally honest with people and quite another to disown your own child, deride subordinates for silly things, destroy people's public reputation and park in multiple spots meant for handicapped people!

People who are honest and disregard the consequences of absolute honesty are an asset in a world filled with people who would lie to keep social ties intact. Assholes on the other hand, not so much.

If you think nobody liked Steve, do you think he would have remained the CEO of Apple? Was he a dictator who couldn't be ousted? He was the best leader for Apple, period. Secondly, if your boss scolds you, sometimes unnecessarily so, but he makes you millions of dollars by leading the company to a 130X increase in stock price, would you mind?? Thirdly, employees in the company love him. I happen to work at Apple right now, and the love I have seen in the employees for Steve, cannot be paralleled for any other leader at any other company. People didn't like his aggressiveness and his abrasiveness, but still loved him and his dedication and leadership, and that he single-handedly led Apple to great success. Genius is idiosyncratic.

You can be an asshole and still have people love you. How do you think dictators typically operate?

No clue about Steve as I never met the dude. But you're implying that just because he is able to turn a hefty profit and that people liked him means is proof he wasn't an asshole.

It's more complicated than whether someone "is an asshole" or not.

I don't think there is necessarily any correlation between being a great businessman and a great human being. Was Jobs the former? Certainly, I don't think anybody would dispute that. Was he the latter? I don't know, and I don't think it's really our place to judge since the facts are pretty murky.

What bothers me slightly is that much of the praise for Jobs seems to equate one with the other. Let's celebrate the man as a visionary entrepreneur, and leave the rest to those that actually knew him.

> Heck, in a way I'm sure it was great working with him - I bet you always knew where you stood.

Under his shoe.

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