
Steve Jobs To Take ‘Medical Leave Of Absence’, Stays On As CEO - transburgh
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/17/steve-jobs-to-take-medical-leave-of-absence-stays-on-as-ceo/
======
laujen
Hope he is okay. If it is pancreatic cancer again, his odds are not good. My
aunt had it, beat it, then it reoccurred four years later. She did not make it
the second time. Only 2% survive. Good luck, Steve. Whether you like Apple or
not, tech is much more interesting with Steve Jobs around.

~~~
acangiano
Truly sorry to hear about your loss. Actual pancreatic cancer is virtually
incurable, and far too few resources are allocated to its research versus less
deadly cancers.

For example, breast cancer affects around 207K people (yes, even men get it,
albeit rarely) and ends up killing around 40K people a year. Pancreatic cancer
affects 43K people, and ends up killing 37K every year. [1]

All cancer research is important, but we should really step up as a society
when it comes to cancers that happens to be a dead sentence over the course of
5 years or so.

I personally donate to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, and you can do
the same here: <http://www.pancan.org/>

[1] <http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/commoncancers>

~~~
fbailey
It's difficult to decide what should be funded, just because you throw money
at a problem doesn't mean a solution will suddenly appear. For a look into the
history of cancer research I recommend [http://www.amazon.com/Emperor-All-
Maladies-Biography-Cancer/...](http://www.amazon.com/Emperor-All-Maladies-
Biography-Cancer/dp/1439107955)

------
archgrove
Steve Jobs will eventually leave Apple. This is a fact. The question becomes
"When he does leave, will Apple be damaged by it"? The press will undoubtedly
claim its demise (as they have been for decades), and 10 years ago I think
this might have been true - the corporate ethics that have made Apple
successful were not in place. Now, with the executive team he's built and
trained, I suspect his presence is vastly less important. The design team with
Ives, operation team with Cook, etc. know what's making things work. He's been
"absent" a lot in the last few years, yet it's been the strongest period for
the company - clearly, something works when he's not at his desk.

The damage will be in PR. He's an almost unrivalled corporate showman, and few
companies are as associated with their CEO as Apple. Whoever gives keynotes in
the future would be wise to develop their own style rather than copy his.
There may also be collateral damage in ruthlessness and vision - we constantly
hear how he drives new products, and kills off "failures" early. However, the
more I read recent interviews with anonymous Apple employees, the more I see
he seems to have reformed the company in his image. It's impossible to gauge
how much actual presence he's had over the last few years, and it seems quite
likely the press have over-egged his effect. As long as his successor is not a
radical corporate reformer, and is willing for a few years to be seen as an
"Heir to Jobs", it seems likely to me things will roll on quite successfully.

I suspect Jobs will "retire" either this or next year. When they replace him,
if they don't promote from within, then any CEO should: absolutely not engage
in a massive expansion/race to the bottom; introduce change slowly rather than
play with Apple like a new toy and; rely on the corporate team that's been
built until they deeply understand what's working and what's not.

In many ways, Job's eventual departure (hopefully based on choice, rather than
necessity) could be good for Apple. I firmly believe a little of his control
freak nature could be sanded off the company to their advantage. They should
drop the "Control for control's sake" direction they've been taking recently,
and stay focused on the core corporate ethics that have bought them success -
a high degree of perfectionism, technical risk taking, user focused design
through everything, and a great marketing team. It won't be exactly the Apple
of today, but given some of the…hostile decisions over the last 3 years, it
might actually be an improvement.

~~~
Tycho
To be honest, I'm not sure I buy the whole greatest corporate showman thing.
In fact I'd even say some of the other Apple execs have a more natural
presence on stage.

I thunk Jobs is successful because the product sells itself in most cases, and
he doesn't (have to) bullshit you. Of course he's also involved in making the
product, which is a different matter.

~~~
davidw
I wonder what he actually _does_ over the course of a week, hour by hour. It'd
certainly be fascinating to be a fly on the wall.

~~~
zachallaun
While not hour-by-hour in any sense, this is the only description I've ever
heard of Jobs' day-to-day activities:

 _“I have one of the best jobs in the world. I get to hang out with some of
the most talented, committed people around and together we get to play in this
sandbox and build these cool products. Apple is an incredibly collaborative
company. You know how many committees we have at Apple? Zero. We’re structured
like a start-up. We’re the biggest start-up on the planet. And we all meet
once a week to discuss our business… and there’s tremendous teamwork at the
top and that filters down to the other employees… and so what I do all day is
meet with teams of people and work on ideas and new problems to come up with
new products.”_

(<http://d8.allthingsd.com/20100601/steve-jobs-session/>)

------
yaakov34
I think we should all take a few moments to reflect on the debt that computer
users and developers everywhere owe to Steve Jobs for his work in these last
few years. Yeah, most of us have our differences with him (I am not a fan of
the "closed garden" approach), but there is no denying that he opened huge new
markets and product categories that all of us will benefit from.

It takes a lot of drive to do that kind of work while having such major
medical troubles. I really believe that what drives him is the desire to give
the next great thing to users, and to take Apple to new heights. Money can't
be the motivator - he's got plenty, and it's probably not at the top of his
list anyway, during such life and death struggles.

Speaking for myself - I recently had some surgery which was nowhere near as
complicated and life-threatening as what he went through - I know I wouldn't
have the drive and commitment to return to work in such a big way, especially
if my family was already taken care of financially. So - thanks to Steve Jobs
and best wishes for his health, and no, I don't think it's right to wish for
him to return to work soon - he will decide how to spend his energy, and he's
already spent more of it at Apple than anybody had the right to ask.

~~~
kadavy
Absolutely. I'm in the mindstate to do this today, as we celebrate one of
history's great leaders (MLK). It may sound like a ridiculous comparison, but
I put the two together as my biggest heroes: people who put their vision for
the future of humanity ahead of their own well-being.

------
wildmXranat
Modern medicine keeps us alive long enough to eventually die of cancer. I lost
my mom a year ago. I wish his family well. It must be tough for them.

~~~
davidu
This. This is one of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of medicine
today.

As a society, we have become exceptionally good at treating pathological
diseases. This is how we know we will eventually cure AIDS because we
fundamentally know how to do this kind of medicine. (And it appears like an
AIDS vaccine, and perhaps even a cure is closer than we think.)

Unfortunately we are terrible at treating any aging-related disease. Diseases
such as those that relate to the fundamental breakdown of the metabolic
process, cancer or Alzheimer's. We just simply don't have the research and
experience to treat these diseases in anything less than a crude way.

For those unaware, Chemotherapy and Radiation are probably some of the least-
precise medical treatments we apply on any broad scale today in modern
medicine. We try to radiate or kill your cancer cells before we kill the rest
of your body. Seriously.

Anyways, more research on aging-related disease is critical if we want people
to keep living longer. If we don't, then we should just focus on pain
management and let people die as they grow older.

~~~
stcredzero
_This. This is one of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of medicine
today._

AFAIK, it's actually true. If we live long enough, we'll all get cancer. In
the case of men, it's a near certainty we'll get prostate cancer if we don't
die of something else first.

Also, 85% of us have Cytomegalovirus, which basically executes a DOS attack on
the memory of your immune system, eventually resulting in immune deficiency.
However, the progression of CMV is so slow, we'll almost certainly die of
cancer before this happens.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
And cancer isn't one condition, it's many many conditions, so if they cured
prostrate cancer you'd likely get another one. The chances of a single "cure
for cancer" is basically zero.

<http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd042009s.gif> gives a nice summary.

------
prs

      "In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy."

~~~
bioh42_2
But he's the CEO of a _publicly traded_ company. And not just any CEO, but
like the soul of Apple.

~~~
cryptoz
What's your point? Don't you think he should have some privacy? The man might
be extremely sick, and at worst could potentially be dying. Why does it matter
if he's the CEO of a publicly traded company? What does that have to do with
his right to privacy when he's ill?

~~~
ayb
I agree that he should have some privacy but as the CEO of one of the largest
publicly traded companies the state of his health is something investors need
to know.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
No, it's something they'd _like_ to know, and would be useful to know, but
there's a difference between that and need to know. So long as everyone
(within reason) has the same information and that information is honest, then
the market is fair because they're all in the same boat.

After all, where would it stop? "Jonny Ive has had a break up with his other
half and is really down, he's meant to be working on the new iPhone but he's
really off his game...". "Inform the shareholders!"

It's similar to the difference between "in the public interest" and "the
public are interested".

~~~
brown9-2
I don't think anyone here is asking for his white blood cell count or wants to
know the name of his doctors and what kind of medication regime he is on.

I would imagine everyone here agrees with his right to privacy on the details
of his illness; however what some of the GPs are saying is simply that the
overall status/summary of his health (i.e. he has cancer, or not) needs to be
disclosed.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
That much information would be basically useless. Saying someone has cancer
could mean anything from "they're going to have a few hospital appointments
but will be fine" to "they'll be dead within a month".

So that's useless to you (unless you're just being morbidly curious in which
case you have no business here anyway) so you'd ask "well, what type?" and
they'd usually say something pretty similar to the last answer so you'd go
"what grade?" and they'd say something pretty similar again - probably
narrower, but maybe not and certainly with very wide error bars which would
cover both death in the short term and survival of 5 years plus (which for
cancer is close to a cure).

So, still none the wiser, certainly in any way that would allow you to better
judge Apple as a company, you'd say "how advanced is it?" and most of the time
the answer would yet again be pretty similar but they'd say that different
people respond to treatment very differently.

So then you'd need to ask "what the treatment protocol is he going to be on?"
and they'd say the same and then you'd ask how's he's responding at which
point you basically _are_ asking for his white blood count (though I believe
that's actually only used to judge whether a patient should have chemo at any
given point in time rather than an indication of success / failure / health as
far as the cancer goes).

He's clearly unwell enough to ask for an extended absence, it's not the flu.
That's all you need to know.

------
corin_

      It’s safe to assume that he’s going to conquer this one as well.
    

Safe to assume that despite not knowing the reason for this leave or how
serious it is? :/

~~~
wlievens
I think it's meant as a courtesy and out of respect, rather than as a hedged
statement.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
Maybe but a simple get well soon and our thoughts are with him and his family
would have been better rather than an unsubstantiated prognosis.

------
antirez
It is vastly impossible to run something like Apple in a successful way with
just an outstanding guy like Jobs, you need N outstanding people. While he is
a for sure a remarkable personality in the computer industry and the "soul" of
Apple, I think they'll be able to succeed even with N-1.

On the other hand, generational turnover is very, very important. Maybe at
some point, even a terrific figure like Jobs may be as bad as it is good for
Apple. For instance, how much big role he played in the culture of closure of
Apple?

So it is even possible that an Apple without Jobs could be, all in all, a
better company.

------
dr_
First of all, on the pancreatic cancer note - what he had was a curable type
of cancer, a rare form, not your typical pancreatic cancer. What really is far
more likely is transplant rejection, and his doctors probably asked him to
take some time off and are going to play around with his immunosuppresant
medications. Just a guess though.

Hopefully he will return because without him Apple really is not the same
company, despite their ability to succesfully execute on their planned
projects. A visionary has to plan for the future, and Steve Jobs isn't just
the CEO of Apple, but kind of a new type of media mogul. He seat on Disneys
board surely holds sway, and Apple is going to need his influence to further
it's push into TV, movies and publications - he is the man, for example,
Murdoch or Igor are going to want to speak to.

I do wish him a speedy recovery.

------
StacyC
Best wishes to Steve and family.

------
noarchy
It is a holiday in the US, today, right? At least, the markets are not open.
The timing of this announcement is almost certainly not a coincidence.

On a more personal note, good luck, Steve!

~~~
aaronbrethorst
Plus, Apple announces earnings after the market closes tomorrow.

~~~
redthrowaway
I just want to let you know that I accidentally downvoted you. I meant to
upvote you, as I think your point is a valid one, but my thumbs are too fat
for my iPhone. Sorry.

~~~
aaronbrethorst
No sweat. Have you tried <http://ihackernews.com>?

~~~
redthrowaway
It loos good, but it's missing the ability to check my comments for responses.
HN really needs to implement reddit's orangereds.

~~~
aaronbrethorst
Notifo. That's how I'm responding within a couple seconds of your posts :)

------
enterneo
I lost my dad on 31st December, 2010. He had a cancer in his rectum, which
eventually reached his lungs. My mom and I are still trying to recover from
our loss :-(

~~~
shortlived
I lost my mom to cancer when I was 20. I can only tell you the truth - it
takes a long time for the pain to _subside_ , but it never truly goes away.
The only thing you can do is to talk with friends and family and to tell
stories about your dad to keep his memory alive. It's been 13 years or so
since then and recently I got married and we had our first kid. We "adopted" a
very good family friend to be a surrogate grandmother to our son, not in
replacement of my mom but just to fill the void.

I know this goes against the ethos of HN, but life is really not about
software. It's about people. Get out there and live life and meet people. A
lot of exercise and playing loud angry music was also really good for me for a
while.

------
zatara
This is a sad day, I wish all the best to Steve and his family.

Maybe this is not the best place to ask, but does anyone know about Steve's
eating habits? I know he was a frutarian at a certain point and then changed
to fish/vegan (particularly sushi), but would really like to know more.

The reason is that I am in need of drastic personal changes regarding
diet/exercise and thus trying to incorporate a vegan/vegetarian diet, which
has been very difficult for me. I know that cancer is a multi-factorial
disease, but it still scares me that some apparently very healthy individuals
(such as Jobs or Linda McCartney) have such tough health problems. I feel very
well when I manage to stick to a vegan diet, but would like to know more about
longterm effects.

~~~
Evgeny
I think whatever you may learn about well-known peoples' eating habits will be
self-reported. It may be beneficial to appear as a vegan or vegetarian, but
we'll never know exactly what do celebrities actually eat. Also, as you noted,
their habits may change during their lifetime.

If you're seriously interested in healthy eating habits, I would suggest to
look at sources or studies on the subject, rather than trying to emulate the
celebrities diets.

------
Tichy
Just today I was thinking of why Jobs works so well for Apple: could it be
that he doesn't let the company become complacent? Every other big company
seems to become complacent. There simply is no need to invent radical new
products if you are still bringing in money by the truckloads. But I could
imagine for Steve Jobs it is not the revenue that makes him happy, it is the
optimum product. So if a product could be better, Apple employees will have
fires under their asses.

Anyway, I wish him well.

------
grammaton
Liver failure killed my mother. Cancer killed my father and grandmother.
They're both ugly, ugly diseases. While I'm not thrilled at the way Jobs used
his money to get himself on as many transplant lists as he could, it's still
not anything I'd wish on anyone.

Best of luck to him and his family.

~~~
Mz
_While I'm not thrilled at the way Jobs used his money to get himself on as
many transplant lists as he could, it's still not anything I'd wish on
anyone._

I have cystic fibrosis, which accounts for a really high percentage of lung
transplants in the U.S. (something like 1/3 of adult and 1/2 of pediatric lung
transplants, IIRC) and people with CF sometimes get other organ transplants as
well. Transplant itself is really hard on the body and then you take anti-
rejection drugs for the rest of your life. Sometimes it doesn't go well and
people die after transplant. The stories are pretty heart-wrenching. I can't
help but feel it is Frankensteinian and I wish there was more research into
preventing and reversing organ degeneration/failure. My feeling is transplant
is kind of "glamorous" and glitzy for the medical world whereas preventive
medicine is boring -- if you avert crisis, there isn't any real "news" to
report: "These people didn't get gruesomely ill and didn't suffer horribly.
Film at 11". It just doesn't sell.

I don't envy anyone facing transplant, money or no money.

~~~
biot

        > Transplant itself is really hard on the body and then
        > you take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of your life. 
    

It would be nice to have genetics research advance to the point where we're
able to grow our own organ replacements. Elsewhere in the comments people have
suggested donating to cancer research. An alternative I would humbly suggest
is donating to organizations that participate in stem cell or other genetic
research.

If conquering cancer is a while off, replacing someone's cancerous organs with
healthy new organs that exactly match their own DNA is a good way to save more
people as cancer research is ongoing. It also has myriad benefits beyond just
cancer such as helping amputees, burn victims, and so on.

~~~
Mz
I used to have a hole in my lung. The tissue regenerated. I'm a former
homemaker and homeschooling mom. Currently a divorcee with an entry level job
I can't get promoted out of. Stating that I have done this and therefore I
know it can be done -- and it doesn't take fancy technology -- is met with
incredulity, to say the least. Suffice it to say, I have strong feelings on
the matter but it's probably best for me to try to leave the subject alone at
the moment.

Peace.

------
cpr
The sad fact is that Apple will never be the same after Jobs.

I think he embodies a unique ability to see the heart of a new technology or
aspect of technology and to focus in on the critical part or parts, ruthlessly
getting to what he sees. It's not just a design sense (like Ive), nor a good
sense of what consumers really "want." And there are plenty of downsides to
this unique gift. (We can all cite plenty of examples.)

I don't think we've seen that from anyone else, even at Apple, over the years,
so there's no real replacement possible.

I think it's even spilled over to Pixar's success, which is pretty amazing.

(Maybe Alan Kay rivals it, in a different world.)

------
js4all
This sounds serious. I wish him all the best.

------
wowfat
Get well soon, Steve!

------
CoachRufus87
Get better, Mr. Jobs.

------
patrickgzill
AAPL is down 7.96% on the Frankfurt bourse (markets closed today in the USA
due to MLK Day) today, see:

[http://www.boerse-
frankfurt.de/EN/index.aspx?pageID=35&I...](http://www.boerse-
frankfurt.de/EN/index.aspx?pageID=35&ISIN=US0378331005)

------
brudgers
> _"It’s safe to assume that he’s going to conquer this one as well."_
    
    
        v = (SteveJobs = immortal || TechCrunch = journalism);
        print v
    
        $> FALSE

~~~
epochwolf
You just assigned SteveJobs to immortal...

~~~
xenophanes
You mean assigned immortal to SteveJobs.

~~~
brudgers
There is a Basic syntax error.

But obviously that is not it.

------
masterponomo
Draft John Sculley?

------
klbarry
Apple stock is about to take a beating :/

~~~
shinkansen
Yep, no doubt. If only for this reason, Apple needs to figure out Apple sans
Jobs.

~~~
laujen
My guess is they have, just not publicly. (Easy to argue the merits of that.)
Pancreatic cancer doesn't leave too many survivors so I am sure the management
team thought a lot about life without steve, at least at that time.

~~~
shinkansen
I agree, but I think it's less of an internal logistics issue and much more of
a public image issue: Steve Jobs is so much the face of Apple as it sits
currently, every time there's news about his health the stock fluctuates and
that isn't good.

