
Ask HN: Do you miss Steve Jobs in 2020? - behnamoh
Some people worked with him, many people knew him, and millions of people heard his name and saw his achievements. Do you miss him now? What would he do if he were still alive?
======
elamje
One of the most important things I’ve ever heard.

“When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and
your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the
walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.
That's a very limited life.

Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around
you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you.
And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you'll never
be the same again.”

\- Steve Jobs

~~~
jjeaff
"that's a very limited life".

That's one man's opinion. Likely an unhappy man's opinion.

In Isaacson's biography of jobs, he said that his last wishes before he died
was to get to know his children better. Maybe he changed his mind.

~~~
dntbnmpls
> That's one man's opinion. Likely an unhappy man's opinion.

Looks like it touched a nerve, but I think you are reading too much into it.
It's a very limited life by definition as it's the life that's formulated for
you by society. Accepting things are the way they are because you are told so
and living your life accordingly is a limited life. Especially compared to his
definition of the "broader life". Don't think he meant it's the life everyone
wants or should lead or that you should feel bad or insecure about it.

Also his fact is very insightful : "one simple fact: Everything around you
that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And
you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you'll never be
the same again."

~~~
jjeaff
My opinion of his level of happiness in life was not based on that single
comment he made. I am basing it reports from a lot of people that knew him.
The consensus seems to be that he ignored his children, was quite terrible
towards some of them and that he was rather emotionally and verbally abusive
to his employees and those that worked with him (good traits like his genius
not withstanding). Seems unhappy to me.

------
qubex
For me he was a remote public figure with a cult of personality and a
decidedly iffy reputation (throwing things, being abusive, _& cetera_).
Certainly he presided over the restructuring of a large company and launch of
some very innovative products — but does that make him venerable? Not in my
mind, no.

I’m going to admit I’d be _curious_ to know what he’d do in this world
(because as another poster eloquently puts it, we have no idea what he would
be doing), but other than that... no.

I’m sure his family miss him though and I am not being dismissive of their
anguish and sorrow.

~~~
behnamoh
Yeah it'd be interesting to see his actions in this crazy time. But on top of
that, I think many people looked at him as a role model, and with his smile,
optimism, and insatiable mind, his presence could definitely have a positive
impact on our morale.

~~~
skinnymuch
Smile? Hard to believe he didn’t frown, growl, and scream more than smiling.

------
yesenadam
Probably everyone's seen this, but if you haven't..I thought it was very
funny. Didn't know much about Jobs until recently, but watched _Steve Jobs:
The Man in the Machine_ and _Pirates of Silicon Valley_ and some other stuff
shortly before seeing this – and thought "Ohh - he was Joe McMillan in _Halt
and Catch Fire_ , only Joe evolved into a decent guy" – and it seems pretty
factually accurate at least :

Bill Burr on Steve Jobs (5 mins)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3s-qZsjK8I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3s-qZsjK8I)

p.s. My answer is No, I didn't know the guy. Strange question. List of dead
people I miss: my mother.

~~~
realtalk_sp
Joe McMillan was one of my all time favorite character arcs in any show
period. That final scene in the series is something I'll never forget.

Given what we've been told about Jobs, it's very unlikely he achieved the same
degree of self-actualization by the end of his life. And, if I had to guess,
it's because he, quite ironically, never quite found the "thing" that
computers get you to. He was perpetually chasing an elusive frontier of
progress, at the expense of his soul.

------
dhab
i think the word "miss" is raising/idolising his personality. I didn't know
Steve, but based on what I have been exposed to about him, he was a person I
would dislike a lot, but, how he appears to have shaped some products is
impressive. It's hard to tell if it was he genius, or if he was lucky or
combination of both along with other factors, however seems he had the
required chops.

I think we should not conflate people's perceived excellence in work life with
their personality, and extrapolate "success" to mean they were also great
personalities. I don't miss Steve, and hope someone/something knocks Apple to
their senses to stop abusing (over-charging).

------
ultrarunner
I certainly miss the era. Maybe that’s more about me and how I related to what
was happening in the tech scene. Maybe it’s because the focus was in a
different place.

But yes, in a sense, I do.

~~~
behnamoh
I miss that time too. The smartphone revolution has been the best thing the
world has seen ever since the Internet. I wonder when the next big thing
arrives.

~~~
Nevermark
I sure wish Steve had lived to create the great TV interface he was
enthusiastic about.

I want my "wall screen" to let me same-screen collaborate with others in the
same room, since we can all see it. I want room level video conferencing to be
easier.

I want a gesture based user interface, or some other interface that allows for
complex applications being used by one person or multiple people
collaborating. Not a little TV remote.

Watching videos should be like phone calls, still important but a fraction of
what a computing device can do.

\----

I also think Steve is rolling over in his grave while Tim Cook says "yes" to
producing TV shows. What a waste - work that many other companies already do,
and which Apple is an un-innovative follower from the beginning.

------
isabelc
Yesterday, I found myself wondering if Steve Jobs would be on board with
Apple's current position in which they're asking employees to return to work
in the offices soon, or if he'd be like Twitter and allow most employees to
work from home indefinitely.

~~~
s-km
The dude believed in a bunch of random quackery and essentially killed himself
because of it. Was diagnosed with some kind of rare cancerous tumor and
ignored it for months, trying out veganism and fad diets for some reason
instead of just listening to his doctors.

I'm pretty Jobs would be doing the exact same stupid shit Musk is, just
without the weird twitter meltdowns I guess.

------
uvw
I don't. Why would I miss him? Thousands came before him and thousands will
after. They have and they will achieve important things, but will be forgotten
in the end.

~~~
jiux
>but will be forgotten in the end.

We all get one song called life and it is meant to be danced to while it is
still playing. Have you ever asked yourself: “am I dancing?”

~~~
uvw
I am too old to care about anyone else's expections of me. I am living the way
I want to live. And this life is not so precious as everyone seem to think.

~~~
Koshkin
But beyond life we have _nothing_. ( _Something_ is infinitely more than
zero.)

------
sriram_malhar
I like nice things, and I like them 10x more if they are were built by people
who are happy (to the extent we know), and kind. Like Fred Rogers and his
show, Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, Akio Morita and Sony, Stephen Fry and QI,
the list is endless.

I don't miss the likes of Steve Jobs, no matter what he put together. The
talent of Wozniak and Jony Ive and scores of others at Apple would have been
discovered and given joy in other ways. Kindness before product evolution.

------
zelienople
Yes, desperately. For two reasons.

(1) Steve placed the highest priority on optimizing the user experience.

(2) He was a benevolent dictator. Software requires someone to trash the code
and the people who write it when it is bad. No one likes it when someone does
this, but it is necessary.

Now we have change for the sake of change. Interfaces get redesigned because
someone wants to leave their mark, not because it improves usability.

We have things constantly being redesigned to optimize profit and claim turf,
even at the expense of an optimal user experience.

And we have a load of buggy, undocumented, poorly-thought-out APIs that
exclude the most crucial functionality because someone figured out a way to
make a few extra pennies per unit.

We have some of the best hardware ever created, like the iPad Pro, that you
can't use for any meaningful, creative or intelligent purpose because of
artificial limitations.

------
eschutte2
Yes. What would he do? No idea. That's why I miss him.

------
talmr
I miss his enthusiasm and true innovation focused leadership.

Apple is a behemoth now, and I wonder what sort of products we would have if
he was still here.

The iPhone changed our lives, but a decade later all phones now look like the
iPhone and we have face unlock and a notch. Cool.

The Macbook is still the same pleasant to use machine, and still functions as
any other laptop.

Would the iPad have replaced laptops completely? Maybe we'd have a world in
which offloading everyday heavy tasks to the cloud (gaming, video editing,
etc.) was super normal and we all were disconnected from carrying heavy
devices everywhere. The new VSC integration in GitHub is cool, but maybe that
sort of paradigm would have been everywhere.

I'm just a consumer, so I could be wrong in my sentiment but I don't really
feel like we progressed as much in the last decade as we did with the jump
from flip phones and having a land line, to carrying iPhones in our pockets.

------
WorldPeas
I was never really partial to him when he was alive, especially because the
glorification of his person devalued the achievements of those in his teams,
but now I miss that quirky sort of utilitarian design he pushed. Especially
because he never would have stood for the abomination that is current mac i/o
and build quality.

------
galoisgirl
I miss my friends and family. Jobs is pretty low on my list right now.

------
megalottachoc
Not at all.

The last time I heard from him personally was when he threatened Google's VP9
with a patent pool from MPEG-LA.

Later that year, MPEG-LA released a statement they won't be going after VP9.

------
jenkstom
I wonder how many people at Apple wake up every morning thanking the universe
that he's gone and they never have to deal with him again?

------
dancemethis
No. He made people that much more gullible to proprietary platforms, and
technology went into a particularly bleak route because of individuals like
him.

Not happy he's dead, either. He could have apologized and lived as a better
person.

------
cvaidya1986
Yes. Apple would be in home robotics, cars, online education and rockets.

------
ksec
In a way yes. I often ponder on what he would do, which we will never know. As
he was the only product guy that understands products and user better than
anyone else. And on a CEO level, he was the only person who would admit
mistake and change course. Something extremely rare in any large cooperation.

Would he have preferred the Butterfly / Current Magic Keyboard with awful low
key travel. After all he was the one who wanted MacBook to be Thinkpad like
because of the keyboard. Why make MacBook like Tablet, when it should have a
_perfect_ PC keyboard with decent key travel.

We wouldn't have to wait 3 years before the whole Keyboard thing was done.

Would he have trusted Iovine? He knew Iovine way before Apple Music, but he
never bought him in to Apple. Even when Iovine was trying to sell him Beats,
he didn't buy it. Would he have been sold to the god damn stupid "next song"
idea like Eddy Cue did. At least I am glad those awful quality Beats
headphones did not end up on Apple's speaker and Headphones.

May be Apple Music would have been way better designed.

Scott Forstall wouldn't have left. Jony Ive wouldn't have made iOS 7, and
Apple spend the next 3 to 4 years trying to fix or revert all the damage that
has done to its UI.

Where is the "real" Apple TV?

He understand Media possibly better than anyone currently at Apple. Would he
have still ventured into Apple TV+ making TV series? Directly competing with
Disney and Netflix? Just a note Disney+ is on course to achieve its 2024
target by end of 2020. That is 4 years ahead of its ( relatively conservative
) estimate.

Steve's Apple era worked with relatively tiny R&D. He just didn't have the
luxury of insane amount of money and cash flow. Apple in 2011 had a market cap
of $300B, and he was already investing to Apple SoC, larger iPhone ( iPhone 6
), iPad and iCloud. Apple today has a lot more people on payroll, but the pace
of innovation, or improvement to be precise, is rather slow.

Would Apple Store's opening be accelerated instead of being slowed down? The
number of Apple Store growth between Apple having 400M iPhone user and now
possibly 1B user ( They haven't announced it yet ) has been minimal. All while
Apple is having a much larger product line. Ever since Johnson left, Apple
didn't have proper person in charge of Retail. The guy from Dixon was a fad (
As anyone from UK would have known ) and Angela clearly dont understand Apple
or tech. The fist thing Deidre O’Brien did when she is in charge.. surprise
surprise revert some of the changes made during Angela era. Again in the
nearly 10 years, it seems no one apart from Steve Jobs or Johnson actually
understands Apple Retail.

Apple wouldn't have played so long with Intel on their modem. Would Steve have
settled out their Qualcomm modem legal battle way earlier? Instead of waiting
4 years all while getting apparently the same results as Qualcomm have always
had. And Steve is a guy who understand and valued the importance of patents.

In a way I think once Steve passed away, Apple started to fall apart, lots of
old folks finally ( or suddenly ) got tired and left. Once the RDF generator
was gone, things were a little messy. Tim Cook did a brilliant job holding
everything intact. And constantly reminding everyone why Steve created Apple
and what Apple stood for. But it was never the same Apple again, and possibly
never will be.

I miss him.

~~~
danielscrubs
I like to think Steve Jobs where focused on minimising personal annoyances
instead of being data driven with focus on money, camera resolution, media
views, or whatever else.

I remember that "It just works" was never an official slogan (and they've had
tons of them) but something their customers came up with that stuck.

I struggle with the fingerprint reader on my 2019 Samsung-mobile every day and
I'm quite sure Samsung CEO aren't using their own products before release.

So yeah, I miss him also.

PS. I was a manager once and had a designer that I should have fired, but
didn't have the heart to do so. I think it takes a special kind of person that
doesn't have too much empathy to succeed in changing the world as a CEO, so
I'm not sure I'd liked to work directly under him, but I can still admire him.
:)

PPS. The current "It just works" is my LG-TV with WebOS, way less annoyances
than Samsung and Sony.

~~~
ksec
Yes, Yes, Yes. Agree on every point. Especially on the It just work.

I was once a product manager as well. It isn't as simple as the internet said
about telling designer and sales to do the job. You will have to sell them the
vision. And that is hard on its own. And I have similar experience with
empathy as well. Firing is hard and cold. Being able to rally insanely great
talent around him is a skillset so rare that there aren't many in _any_
industry.

On the subject of TV, what are your annoyances with Samsung and Sony, just out
of a matter of interest.

~~~
danielscrubs
I definitely could have handled the designer better, but what happened was
that she as a consultant was put on two different projects at the same time,
50% time was to be allocated for each... Let's just say she cut some corners
at our. At the time I gave her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she just didn't
have talent? Who am I to say what looks great or not, I can't even draw a
stick figure. Couple that with that I was the technical project manager and we
had another non-tech project manager so she fell through the cracks so to
speak. But hindsight is 20/20.

My last Sony would take around half a minute from power-saving mode to
allowing me to use the remote. A popup box would come up telling me to wait if
I tried, the thing is that I just wanted to switch channel and drop the
remote, but instead I'd take the remote and click on the "On"-button, drop it
and look at my phone and try to count to 30 sec in my head (there was no
indication on when I was allowed to use it, you just had to know by
experience) before I take the remote again and click on the channel switch
button, and then wait for the UI to popup...

Samsung recently tweeted that users should check their TV with their antivirus
software from time to time by going into a menu...

It's just those small annoyances that grows over time that no reviewer is
going to catch, because it's never an annoyance the first time you use it.

------
alphachloride
No.

