There’s no version of this reality where Jobs isn’t a good businessman. You might not like the company or their products, but they’ve somehow managed to build a huge and successful business selling those overpriced toys to tons of people. They managed to create a cult around expensive consumer electronics. That is a massive success no matter how you slice it. And you can’t deny that Jobs played a big part in that.
it was just a gag for comic effect. it wasn’t the breadth and depth of my thoughts and feelings of the digital and manufacturing epochs since the 1980s.
But also, it was kind of begging the question of “is there such thing as a good business man?”
There’s good for /their/ business. But is that- in general - good?
Yeah, Steve Jobs was definitely an asshole, and he didn’t personally design any of his products, but he did know what direction to move things in and what consumers wanted in a phone. He was the first to put a truly usable portable touchscreen computer into our pockets with a phone in it, and every phone nowadays is basically just a reimagined, upgraded version of the first iPhone. The way we communicate is forever changed because of the iPhone.
But yeah iPhone’s are kind of the pinnacle of “how much can we fuck you over before you notice” now. All because of the little Apple on the back of the phone.
There is a story that the concept of touchscreen phones was stolen from a Nokia engineer who tried to get nokia to produce them but the feature was dismissed as a ‘gimmick’.
Jesus I’m no Elon fan but how many companies do you have to take from a couple million to hundreds of billions before you’re good at your job?
What is it with modern society and the need to reduce everything about a person just because they’re a POS? He might be evil but he’s clearly pretty good at being a businessman or you wouldn’t even know his name.
While he has had some success, he’s also demonstrably been a glory hog benefiting from crazy good luck.
He had an Internet company during the first dot com boom. He got a bunch of cash from Compaq for effectively nothing, because businesses had to snap up anything vaguely Internet. Right place at right time, basically won a lottery.
So then he founded an Internet bank. But want allowed to lead it, no matter, either way it was overshadowed by PayPal, which was a runaway success. Somehow he managed a merger with him being put in charge of the joint company. Then he almost tanked it and was put aside to salvage the company. However, he managed to be popularly thought of as “the PayPal guy”
He founded SpaceX. Off the top of my head, that one seems fair enough.
Then you have Tesla, which existed prior to him Knowing about it, yet he still insisted on being called a founder. It’s possible that without him, Tesla wouldn’t have gone far, but either way, he’s been a glory hog about it to the point of again getting himself framed as “the” Tesla guy.
Also in the case of Tesla, it was a company entering a market with virtually zero competition. Compare the available fully electric cars of 2013-4 and take a wild guess as to which consumers were drooling over: the one that looks like an actual car or ones that screams “eco-friendly toy” (Mitsubishi i, Nissan Leaf)?
So elon but a good businessman
Salesman
without the good, or the (hu)man(ity)
There’s no version of this reality where Jobs isn’t a good businessman. You might not like the company or their products, but they’ve somehow managed to build a huge and successful business selling those overpriced toys to tons of people. They managed to create a cult around expensive consumer electronics. That is a massive success no matter how you slice it. And you can’t deny that Jobs played a big part in that.
The weird thing is that Apple without Jobs was a failure, but also Jobs without Apple was also a failure.
it was just a gag for comic effect. it wasn’t the breadth and depth of my thoughts and feelings of the digital and manufacturing epochs since the 1980s.
But also, it was kind of begging the question of “is there such thing as a good business man?”
There’s good for /their/ business. But is that- in general - good?
Does the current head of Larian Studios count as a businessman? If so, that’s one I would consider good for the company AND the consumers
Also you can tie it directly to Jobs, because when he was gone for a bit, apple fuckin tanked, and then he came back and they came out with the iPod.
That’s not an accident.
Yeah, Steve Jobs was definitely an asshole, and he didn’t personally design any of his products, but he did know what direction to move things in and what consumers wanted in a phone. He was the first to put a truly usable portable touchscreen computer into our pockets with a phone in it, and every phone nowadays is basically just a reimagined, upgraded version of the first iPhone. The way we communicate is forever changed because of the iPhone.
But yeah iPhone’s are kind of the pinnacle of “how much can we fuck you over before you notice” now. All because of the little Apple on the back of the phone.
There is a story that the concept of touchscreen phones was stolen from a Nokia engineer who tried to get nokia to produce them but the feature was dismissed as a ‘gimmick’.
I could believe that too tbh
He didn’t know what customers wanted in a phone.
He knew what customers would want in a phone when they were taught about its existence.
The customers had no idea they would want it before he showed it to them.
Jesus I’m no Elon fan but how many companies do you have to take from a couple million to hundreds of billions before you’re good at your job?
What is it with modern society and the need to reduce everything about a person just because they’re a POS? He might be evil but he’s clearly pretty good at being a businessman or you wouldn’t even know his name.
Being a succsessful businessman does not make one a good businessman. Half of the equation is ethics, because it fucking matters.
A successful businessman with bad ethics and an unsuccsessful one with good ethics are both bad businessmen.
The only good businessman is one who both succeeds and has good ethics.
While he has had some success, he’s also demonstrably been a glory hog benefiting from crazy good luck.
He had an Internet company during the first dot com boom. He got a bunch of cash from Compaq for effectively nothing, because businesses had to snap up anything vaguely Internet. Right place at right time, basically won a lottery.
So then he founded an Internet bank. But want allowed to lead it, no matter, either way it was overshadowed by PayPal, which was a runaway success. Somehow he managed a merger with him being put in charge of the joint company. Then he almost tanked it and was put aside to salvage the company. However, he managed to be popularly thought of as “the PayPal guy”
He founded SpaceX. Off the top of my head, that one seems fair enough.
Then you have Tesla, which existed prior to him Knowing about it, yet he still insisted on being called a founder. It’s possible that without him, Tesla wouldn’t have gone far, but either way, he’s been a glory hog about it to the point of again getting himself framed as “the” Tesla guy.
Also in the case of Tesla, it was a company entering a market with virtually zero competition. Compare the available fully electric cars of 2013-4 and take a wild guess as to which consumers were drooling over: the one that looks like an actual car or ones that screams “eco-friendly toy” (Mitsubishi i, Nissan Leaf)?