Is Jobs a hero?

[7StringedBeast]

Rumbo said he wouldnt' consider firefighters heros in an above post.

[Millais]

As much as I hate to say something negative in the wake of someone's death, I've been pretty irked by the blind hyperbole that seems to be coming from everyone these days about Jobs. On one hand, you have people protesting in the streets about corporate greed and economic justice. On the other, you have (many of the same people) deifying a billionaire who charged astronomical amounts for products which were cheaply made by outsourced labor and who, as far as I know, never gave a single penny to charity and whose company never supported a single philanthropic organization.  In a time when people seem to be less and less impressed with elites, you have a text book example of a capitalist who just doesn't give a fuck about anyone being heralded as the leader of a generation or somethingorother.

I guess, in the end, people are judged more by what they did then what they didn't do. Jobs made something a lot of people wanted, and because of that he's going to be remembered.

very very good point. Bill Gates, I don't want to compare them, but doesn't he give 5% of his wealth away every year and has set up numerous charities?

[AcidLameLTE]

In reference to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:

"To maintain its status as a charitable foundation, it must donate at least 5% of its assets each year.[17] Thus the donations from the foundation each year would amount to over US$1.5 billion at a minimum."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates_Foundation#Activities

[rumborak]

Who's saying 9/11 firefighters aren't heroes?

I kinda sorta was, but I retract that statement. I think what bothers me a bit is how this label was then applied to every single firefighter in this country.

rumborak

[Scheavo]

Can someone please explain to me what Steve Jobs is supposed to have done which is so revolutionary and life-changing? I honestly don't get it at all. It's like people are giving jobs credit for all technological innovation.

[Riceball]

Can someone please explain to me what Steve Jobs is supposed to have done which is so revolutionary and life-changing? I honestly don't get it at all. It's like people are giving jobs credit for all technological innovation.

He was just very good at packaging a product up in a nice looking package (I'm not talking about the physical packaging, I'm talking about the user interface, the functionality, the simplicity etc) and selling it. In my mind, he sold branding as much as he sold computers.

I guess one innovation, or at least the commercialisation of an innovation, was the iTunes & iPod combo. That was revolutionary, and commercialised digital music when people were saying it would likely never be done.

But this is besides the point. I don't think anyone in the thread has really got what I was trying to say lol. The word "hero" doesn't matter, its the fact that when you break it down, Jobs did what countless other capitalists have done in history - made mad bank - and yet, he isn't derided for it like most other capitalists are.

[Scheavo]

Well, I think we're talking about similiar things in the end.

He was just very good at packaging a product up in a nice looking package (I'm not talking about the physical packaging, I'm talking about the user interface, the functionality, the simplicity etc) and selling it. In my mind, he sold branding as much as he sold computers.

This is pretty much my take on it, though personally I think this is rather meaningless.

I see digital music more as a natural result of emerging technologies than some great mastermind at work. Storage, battery, and audio technology had to get small enough to where it was feasible, and Steve jobs had nothing to do with that. He was the best one, at the time, to jump on the opportunity, but I think it's a little wrong to say that without him, the opportunity wouldn't have been taken. Influential he was, but influential in one area of the market, in one small portion of our lives. Taking it all in, I guess I'm really as confused as you are over the idolic reaction to his life.

[Ħ]

Don't call Steve Jobs a hero. Do you know who the real heroes are? The guys who wake up every morning and go into their normal jobs and get a distress call from the commissioner and take off their glasses and change into capes and fly around, fighting crime. Those are the real heroes.

[rumborak]

The really questionable part is that most people give him the Jesus/hero status for his iPhone stuff. Whereas, I think that was really just a genius marketing strategy (the pieces were all around in various parts beforehand). His work on the Apple II is what made him really important, but nobody gives a rat's ass about that.

rumborak

[livehard]

I think the iphone was really a great sell because of the idea, not just the marketing.  However, is he who we should be giving credit to? Who came up with the idea?  Its tough to figure out who did what... Ya know?

[antigoon]

Honest question: Did Jobs actually design anything? Or was he more of a director throughout his whole career?