Steve Jobs has just announced he’s taking medical leave from the company. Tim Cook will take over his role in Jobs’ absence. “At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company,” Jobs writes, “I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.” We wish all the best to Jobs and his family.
What a thing to wake up to on a Monday morning.
Yeah, the tragedy of someone taking a sick leave.
DO you know him? Is he your relative? No? THen there are far worse off people in the world, maybe some re-evaluation of priorities may be in order.
I guess, like Kim Jong-Il or Christ, he’s a relative of us all.
Yeah, but I’m guessing most other well-adjusted humans have closer feelings to people they are more closely related to due to a large number of intimate shared experiences and the creation over time of a mutual support system.
However, on a technology site and when discussing Apple, I’m not sure you could make an assumption.
Don’t know him but I am capable of fellow feeling for anybody. My priorities are fine thank you very much kid.
Kid? thanks for the compliment, but I’m 39, and back on topic, one of the richest men in the world have more than enough people to look out for him. Just because he’s Steve Jobs doesn’t mean he’s anyone special.
Edited 2011-01-17 15:10 UTC
I would say that just the fact that you have bothered to post in here — more than once — means he is special enough to get your attention.
Just saying.
No, actually, I was responding to Duke, so maybe Duke is, but not Steve Jobs
But you had to come here on your own first to respond to Duke’s original comment. If you truly feel that Jobs is “nobody special” why bother coming into the comment space in the first place? Why not skip over the story entirely if it didn’t interest you? That was my point, though I wonder why I should have to explain it in such an elementary fashion to you.
Because he’s a kid, as someone wrote above
Bluenosejake: correct me if I’m wrong, but when you say “nothing special” you are referring to the fact that his life and his health are no more valuable than anyone else’s. Correct? in which case I wholeheartedly agree with you.
You can feel bad for someone being sick while at the same time realizing that their sickness is no more important that anyone else’s. There are people becoming sick, dying, and being injured is absolutely horrible ways constantly around the world. To zero in on one celebrity CEO and feel like <whining>this is just a really bad way to start my work week</whining> is naive and selfish.
Not sure why you are talking to BluenoseJake in a response to me, but I’ll take the opportunity to weigh in with my opinion on the overall matter.
I’m pretty much in agreement with you (and to a lesser degree, BluenoseJake): In the grand scheme of things, Jobs doesn’t really matter. I’d be more concerned about a sick family member or friend than him. I would venture to say that his illness is noteworthy, but not necessarily newsworthy. Of course, I’m sure this is why it was in the “page 2” column of OSAlert rather than the main feed. And as others have said, it would have some bearing on those who hold Apple stock.
And as for why I’m here, well I do tend to follow Apple news so I was interested enough to take a peek.
You guys who are apparently incapable of feeling any empathy for another person, no matter who it is, are total assholes.
No, we “assholes” just empathize with all people, not just CEO’s of powerful computer companies. There’s not a single one of us who wishes bad things for Mr. Jobs.
Hey, now.
Speak for yourself.
I wish bad things on evil people… until they cease being evil.
Once he’s no longer evil (if that day ever comes) I’ll feel differently.
You’d feel sad if Kim Jung Il got cancer?
I wouldn’t.
When I walked to work today I saw numerous people ,including whole families, sleeping on the street and scavenging trash for food and clothing. Those are great tragedies. Steve Jobs going on sick leave, not so much,
Even if you don’t accept it, Steve Jobs is a force in the technology market. He saved Apple from the brink of disaster and turned his company around by implenting his vision.
So if Steve Jobs is sick, it will send a shock to the market. People will be wondering if Apple can survive without him. Plus, he’s a fellow human being.
Wait, don’t you mean “exceptional individual”? I didn’t think we were allowed to say “special” anymore…
He might have mistaken you for a kid because you’re acting like a bitter one.
Why are you so combative? It’s completely unnecessary.
How am I being combative? Because I think that Steve Jobs is just a guy? That Apple makes consumer electronics, and not life choices? That the unhealthy view of Steve Jobs as saviour of Apple is kinda dangerous for Apple? Or is it because I think that there are many more people who have it a lot worse than Steve Jobs?
I’m not bitter, and I’m not a kid, perhaps I have more immediate concerns. I didn’t curse, I didn’t call Dukes stupid, or an asshole, I just asked him If he knew Jobs personally.
This doesn’t sound bitter to me, or combative. Maybe judgmental, but bitter and combative? Come on. I feel a lot of compassion for a lot of people, but tend to feel it for people who need it. Steve Jobs doesn’t
While what you say is true, that there are many people ailing, that there are others closer to us to be concerned about, it goes without saying. i.e., it didn’t need to be said.
The guy was just expressing sympathy to another human being, and yeah, you sounded rude and combative.
If you didn’t mean it this way, perhaps you should write a little less conversationally.
How about all those that are sick and do not have anything to do with apple? Any comment for those? Why is this especially deserving of comment?
Not that you can’t feel bad for him, but your comment has the tone that this is a great tragedy…
Edited 2011-01-17 16:05 UTC
Cranky much?
I’d say anyone owning Apple stock will probably be personally affected by this…
Yeah, not kidding. Someone displaying basic human empathy for another human being not in your pre-approved list of people? Not in your watch!
You know, I used to think that Apple would be severely crippled when the day comes that they lose Jobs but now I’m not so certain. It seems that Apple has finally grown beyond just being “Steve’s company” to an all out Goliath that dominates every market it touches. While I hate to see him have health problems, I do believe that his temporary(?) leave of absence will go largely unnoticed by the hoards of fickle Apple fans out there.
in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg.
See refer to following sites for further information:
http://www.tijd.be/nieuws/ondernemingen_media/Apple_neemt_met_iPad_…
http://www.tijd.be/nieuws/ondernemingen_media/NRC-_Wij_willen_geen_…
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2423098/vvd-wil-onderzoek-ipad-beleid-app…
http://www.tijd.be/nieuws/ondernemingen_media/Van_Quickenborne_gela…
@Thom: didn’t you receive my eMail
tot ziens
pica
DANCE.
DANCE.
DANCE.
STOP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYCU6wXZkIA
You are a vile human-being.
You’re welcome?
HA! Nice comic relief – much needed. Don’t know why I even looked at the comment section on this one – i knew something like this would happen. Cheers
Linux is my main OS. Apple as a company kind of gives me the creeps – though iPads and Macbook Pros sure are shiny!
Anyhoo, People != Corporations. Companies can be quite soul-less. People, not so much. I hope he gets well, and pray the best for him.
People are the soul of corporations. A corporation does not have a soul itself. And soul-less people at the top of a corporation just make it a soul-less corporation.
Yes, as for all livings.
pica
Corporations are inherently soul-less since they are not living things and there are no soulful corporations. This is not a bad thing, btw.
There are however both soul-less and soulful people.
I didn’t want to go that far – I think corporations can have something similar to a soul, a persona if you will. However, it certainly is fleeting.
BTW, this is pretty heavy for a Monday!
The cold and harsh reality of the world is that some people are more important than others, and hence, get more attention and/or sympathy. It sucks, but it’s the way things are.
I agree that Steve Jobs is very important for his family and friends, but if you put things in the right perspective he is just a man with more money than the average person.
I would not put him in the same league as Albert Einstein, James Watt, Alexander Graham Bell, Nikolai Tesla, Thomas Edison, …etc. People like those laid out the foundations of the modern science and technology.
Steve Jobs has made lots of money, but as a man he is still insignificant and history will not remember him.
Yeah, they will remember linus torvalds. LOL
Nobody is setting Steve Jobs in the same league as Albert Einstein… Though I would not set Thomas Edison in Einstein’s league neither….
Anyway, how can you say that Steve Jobs will not be remembered? He WROTE the history of personal computing bringing his vision to our homes. Ok, you can argue a lot on the asserts I did, but without Steve Jobs, probably computing science would be still bored and elitist for most of the people.
Edited 2011-01-17 22:02 UTC
I’d put him in with Henry Ford.
Created a product that improved on what was out there, made everyone want it, and is a horrible person. (Ford was an outspoken anti-Semite)
… and to the employees of Apple.
Just go on the street and ask people who was Edison and what he did to the world ?
Well your list is quiet strange. So how about:
Zuse, Moore and Bushnell.
Without those guys todays life would be very different.
Oh, I am pretty sure, one or two will remember him w.r.t. the Apple I or Apple II and computer history.
Be callous or insensitive. Let’s not eulogize or demonize one sigle man (who is a stranger to most of us) even for the sake of being ‘witty’ or ‘funny’. Steve is not a cult figure. As far as I have seen among my friends who are ‘often’ loyal to the point of fanaticism. We do not worship ‘The Steve’. However I remember OS 7(and earlier) and the depths of despair in the 90’s about where that company was going. And I think that it was obvious. Apple circa 96-98 was irrelevant. When SJ returned all he did was what any proud company owner would have done, and that is to make his company a proud brand. The current version of Apple the Company and Mac OS, the Software, and I guess the phone and iTunes and their stores is not about SJ. It is about an ecosystem of focused tools that do one thing well. (in the case of the Phone that might not be calls -Talking to YOU ATT).
Turning that company image from shit to sunshine, and from proprietary to standards seemed impossible at the time. (I sure as heck would not have wanted his job in 96) Apple is NOT Magic that string of success was a well driven team effort.
Apple today has the OS (Best Unix for general daily use-imho) and the development tools to keep the momentum going. It has year over year market increases and while It has some decisions that I really do not like i.e. .Mac/Mobile Me – “Pay-to-Play” cloud computing, isn’t that what companies want. Or will eventually give us?
Lastly if this is the end, and I really hope it isn’t maybe Apple (the board and the company) can find a replacement that is not so easy to demonize or sanctify. Apple is a company and as long as it behaves like a proper company then I will support it.
(*disclaimer I am and will remain an Apple Stockholder*)
I think it’s callous and insensitive to not acknowledge that this man is _evil_ and little he’s done (particularly in the past decade) hasn’t harmed others.
He’s an awful person, and while I’d feel much sympathy for him were he to have mended his ways, he hasn’t.
I feel sympathy for his family, in part because he’s evil, and they have to deal with _that_.
It’s sad to lose someone you love, particularly when they’ve left a legacy this awful.
I think it’s callous and insensitive to go so far off-topic.
It is always easy to throw around words, but what have you done in the past ten years especially. If he is Evil that is between him and his interpretation of a higher power.
The old “I Cringley” site on PBS used to say on it’s board rule #1 be more funny.
I lost my aunt to Pancreatic Cancer.
Ah, moral relativism.
…nah.
I lost my grandmother to progressive dementia. If he had that, I’d still do the happy dance.
Oh, and it’s not off-topic to call an evil man ‘evil’, and say I’m happy that bad things are happening to him while he’s still evil.
For all we know, it’s his awful bitterness that’s keeping him from getting well.
“oh, but he meditates” Yeah, well if you’re still raging when your competitors best you, and refuse to see reality and facts you certainly don’t have ‘right view’.
He’s an awful person. I hope that changes. Until it does, I’ll be glad anything bad happens to him.
Edited 2011-01-17 19:54 UTC
“… the art of swordsmanship distinguishes between the sword that kills and the sword that gives life. The one that is used by a technician cannot go any further than killing…. The case is altogether different with the one who is compelled to lift the sword. For it is really not he but the sword itself that does the killing. He had no desire to harm anybody, but the enemy appears and makes himself a victim. It is though the sword automatically performs its function of justice, which is the function of mercy^aEUR|. the swordsman turns into an artist of the first grade, engaged in producing a work of genuine originality.”
He’s not an evil man. He’s just wildly succesful and playing the money & power game.
Patents are evil.
The ‘App Store’ policies hurt the users’ freedom.
The devices he pushes have policies that take ownership away from the users.
The iFoo products have notices on their boxes that if one opens said box they agree to a contract _inside_ the box. That’s not even _legal_, but they’re big enough to get away with it.
It’s evil.
He pushes it.
He’s evil.
You clearly have no idea what real evil is.
It’s a relative term.
He also killed the DRM for the itunes music store. Truly evil
What are your sources? I think you’re just green with envy, and far less of a man than he is. Yes, he’s a man: a sick man, physically. Sure, one with lots of money. Seriously, though: how many people has he helped be gainfully employed? Has he killed anyone? Do you have evidence he’s had a pattern of cheating people? Has he abused his wife and kids? I’ve not read of anything that’d say that he has: just because some number of Foxconn workers have committed suicide (statistically, fewer for the given population of workers than Americans that commit suicide) does not make him evil. Just because he’s had to fire or lay off employees in the past does not make him evil: that’s business, and business requires not being too soft on people that aren’t doing as well as they need to be, in order to keep the whole entity from failing, which would cause the loss of far more gainful employment.
Is he perfect and does he walk in water (unless frozen)? NO! From your line of comments, it’s clear you’re a very petty person, and you’re an opportunistic vulture, and a troll, as you’ve got absolutely nothing thus far in this thread to backup your wild assertions, and I’d be incredibly surprised if you did try to cite any sources. Everyone makes mistakes, myself, you, and Steve, too, and sometimes we hurt people without meaning to, but you’re attempting to go out of your way to be hurtful, so who do you think you’re convincing you’re correct?
Seriously, it’s obvious by now the guy’s health is not very good. Pancreatic cancer, new iLiver. Anyone else and at any other company would have been fired after being “sick” too much, even in case of serious illness. Most normal businesses just don’t put up with that. Besides, he’s already got enough money stashed away for another 10 iLives, at least.
Edited 2011-01-17 19:25 UTC
Retire and do what? Waste away for several years?
I feel sorry for those people in US who can not afford to get half of the medical treatment Steve is getting. As for Steve Jobs the person, I don’t feel sorry one bit.
And no, I do not consider myself heartless. It is just that my heart goes to all those people in the world that are: dying of hunger, dying because they can not afford med care, beeing killed because they were at the wrong place in a wrong time.
Well, to me at least. It seems that it is not that you are heartless, as much as that you surely are selective with your heart.
To each their own I guess.
So using that same philosophy you should be feeling ecstatic for those who were in the right place at the right time, who have plenty to eat and the best medical treatment their money can buy. And because he was dealt good cards and took advantage of that hand to the nth degree he’s somehow not worthy of our best wishes and, if you believe in such things, prayers?
If you don’t like the man why not just say nothing?
I was reading one series of posts here shaking my head in disbelief. The person involved is obviously not even intelligent enough, or maybe just too self centred, to realise how deliciously ironic his posts are. Being happy about bad things happening to a fellow human, and even wanting more bad things to happen to him, which in this person’s twisted world is somehow not evil, while at the same time piously proclaiming Jobs to be evil because he has worked very hard, demanding hours for many years taking advantage of the cards he was dealt in life to created an iconic brand that is loved and hated by many worldwide.
If that’s your philosophy and you want to see evil, go look in the mirror…
What? No.
I think we should be upset that he’s not using a large portion of his income to help people in similar/worse positions, rather than rolling around in cash and talking shit about the competition.
Well since you openned the door … let me walk through it. Steve Jobs has passed his “best by …” date. It is his fortune that he could pay his way through med care and prolongue his live for few more years. I didn’t feel ecstatic nor sorry then, or now. I am rather indefferent to Steve’s plight. An average US citizen would be dead by now if he was suffering from the same illness, not Steve’s doing, but then again he didn’t do anything to change that either. At least Bill tried to, (mind you, not that I am a big fan of his). This indefference doesn’t make me evil, cause I am not exactly in a position to help others, Steve and Bill are … guess which one is evil
The timing of the news is quite telling: MLK is a holiday here and the markets are closed, so it is better to release now the news than let the stock tank due to panick.
Chances are the plan is to let Tim Cook be at the helm through some successful releases in the near term (iPad 2 perhaps) to provide confidence for the investors.
Jobs is probably drained as it is and will no longer be in charge of Apple. This does not mean he is in his deathbed or anything. Probably he just does not have the energy to run a business like Apple, and with his health issues I don’t think this should be a surprise to anyone. Probably being so sick gave him a chance to re-evaluate priorities, and maybe he wants to do other stuff with his life than being a salesman of shiny pieces of silicon.
Anyhow, I don’t know him personally so I have not much to say about his situation. Other than I just don’t wish sickness, esp. Cancer, on anyone. The sad realization is that if many of these billionaires were serious, they could fund plenty of cures for a lot of common illnesses. Alas…
I wish him good health and hope he gets better soon.
From one geek to another the next ten years is going to be so interesting in pc technology and its sad to see a man that was part of it all struck down with ill-health.
He was never a geek.
He _worked with_ and _hired_ geeks, but he’s always been about marketing and design.
Yeah, he could not be possibly be a geek and also be interested in design and marketing.
He could, but he isn’t.
Well, that settles it then. Obviously I don’t know Mr. Jobs personally, but I gather you do. So…
Evilness, being good and stuff depends on your morale. Some of you are Christians, from 3 branches, each branch has several other branches, other are Jews, Muslims of several branches, Communists, whatever…
Just don’t waste time arguing with people who do not share your morale. Just apply your morale to yourself and keep it to yourself and your children. Your morale just does not apply to everybody and never will.
Again, Moral Relativism.
Nah.