Leave Steve Jobs Alone
I have resisted writing about the state of Steve Job's health for several reasons. First, I'm not a doctor. Second, even if I were a doctor I still have no first hand knowledge of his condition. Third, I don't even have any second hand knowledge of his condition. But most importantly IT ISN'T ANY OF MY DAMN BUSINESS.
Sorry for the screaming bit but this last point seems to have escaped no small portion of the many Apple bloggers and other various tech pundits out there. So let me repeat myself so we are absolutely clear. It isn't my business. It isn't your business. We have no "right" to know anything about his condition. Steve Job owes us, the press, Apple shareholders and even his board of directors absolutely no information about his current medical condition.
But wait, I hear you cry! While it may be true that he owes nothing to the slobbering horde of media jackels eager for a fresh story of misery they can bleed dry, what about the stock holders? And the board? Won't someone think of the board?
Calm down, you idiot.
So long as Mr. Jobs answers "yes" when the board of directors asks him "can you still perform your duties?" then he has disclosed to them all he needs to. And sure enough, when he felt that answer had to change to "no" then he let them know and stepped away from the job. Exactly like he should have.
And guess what? He didn't need a hundred infantile bloggers speculating on his every possible diagnosis to reach this decision. So why the level of scrutiny? Why can't people just let the man be? After all, he isn't a celebrity, he is just a business man. So what compels bloggers to be so cruel?
Lest we forget, Steve Jobs isn't really a celebrity. Oh, the tech press has made him into one, but of his own violition he actively shuns the spotlight. Think for a second, other than his keynote presentations, when do we ever see him in front of a camera? He doesn't go on drunken joyrides that make the news. He doesn't marry strippers in Vegas only to be divorced days later. He has no stubstance abuse problems nor is he wildly eccentric. He doesn't even have a big name charity that he presides over.
He is just a highly successful, very private business man who wishes to run his company and be left alone. And yet, apparently his biggest fans won't grant him the peace to face his illness in a dignified manner. And this disgusts me.
So this is it for me. You won't ever read any of my reports or speculation concerning his health because as far as I'm concerned it is a matter that should stay private. End of story.
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Comments
Finally, someone takes the “high road”. That is certainly refreshing. Thanks, James, you are one class act.
You’re wrong on this, James. Apple Inc. is a public company. Thus, the shareholders are the owners of the company. The company raises money from them to run the operation. They do not do this as charity. Steve Jobs owes it to his fellow shareholders to disclose whether or not he is able to fulfill his job as CEO. In this way, his responsibilities are no different than that of any other employee at any other company. No, it doesn’t mean he has to release his entire medical history, but it means he can keep his health as secret as his Mac design plans.
I agree that the continual press coverage is often distasteful. However, Apple, to a very large extent, has only itself to blame. Apple has consciously and continually cultivated the “Cult of Jobs” for marketing purposes for the past decade. The whole black-turtleneck “one last thing” Mac World thing was a deliberate strategy to link the “coolness” of their products to the “coolness” of their CEO. Jobs was promoted as Apple, with other staff barely featuring. When it comes to Apple and marketing, nothing happens by accident. It is therefore inevitable that when Jobs appears to be in trouble, the press show incredible interest. It’s no coincidence that the mainstream press couldn’t care less if Steve Balmer, Larry Ellison or Eric Schmidt fall sick. Indeed, I remember no panic when Bill Gates stepped down from Microsoft.
You reap what you sow.
@Paul Howland,
You are right! How could I be so foolish? When bloggers started making up stories about Steve Job’s health? That was Apple’s fault. When doctors who had never examined him gave dire speculative interviews, that was also Apple’s fault. And when the press wouldn’t let the story die, forcing him to issue a public response on the issue of his health. . . you got it, also Apple’s fault.
And why is it Apple’s fault? According to you its because they used their CEO for marketing purposes. Are you kidding me? So, by your logic, anyone at any company used to promote products is fair game? Tell me you don’t really believe this? Tell me you have some spark of decency in you. Tell me that your world view isn’t that black and white.
“You reap what you sow.”
How about this, just tell me you aren’t a moron.
“Finally, someone takes the “high road”. That is certainly refreshing. Thanks, James, you are one class act.”
Uh huh. So your definition of a class act is to call anyone who speculates about the ability of a CEO to do his job “idiots” and “morons.”
Nice to see Mac-tardation isn’t dead.
And Paul is right on, while James, as usual, has his head up his ass.
Yes, when you cultivate for yourself, or your company cultivates for you, the notion that you are responsible for every single thing that comes out of your company, then things like your health, especially when you are clearly witholding full information about it, becomes fair game. In fact, the SEC is investigating Apple over this very thing.
And did James really try to make the claim that Jobs is NOT a celebrity? Does that give you some idea of his deluded and addle-brained worldview?