Criticizing Steve Jobs and the Apple Mafia

Hugh Macleod of gapingvoid fame links to this anecdotal post by Shel Israel about a close encounter he had with a young Steve Jobs. The entire story sounds familiar: some over-eager someone runs up to Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs helps them out, but in a very curt and some would say rude manner. Shel finishes his post by noting, "And I learned something about Jobs that seems to be true all these many years later. He's much more appealing when he's standing in front of 500 people than he is close up." I have very little doubt that this is a valid observation. I mean, take a look at the pic accompanying this post. Smug. If this were any other smug jerk, you'd be aggravated with him just for that smug look. What brought Hugh to post about this anecdote and made it interesting to me was the response in the comments by the "Apple Mafia" rushing in to defend Jobs.

He's just a guy, everybody. Guys tend to be rude and smug from time to time.