Wait, he’s not a soul-crushing monster dead-set on world dominance?
When Steve Jobs retired as CEO of Apple, the media treated the event like a funeral instead of a retirement party. Most of the articles surrounding his resignation read like eulogies. This may have something to do with the ever-present rumors about Jobs’s failing health (or possibly my inability to think of the frail-looking Jobs and not relate the two). However, most importantly, nearly everyone praised him as one of the most influential CEOs of all-time.
What Jobs has accomplished over the course of the past decade is nothing short of culture-defining. It’s very rare in our day and age to be able to point at one person and say “he changed the way we live.” Steve Jobs is one of these select few luminaries.
However he’s also developed a reputation for being, to put it politely, a curmudgeon. But since we’re all anonymous friends here, I’ll be a bit more blunt: a lot of people think Steve Jobs is an asshole.
There are countless “Steve Jobs stories” from over the years detailing his penchant for being a control freak and an unapologetic dick. But his genius and business savvy more than made up for these flaws.
The truth is Jobs’s personal life is rather a mystery. His true personality and behavior have always been considered hearsay, simply unsubstantiated rumors or lies. This is how Jobs likes it, he enjoys a life of privacy. However since our society is simply made up of nosy neighbors who need to know the dirt, these rumors sometimes become truth.
But thanks to Jobs’s actual neighbor, Lisen Stromberg, we get a extremely rare glimpse into the everyday life of the man who made the laptop and cell phone “sexy.”
“I first met Steve (does anyone call him Mr. Jobs anymore?) years ago at a backyard pool party. I was so flummoxed by the off chance I was breathing in his DNA, I could barely say a word. I am sure I made a winning first impression as I stumbled over my own name when we were introduced.
I watched as he swam in the pool with his son. He seemed like a regular guy, a good dad having fun with his kids.
The next time I met him was when our children attended school together. He sat in on back-to-school night listening to the teacher drone on about the value of education (wait, isn’t he one of those high-tech gods who didn’t even graduate from college?) while the rest of us sat around pretending having Steve Jobs in the room was totally normal…
It was at Halloween not long after when I realized he actually knew my name (yes, my name!). He and his wife put on a darn scary haunted house (to be specific, a haunted garden). He was sitting on the walkway, dressed like Frankenstein. As I walked by with my son, Steve smiled and said, “Hi Lisen.” My son thought I was the coolest mom in town when he realized The Steve Jobs knew me.
Thanks for the coolness points, Steve.
From then on, when I saw him holding his executive meetings in our neighborhood, I didn’t hesitate to smile and say hi. Steve always returned the favor, proving he may be a genius, but he is also a good neighbor.”
Stromberg’s article in the local Palo Alto Patch went on to describe Jobs at his son’s High School graduation with tears in eyes, swelling in pride. The article of course has now gone viral because of our cultural need to know more about people like Jobs. All in all it was a nice window peaking into Jobs’s life away from his empire.
He swims. He dressed up as Frankenstein for Halloween. He remembers neighbors names. He attends street BBQs. And most importantly he sheds tears.
Now it may not seem like much, but this little blog post is a treasure trove. Steve Jobs is a normal human being, who loves his family and says hello to his neighbors. He just happens to be an utter genius in his down time.
[Patch]
September 02, 2011 at 1:15 pm, Anonymous said:
Has he really changed the way we live???? I don’t think so. There were other mp3 players before ipod, and iphone hardware design is still (today) a dumb phone comparing to smartphones available before first iphone came out. Tablets were also available before ipad, so what part of our lives he exactly influenced? I can admit OSX is one of the best front-end operating systems ever, but to call Jobs those names is overrated. Just because he had brilliant marketing people, and was able to use that to put basic technologies in hands of morons it doesn’t make him a god. The only people that should pray to him are apple shareholders. Others can only be thankful for driving data plan prices to the highest level ever. It was Jobs brilliant ideas that allowed companies steal private data from us, and that was him that prevent us from controlling the content we allow on our devices. Best example is denial of firewall software in app store. He’s a control freak…
September 02, 2011 at 1:38 pm, Anonymous said:
“I was so flummoxed by the off chance I was breathing in his DNA, I could barely say a word.” That was the point in her little story when credibility went out the window. Sounds to be like a high school girl with a crush… and that being the case not only should anything said about her “darling Steve” be taken with a grain of salt, it should be taken with an entire salt block.
Maybe he is a good guy maybe just an asshole. Frankly from my experience with people I work with there aren’t any that act like jerks in the office but are Mr. Rogers outside…. people don’t turn into actors at work eventually their true self come through… in the case of Jobs, it is very likely that he is a jerk. Do I care? No, unless he crosses my actual path and does something to ME I could care less.
September 02, 2011 at 2:40 pm, Edjenn1998 said:
Some of you people just don’t want to give credit to where credit is due. Steve Jobs has had a huge impact on all of our lives. Smart phone never bcame huge until the IPhone and the earlier ones were crap compared to what the Iphone can do. Yes, there were tablets before, but no one could make a go of it until the Ipad came out. Everyone of you miss the point. This man has impacted everyones life in the modern world through the gadget his company made popular. Would android phone be as big if they didn’t have the Iphone to copy from? get real. The first time I saw an android phone I though ” What a rip off of an Iphone”. No tablet has been able to do what the Ipad has done in the market. It’s more than marketing it making something that people want. When I was going to buy a tablet, I really wanted to like the Android tablets, but in the end I bought an Ipad. IT simply works. The Android Tablets just did meet the standard I felt they should have at the time. Hopefully they will. That’s the impact Mr. Jobs has had on our lives. He’s made tech gadgets accessible for everyone, not just nerds.
September 03, 2011 at 12:00 am, Hadi_ghannam said:
Totally right, and seems lot of people don’t want to accept the fact that Apple/Steve Jobs made technology accessible to lot of people from different ages. Some people, especially Android ones keep on picking on Apple. The fact is, IT people and nerds likes to see gadgets stuffed with ports, features, bla bla bla needed or not. they just like to see features and at the end they won’t use them. Apple on other hand do the opposite to humanize using their products. tablets supposed to be easy to use, just look at ipad screen and see how simple it is then take a look at an android tablet, and you’ll see windows and small screens… simply not for anyone!
October 02, 2011 at 11:44 pm, Captain_zest said:
All in all it was a nice window peaking into Jobs’s life away from his empire.
It’s PEEKING.