Technology columnist and occasional Cult of Mac (CoM) contributor Mike Elgan was on Macbreak Weekly Tuesday talking about his recent CoM piece, “In Defense of Steve Jobs.” The story led to an interesting dialogue between he and Leo Laporte, one with a Jobsian twist I’d never heard before.
Essentially, Mike says many of the horrendous grievances Jobs affected on others, the ones we hear about like him ripping off Steve Wozniak, were the cause of youth and ignorance. Elgan argues, Jobs’ infamous lack of empathy, his selfishness in business dealings, these are the traits of many 20-something males and certainly not exclusive to Jobs.
Elgan’s point, in my words: Steve may have started life as a jerk, but the years changed him; his family; his cancer; changed him. And by the end, though obviously not perfect, he was not the mean spirited, penurious Steve from those stories of legend we so often hear.
