They were both brilliant, but from everything that I've read, Jobs was an ass****, and Woz was the opposite, and that is a huge, huge difference.

The mythologizing of Jobs is the canonical example of people condoning terrible behavior because they think that a person is smart/valuable/talented/etc.

To me this is completely backwards and sets a terrible precedent - that you can act however you want if you get results - especially given how many people idolize and look up to Jobs.

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simonh an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I'm not sure what to believe. I know he was incredibly demanding, and I've heard the stories, but he also inspired a lot of loyalty and commitment from plenty of very talented engineers who were not short of other options.

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hyperhello 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Jobs dealt with people and respected the machines. Woz dealt with machines and respected the people.

	▲	hobs 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Jobs fucked over a lot of people and respected the machines. Woz dealt with the machines and respected the people.

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microtherion 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The other huge, huge difference is that one of the Steves has demonstrated he was able to build a successful product without the other's assistance.

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fuzzfactor 2 hours ago | parent [-]

You could say that about the iPod or the iPhone which Woz wasn't involved in, but when you do the math, there's only one Woz and he was essential to define the company in the 20th century, and look how many people it took to "replace" him when it came to Jobs "alone" defining the company in the 21st century.

	▲	microtherion an hour ago \| parent [-]
		You could also say it about the Mac, which Woz was, at best, peripherally involved in. Not saying that Jobs created these products "alone" — he obviously did not. But he was a key contributor. Meanwhile, Woz has been involved in all sorts of products, including a cryptocurrency, and I can't think of a single one that got significant traction.

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lynx97 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And still, when it comes to built-in accessibility, Jobs is pretty much famous for his "fuck ROI" statement. He set precedence around 2007, which eventually forced other players like Google and Microsoft to follow. These days, Talkback and Narrator are builtin for both OSes, which is mostly because Apple went there first. This move changed the lifes of a a few million people.

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tbossanova 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You need both though. You have to accept there are a certain amount of psychopaths in the world, and learn how to manage them