Steve Jobs

[Sand Wedge]

Just watching a documentary about him. Fascinating.

Why DID people mourn for him when he passed? He was just a very clever man as far as I could make out?

 

[low-key]

we all benefited from his brilliance. You could morn people on their big hearts, how you loved them or their achievements

 

[wenrob]

Just watching a documentary about him. Fascinating.

Why DID people mourn for him when he passed? He was just a very clever man as far as I could make out?

He’s seen by a lot of people as a genius. He was very intense when it came to his vision and as a result not a real nice guy about it. Kind of like another guy we all think highly of (ahem, initials WD) for what he brought. When guys like that bring what they did people tend to overlook their character flaws. I think people mourn what more could have been rather than the person themselves in these cases.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

The Karen Blumenthal biography of Steve Jobs is one of my favorite non-fiction books, you should check it out.

 

[AurumPunzel]

Why DID people mourn for him when he passed? He was just a very clever man as far as I could make out?

He was revered for this creative and innovative vision, and it didn't just end at Apple. He was also a key figure in animation, being the one that bought Lucasfilm's computer graphics division to create Pixar, which of course is now, along with Lucasfilm, part of Disney, and has changed the world of animation forever. Jobs was very much the Walt Disney of the technology world, in my opinion.

 

[bcla]

He was revered for this creative and innovative vision, and it didn't just end at Apple. He was also a key figure in animation, being the one that bought Lucasfilm's computer graphics division to create Pixar, which of course is now, along with Lucasfilm, part of Disney, and has changed the world of animation forever. Jobs was very much the Walt Disney of the technology world, in my opinion.

To some degree yes. Jobs was an idea man, but hardly a technical person. He ostensibly had a job fixing circuit boards at Atari, but the rumor was that he couldn't do it at all and had a friend do it for him. He couldn't code nor draw. But he had a way to get people to believe in his vision.

Walt was a little bit different. He could actually draw although after a while he left it to others. And of course he was the voice of Mickey Mouse several times.

 

[Praying Colonel]

I really enjoyed the Walter Isaacson bio of Jobs. Gives a full picture of him, both the good and bad.

Me, I usually try to separate the art from the artist, so to speak. And much of the "art" he helped create made people's lives better.

 

[DisneyOma]

Since I think technology is ruining society, I did not mourn his passing, LOL! (of course I'm using the internet to say this, so there is that irony)

 

[shelemm]

He was revered for this creative and innovative vision, and it didn't just end at Apple. He was also a key figure in animation, being the one that bought Lucasfilm's computer graphics division to create Pixar, which of course is now, along with Lucasfilm, part of Disney, and has changed the world of animation forever. Jobs was very much the Walt Disney of the technology world, in my opinion.

Pixar was not created by Jobs, or anything of the sort. Pixar was its own entity, starting off as a tiny shop creating very short animated films. Jobs was not creative in any way whatsoever. He never created a thing. He was a strategist and promoter.

 

[AurumPunzel]

Pixar was not created by Jobs, or anything of the sort. Pixar was its own entity, starting off as a tiny shop creating very short animated films. Jobs was not creative in any way whatsoever. He never created a thing. He was a strategist and promoter.

He was one of the founding fathers, though, along with Ed Catmull. And still, he had vision.

 

[Sand Wedge]

By all accounts, Steve could be scheming, nasty and underhand. He was implicated in a slew of shifty dealings and even intimidation. Yet people revered him as if he had made the iMac, made the iPod, made the iPad...

 

[bcla]

Pixar was not created by Jobs, or anything of the sort. Pixar was its own entity, starting off as a tiny shop creating very short animated films. Jobs was not creative in any way whatsoever. He never created a thing. He was a strategist and promoter.

Not exactly. Pixar started out as the Lucasfilm computer animation group helping with special effects like the ones in Young Sherlock Holmes where a stained glass figure jumped out. They didn't really create animated films per se. They were supposed to make a film for a customer when they spun off from Lucasfilm, but didn't have the technology for a full-length feature. Jobs (recently separated from Apple and the founder of NeXT) was basically the only investor once it was spun off.

The independent Pixar started off making their own animation computer system and Jobs was key in the business decision to try and sell it to outside customers. Their first public short release (Luxo Jr.) was designed as a proof of concept piece to promote the equipment. This is what they were selling:

I also remember some animations they did for customers like the Listerine Cool Mint commercial of a bottle swinging through a jungle like Tarzan.

But Jobs was extremely important to Pixar. Without him they probably would have just dissolved.

 

[bcla]

By all accounts, Steve could be scheming, nasty and underhand. He was implicated in a slew of shifty dealings and even intimidation. Yet people revered him as if he had made the iMac, made the iPod, made the iPad...

Absolutely. He could be petty when he didn't really have to be. Quite a few people thought he had some social or personality disorder. But absolutely he was an idea man who came up with a lot of ideas even if he didn't necessarily have the technical chops to do it himself.

 

[Sand Wedge]

Last night I watched "Man in the Machine", a documentary of Jobs that seems to be well balanced. It was fascinating. True, he could be nasty. True, much of the stuff he seemed to come up with was actually the brainchild of an underling. But underlying all this, there was a genius stroke. He knew how to play the market, he knew what to say and how to say it. He may have been barbed, but he was still an astonishing man.

Kinda answers my own question!

 

[shelemm]

He was one of the founding fathers, though, along with Ed Catmull. And still, he had vision.

Jobs was an investor in Pixar. Like I said before, he was a strategist, and that helped Pixar. But he didn't create any of the work.

 

[shelemm]

Not exactly. Pixar started out as the Lucasfilm computer animation group helping with special effects like the ones in Young Sherlock Holmes where a stained glass figure jumped out. They didn't really create animated films per se. They were supposed to make a film for a customer when they spun off from Lucasfilm, but didn't have the technology for a full-length feature. Jobs (recently separated from Apple and the founder of NeXT) was basically the only investor once it was spun off.

The independent Pixar started off making their own animation computer system and Jobs was key in the business decision to try and sell it to outside customers. Their first public short release (Luxo Jr.) was designed as a proof of concept piece to promote the equipment. This is what they were selling:

But Jobs was extremely important to Pixar. Without him they probably would have just dissolved.

Pixar got its start long before Lucasfilms. You've got your history wrong. I am not disputing his investing, strategy, and business acumen. Just that he didn't start it, create it, nor did he create any of the content.

 

[Sand Wedge]

One thing you have to credit him with was getting on the Board of Directors of the Walt Disney Co. By hook or by crook, this was a great snag!

 

[Sandeep1]

Pixar was not created by Jobs, or anything of the sort. Pixar was its own entity, starting off as a tiny shop creating very short animated films. Jobs was not creative in any way whatsoever. He never created a thing. He was a strategist and promoter.

To say Steve Jobs wasn't creative is crazy. You must have a different definition of creative than I do.

 

[diznygirl]

Just watching a documentary about him. Fascinating.

Why DID people mourn for him when he passed? He was just a very clever man as far as I could make out?

What a strange question. As if there is a criteria for whether or not people should be mourned.

And like him or not, "just a very clever man" is an understatement.

 

[bcla]

Pixar got its start long before Lucasfilms. You've got your history wrong. I am not disputing his investing, strategy, and business acumen. Just that he didn't start it, create it, nor did he create any of the content.

The backbone of what became Pixar were people from NYIT. However, it wasn’t like Yahoo which was literally transferred from a college project to a commercial operation.

But Lucas hired them to develop his in house computer graphics. Without Lucas there is no Pixar. He didn’t buy out the lab or anything. He hired talented people to work for him. Pixar as a company started with Lucasfilm.