Joyanna Adams

Nobody’s Fool: Steve Jobs

Nobody’s Fool

Like most baby boomers I am fascinated by the life of Steve Jobs. I actually remember typing on a typewriter…and having to white out mistakes, and getting ink on my hands from the carbon papers. The advancement of computers in our lifetime, while not as life changing as the car and the electric light in my grandmother’s lifetime, has certainly opened up new worlds for everyone. So the masters, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, have always been hero’s to my generation.

The new hit biography about Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, left no punches. In most cases he was a spoiled, absolute brat, with no social grace whatsoever. Still genius is forgiven when it comes to changing the world, and while the book makes you feel sorry for his family, and anyone who worked with him, they all said, without Steve, none of that fun stuff like the Mac, the I-Pod, the I-Phone, the I-Tunes…none of it would have existed.

He was arrogant, egotistical, mean, but right most of the time. In other words, he believed in himself and for that, he had his dad and mom to thank. Not the real ones, but the ones who adopted him.

While American’ s worship Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs, neither one of these men made the really cool computers we use today. What they did do was find the right engineers, and push the right ideas until they came into being. The real credit behind computers,  men like Steve Wozniak, Jobs’ early partner, fade into the background. But— it’s one thing to have the vision, it’s quite another to make the visions happen and that’s where Gates and Jobs are attached at the hip.

But what happened to the baby boomers who didn’t grow up? The ones who stayed in that hippie stage forever? Like, Hillary Clinton?

The answer: They had rich parents to begin with. Hillary and Steve Jobs had upper middle class parents. So did Bill Gates. They never left the “free and open” leftist propaganda of the sixties, or even questioned it.  They were ‘sensitive’ and were out to change the world. And they had the connections to do it.

You can read the biography about all the clever things Steve Jobs did to make his visions come to life, it’s a good book …but I’m going to talk about something else that bothers me: Why do so many of these people…ones who make money the good old capitalistic way, feel so connected to Karl Marx?

The two biggest capitalists of our generations…were die hard liberals. Both Gates and Jobs were Democrats. Al Gore was on the board of Apple. Bill Clinton was a good friend. While Steve Jobs told Obama that he needed to get the government regulations off businesses back, he still wanted to help Obama get reelected by making a great commercial for his reelection campaign.

Here’s a funny story from his book: Steve Jobs had the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, on his board of Directors at Apple, probably due to Al Gore’s insistence because Al Gore is on the board of Google and Apple.  Google literally stole the I Pad idea and came out with the Android. Steve was so mad at getting ribbed off by his own board member he said:

“Google, you fucking ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off. Grand Theft. I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go to thermonuclear war on this. Outside of Search, Google’s products. Android, Google Docs, are shit. “

Did Al Gore have anything to do with this theft? Al Gore is on Google’s board too, and Al Gore and Google would think nothing of “redistributing” Steve Jobs hard earned ideas to the world for free, if they both could get rich off of it themselves.

There’s something about Bill Gates that creeps me out. He puts on that “face” of innocent and it’s no doubt that you would be “gotten.” Steve Jobs at least was honest. If he didn’t like something, he told you. At least you knew.

I’ve never owned an Apple, but, there is no doubt, I would love it. Steve Job was an artist first, and then he became the best CEO in the world. Everyone wants the Apple now. Steve Jobs made sure that the brand meant quality, and that used to be the American way. Steve Jobs wanted the very best, and demanded it.  We are all the richer for it.

Read the book, it’s an amazing story.

May 10, 2012 - Posted by Joyanna Adams | computers, Steve Jobs | Al Gore, American Culture, Apple Computers, democrats, Steve Jobs, The rich elites