“Two week’s ago I attacked Steve Jobs and made myself the most popular columnist in the Mac universe — even my own wife called me ‘an idiot.’ So this week I figured I’d balance things out by talking about someone I admire greatly: Steve Wozniak,” Leander Kahney writes in his article “Forget Jobs, Let’s Worship Woz” for Wired News.
“There’s a lot to admire about Woz, but let’s start with four things: his dedication to kids; his support for his community and its public institutions, especially schools; his casual relationship to money; and his egoless appraisal of his own place in history — a realization, absolutely true, that he was a good engineer but has been disproportionately rewarded for simply being in the right place at the right time,” Kahney writes.
“Woz embodies the most admirable qualities of the hacker. He’s a great engineer, who designed beautiful machines and made a fortune from them. Good for him. But he wasn’t greedy, he didn’t screw anyone over and he took care of his friends… Woz has been generous with his fortune, financing scores of educational initiatives and sponsoring dozens of public institutions, including San Jose’s Children’s Discovery Museum, which sits on Woz Way… Woz lost an estimated $20 million of his own money hosting a pair of giant Unuson (‘unite us in song’) rock concerts, but considered them a tremendous success because they were great fun and he got to hang out with ‘a few thousand of my closest friends,'” Kahney writes.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews reader “Too Hot!” for the link.]
Is it just us or does Kahney lately seem overly concerned about how much people make, how much people spend, what people decide to spend their money on, how people treat their money, etc.? Money, money, money! Did Kahney get a massive pay cut recently? Did his publisher screw him over in a book deal? Did Kahney lose a bundle on the ponies? Is he just trying to jump back over the shark and hope nobody remembers his previous leap? Did he become a monk and shun all of his worldly possessions to work tirelessly with the world’s poor? Kahney, did you move to eastern Massachusetts?
Really, what the heck going on with Leander? He should try to get a handle on his fixation with other people’s money and how they spend it. He should stop judging people, not by how much money they spend or how much money they have or what they spend it on or how they feel about their money, but by how they treat themselves and others. Here’s a suggestion, if we’re going to worship some entity, let’s just worship God, if that’s what we believe in, and leave humans – any human – out of it, okay?
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
Wired News wrtier: What’s up with Mac users’ ‘blind hero worship’ of Steve Jobs? – February 02, 2006
Kahney jumps shark: praises Gates, crassly criticizes Steve Jobs over charitable donations – January 25, 2006
MDN’s take is about right. Woz is a great guy, yet the background noise of the story seems to be “see? this is what Steve Jobs could be like if he wasn’t a stingy maniacal jerk.”
Still trying to figure out who this guy thinks Steve Jobs screwed over.
If he wants to use making profit a standard by which all should be damned, then let him write and article discussing the CEO’s of pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, and mostly, large defense (weapon maker) contractors.
You wanna talk about people who are raping the masses, start there.
Well said MDN!
no ones going to dismiss woz as an integral part of apples success. without him there wouldnt be an apple.
steve and woz created something together. simple.
jobs is still their today, and woz isnt, that doesnt take anything away from either one of them.
i think kahney is really just trying to back-pedal from a situation.
Also well said Macromancer!
“Kahney, did you move to eastern Massachusetts?”
Awww, shit, you made me spit out coffee all over my keyboard upon reading that line!
Kahney certainly does come across as more than a tad socialist, doesn’t he?
“He should stop judging people”
-Good words to live by, although hypocritical considering the source.
“not by how much money they spend or how much money they have or what they spend it on or how they feel about their money, but by how they treat themselves and others.“
-Actually, he did judge him based on how he treats others. Mentioning his financial contributions was a supporting argument. But obviously this doesn’t fit with MDN’s criticisms, so it’s obviously not pointed out.
“Here’s a suggestion, if we’re going to worship some entity, let’s just worship God, if that’s what we believe in, and leave humans – any human – out of it, okay?“
-and this would then include Steve Jobs, right?
Do you guys ever wonder if you are really doing enough with your lives? I mean, who really cares what some guy wrote about some rich people, just because they are related to Apple why does everyone get so caught up? It’s really just a computer company guys… I’m glad I am finally coming around to the realisation of the madness of my former (closet) obsession.
Woz isn’t anything special. He’s no different than Jonathan Ive or Avie Tevenian – skilled people that Jobs knows how to use. Engineering and programming don’t lend themselves to creativity, which is what Jobs’ carreer has been built upon. I’m sure Steve Jobs would be successful even if he had never met Wozniak, but I doubt the reverse is true.
It’s better to read articles about important people like Steve Jobs than to watch reality T.V. shows about unimportant people. The way I see it, like 85% of America has no life.
I have to say my respect for Woz just got shot down a good bit by his limp defense of Google kowtowing to the Chinese over censoring the population’s access to the ‘net. “Maybe its just not right for them,” he said.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident….unless you’re Chinese.” Is that it?
If everyone likes to make fun of eastern Massachusetts so much, why on earth do you all keep sending your kids to school here…?
(MW is “college.” You can’t make this stuff up.)
I met Woz twice a couple of years ago, he seems a great guy…I wish that Woz would return to Apple.
He and Jobs were a great team at one time and could be again if they wanted to.
The best school in the country is not— repeat NOT Haaaaaaavaaad or MIT. Stanford, among others, kicks Haaaaaaavaaad’s ass. Not only that– the babes at Stanford look better.
Half of the major f-ups in the good old US are the product of Harvard B-School, Law School or JFK School grads. We could use a lot less of them.
Woz is just a man, divorce, greed, ego, philantrophy, father, caretaker, mistakes, etc.
MDN, good take on it.
“…even my wife called me an idiot.” Hahahaa! ..and a week without. Now if we email about his fixation on money she’ll hit him around the head with a saucepan and deny him his conjugals for a month.
When judging someone based on the amount of their good karma from their philanthropic deeds you must also subtract all of their bad karma generated from all of their back stabbing screwovers.
Yes, Billy Gates has spread a lot of his fortune around in a very public way. The publicity has helped the perception of his evil corporation. Points lost there. In addition, how many people’s lives did he screw over in his unprincipled accumulation of his wealth?
How much bad karma has been generated by every Windows user just trying to get an app to work or check their email?
Balance that with the good karma generated by happy Mac users and happy Pixar movie goers.
When it comes to spreading joy and generating good karma Billy will have to spend a lot more money to catch up to Steve.
Billy’s karma bank is way overdrawn.
Leander Kahney would appear to imagine that charity only exists if you shout from the rooftops exactly how much you’ve donated and where.
Some people simply aren’t so vulgar as to talk about such things, preferring instead to donate quietly and without publicity. The downside of such actions is that you stand to be downgraded in Kahney’s estimation. Somehow I don’t think that anybody in a position of influence will pay the slightest regard to what a fool like Kahney thinks.
He just wants more attention. Ignore him.
Syd Barret…..when you read about Woz tearing apart Apple and it’s OS don’t you think a little bit of ol’ Sid and his lunatic fringe ways?
Why is Woz not working on an OS that is everything he want’s it to be. Volunteer! If he’s doesn’t need or care for money. To hear him rip Apple, he sounds wacky. How can you compare a mature OSX to the ancient computing of LISA. Offer samples instead of being this angry critic.
By the way that Wired article was written by an idiot who is still an idiot, I’d like to see what percentage Kahney donates to charity.
I would cancel Wired if I had it but I certainly won’t be subscribing when they allow a dope like this guy writing for them. Saying just stupid “talk show” tactics to gain readers. Cheap.Low.
His wife called him idiot. Here’s another one: loser.
“He should stop judging people, not by how much money they spend or how much money they have or what they spend it on or how they feel about their money, but by how they treat themselves and others.”
I’m pretty sure the meaning of that statement is exactly opposite of what MDN intended.
Not that beating up babies is somehting I partake in on a regular basis, but apropos of the “Did you recently move to Eastern MA?” crack, allow me to remind you that in addition to some seriously progressive thinking, eastern MA is also on of the most powerful economic engines on the planet… so put that in your pacifier and suck on it.
How often can you use the phrase “jump the shark”, incorrectly mind you, without becoming unimaginative and tiresome?
Well the nameless weasels of MDN answered that one for us.
Once.
Unfortunately that hasn’t stopped them from continuing to butcher the phrase.
I’m with his wife. Go Girl!