“Drawing inspiration from Steve Jobs — or from anyone else you admire — studying them, and learning from them, now those are different matters,” Pallotta writes. “But all too often we conflate admiration and comparison. They’re two completely different things. One is smart, the other debilitating.”
Pallotta writes, “Such comparisons spiral you into depression. They demotivate you, demoralize you, and generally suck every last bit of enthusiasm and aliveness out of you, so that you go into your next meeting or activity unable to contribute an ounce of energy to the room. How could you? You just annihilated your spirit… The last way you will ever get to play in a game remotely like the one your icons play in is by comparing yourself with them.”
Read more in the full article here.
And in breaking news, writers should avoid using Steve Jobs’ name in articles no one would otherwise waste their time reading.
Nothing that’s worth reading here,
I am just like Steve Jobs.
pointless farrago of link bait
I’ve never looked up to anyone. I am my own god.
I think of the other way around, though. Especially those who dropped out from uni.
“But all too often we conflate admiration and comparison. “
That doesn’t make any sense. This writing is pure shit.
Admiration and Emulation? Imitation? Maybe? But Admiration and Comparison?
The writing is so bad it’s jarring.
@ ChrissyOne,
“I am just like Steve Jobs.”
You stand up to wee-wee? Awesome!
No, Steve sits.
@ John galt
That’s the shortest speech you’ve ever given!
yeah if you even try to have the attention to detail, simplicity and form follow function of a Steve Jobs, aka craftsmanship, you are destined to fail – WTF – we should all be more like Jobs.
I don’t aspire to be like Steve… I set my sights a little lower and decide to compare myself with Jesus. /s
C1
No you’re not.
@ Twinkie
Hmmm… well, you do make a pretty compelling argument.
No, I am Steve Jobs!
C1
I’ve never seen you wearing a black turtleneck.
Well, I am just like ChrissyOne.
(if A=B and B=C, then A=C… right?)
News Headline: Dan Pallotta was told to write something about Steve Jobs that would hit the tech. headlines to get his publication’s name in the news again “or else”!
@ Twinkie
Jeez… you’re right!
Okay, I’ma pick one up. I’ve already got the jeans, glasses, and thinness down. Then,
I will be just like Steve Jobs.
@ The DataDude
No, see, you’re way better at theorems than I am.
“You stand up to wee-wee? Awesome!”
Actually there is a tube device that will allow a woman to urinate standing like a man. GoGirl, P-Mate and WhizBiz are just some of the devices available.
@C1
Yep !
The only figure in history that reminds me of Jobs (and vice versa) is Alexander the Great.
Wow, what an angry bunch.
Ah yes the Harvard review, one of the Ivy leagues products. The Ivy league which has given such greats as half of the Supreme court, G. Bush, B. Obama, and a collection of frigtards that are a close second to the 3 stooges when it comes to Fing up.
Pallotta uses Jobs as an example of a charismatic CEO for a blog about business… I don’t get why everyone’s attacking him. I also don’t get why every single article or blog that mentions Steve Jobs should be run up the MDN flagpole here. Remember your audience (juvenile sexless geeks).
“aliveness”?…wtf.
“…What adds a level of irony here is that Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, in another interview in The Wall Street Journal this week, continued to compare Yahoo to Apple and herself to Jobs, when insisting investors be patient with the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s continued lackluster performance…”
Funny thing about studying Jobs. If you didn’t watch the whole thing evolve in minute detail as it was happening. It’s hard to learn the right lessons.
I hear a lot about creating “wow” at a launch, building a cult around a brand and about creating an ecosystem, etc. These are all used as examples of what a business should do to be successful.
They usually confuse cause with effect. These are the results of the millions of little things that I did right — er, I mean Steve did right. Unless you were watching it unfold in real time (like most of us here on this site), you’d probably miss the real lessons.
@Bizzaro
Gee those gadgets could be useful on long road trips.
@C1:
But guys can use the “Texas Venturi Effect” on long trips. You start with an old Chevy pickup and knock the back window out so you can throw your empties over your shoulder into the bed. As you’re crossing West Texas at a high rate of speed (or on any other straight, monotonous road) you can take a whiz by propping open the driver side door about a foot with the window rolled up and strategically aiming. The effluent is magically sucked right out the door and you don’t even have to slow down.
Seriously, in order to do what Steve jobs does you need to “own” the company. You need to be able to ban the phrase “best practices”, which is code for “what everybody else is doing”. It, and many other pieces of business jargon (like “stakeholders”) describe the present state of affairs at most corporations, where every action is ruled by accounting and IT. Where everything one does must comply with SOX and “policy”.
Remember the commercial with business people in gray suits following each other, lemming-like, over the edge of a cliff? That’s the business world everywhere today. It’s so bad I can’t stand working in that world anymore. I’ll be retiring next year, simply because I can’t stomach the group think and timidity that defines “success” these days.
Ok, Zeke.
Who was the guy who said, “I’ll open the door about 6 inches and pee” “Nope. Didn’t work. Damn.”
Then some other guy tried opening the door a foot with the window open. Didn’t work. how many car doors stink now to find just the right amount of draft, venturi suction and make this work?
No, man, you forgot to include another true visionary, the Rob Enderle Group!
@BluefinPro:
Are you familiar with the smell of the inside of the average ’52 Chevy pickup that has lived its life in West Texas? A little pee is no big deal.
@zeke
You said it my man! I’m with you.
I’m Steve Jobs and so’s my wife!!
I don’t think Steve Jobs has craftsmanship suggesting that he is part of the fine detail of the products. He just knows what people want, he is the one that drives the company in the right direction and keeps the workers singing merrily.
You guys are troublingly preoccupied with pee.
@ChrissyOne
This your first encounter with males of the species?
We like poo as well. I’m sure it has something to do with our mothers.