“Before reading this, you should know the following: I do not own an iPad, an iPhone, an iPod or a Mac. I abandoned my typewriter only recently,” Robert J. Samuelson writes for The Washington Post. “In short, I have not enlisted in the digital revolution and have kept my involvement to a desktop computer, e-mail and the Internet.”
“Given all this, it’s not surprising that much commentary on Steve Jobs struck me as over the top. In death, he has been lionized as the era’s greatest business leader. Walt Mossberg, the able and influential personal technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, declared Jobs to be a ‘historical figure on the scale of a Thomas Edison or Henry Ford,'” Samuelson writes. “Longtime financial columnist James Stewart, writing in The New York Times, approvingly quoted the head of a design studio: ‘Jobs is a revolutionary character. He shifted the industry and changed our lives through this amalgamation of culture and technology… That is truly revolutionary.'”
Samuelson writes, “By history’s measure, Jobs’s achievements are tiny. Transforming the music industry is not the same as transforming society. There are many technological advances that had a far larger impact on society: antibiotics, air travel, air conditioning and television. By contrast, many of Apple’s products are gadgets, as commentators have noted. Their ultimate social impact may be less than Facebook’s… [Jobs’] more modest legacy will fade with time. A century from now, historians and ordinary Americans will still remember Edison and Ford. Jobs will be a footnote, if that.”
Full article – Think Before You Click™ – here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, what’s The Washington Post going to waste their readers’ time with next, having Stevie Wonder critique the National Gallery’s Picasso exhibition?
We’ve iCal’ed this for our decendents to deploy on October 11, 2111.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
The disclaimer at the beginning says it all.
Exactly! He might as well have started by saying, “Take the following editorial with a grain of salt, and read at your own risk. I’m no professional, and have no knowledge of the subject matter but I value my own opinion enough to weigh in on the matter.”
I vote that from now on all analysts start their columns with: “Before reading this, you should know the following…”
His should have started with “Before reading this, you should know the following… The words “cantankerous” and “crotchety” define me to a T. And, I’d appreciate it if you’d get off my goddamn lawn.”
Isn’t the Washington Post becoming a footnote with the writer becoming the period at the end?
The writer is a toe fungus note.
The writer is less than a pimple on a real mans’ ass.
It’s the Washington Liberal Scum Compost. What do expect from that rag.
Actually I find many times that the replies that these articles generate more information as to public thought than the article. example from replies to article…
“The ignorance and carelessness is pretty sad from Robert. Robert is one guy behind a desk, without a window, and no light on, and he is an authority on what Steve Jobs’ impact is?! He has no clue on the many thousands of ripples that have followed from Steve Jobs’ legacy. How else do you think you are posting to the world wide web? Seriously? Wow!
I wouldn’t brag that you have been on the typewriter this long. It only indicates your fear, lack of confidence or maybe intelligence? At any rate you are most definitely not qualified to judge weather or not Steve Jobs holds a significant place in history or not. “
To quote one of Steve Jobs own heroes:
“Don’t criticise what you don’t understand…”
Herman Cain said it best:
“I have no facts to back this up.”
OK all together now MDN readers…. “IDIOT!”
But it’s true.. SJ WILL be a footnote in the pages of computer history… a footnote on every page.
A palpable truth and very funny, too!
Steve Jobs will be much more important than a footnote in any written history discussion. He helped invent all the equipment used to write the dad-gumm history. Steve is not just a footnote, he is the watermark on every page. Facebook is but a pimple on Apples big ole butt.
Such a doofus.
PS I bought a newspaper yesterday and now claim to be an expert in newspapers. Mr. Samuelson will be moved to the janitor’s closet due to undue diligence.
Robert J. Samuelson wouldn’t even make it to footnote. He would make it to cockroach though…..
Yep. Sounds like a case of legacy envy to me.
just my $0.02
Who?
MDN, why would you bother with this article? I am now a more stupid person having read it. Thanks
because, dan camera:
MDN + flame bait = $$$
(this, will be deleted by MDN in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2…)
…said the Luddite
Mr. Samuelson seems to be forgetting that Mr. Jobs is one of the primaries responsible for putting a computer in almost every household.
And when all is said and done, a computer in almost every pocket.
Fast-forward 100 years (and 5 or 10 billion pockets) and it’s hard to imagine the fantastic social change this will bring.
Actually, you just summed it up completely. If he’s remember for nothing else, he was responsible for putting a computer in almost every household. That is a societal change by far.
dc310 posted it nicely.
A 100 years from now:
S: Hey Dad, I read that computers used to be huge and filled an entire room! Then they became small. Who first made them small?
D: That would be Apple. They were many others but Apple was the first successful one. Just like Henry Ford didn’t invent the car.
The small computers were called “personal computers”. And they eliminated a whole class of workers doing paperwork in massive secretarial pools. The Personal Computer ushered in an era of massive productivity gains for two decades. And when they were networked these personal computers they were even more powerful.
S: You mean like on the Web Dad? Who first made the web?
D: Well the web was just one application of the Internet. But it was invented on a NeXT computer.
S: Is it true you could not put pictures or movies on a computer then? When did that first happen?
D: That was Apple. They made a computer named after a Apple called the Macintosh. It was the first computer that used pictures instead of just text.
S: And when did computers get small and become part of communicators?
D: They were called phones back then. And Apple made the first successful one that everyone copied.
S: Could you just talk to them?
Not at first.
S: But you could touch them at least right?
Yes. Apple was the first to make that massively successful after 10 years of the industry trying first with pointer sticks.
S: Dad can I watch cartoons? Monsters Inc. again? Or Toy Story?
D: Sure.
S: Dad how come the old cartoons are best?
————–
Yeah Steve Jobs. What a slacker. He will only be remembered for making money.
Agree; amazingly useless piece.
Hey Samuelson….
Apple’s got over 76 Billion in Cash (as of the end of July), zero debt, and the strongest product line ever…
Apple plans to conduct a conference call to discuss financial results of its fourth fiscal quarter on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. PT.
How’s the Washington Post doing?
Washington Post earnings fall 67%
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2011/05/06/washington-post-earnings-fall-67.html
I won’t even give your site the “hit”…
Go have a coke and smile you jackass.
well said, Eric.
I was going to comment, but why bother? MDN’s take says it all!
——RM
Best MDN take ever!
2111 iCal’ed for decendants.
That’s classic
Time will tell. Right now we’re too close to Jobs’ accomplishments to clearly know what will, if anything, stand the test of time.
Exactly.
I agree 100%.
The PC, the GUI, the portalble computer, the iPhone (utral portable computer), fucking voice activated AI assistant for crying out loud. All of these have or will changed the e way we live our lives. Steve brought us all these and more. He may not have invented all of them from scratch but he had th vison that they should all be available for the every day man and he made it happen. People are going to remember Steve for a very very long time.
ALL HAIL KING LUDD!!!
I think it could go either way, and it will really depend on how things change in the next 100 years.
When I say it depends what I mean is this… Look at a guy like Henry Ford… Sure automobiles have changed , but the basics are still there. The basics of the manufacturing process that he built are still studied an used. Same with Edison, or Tesla in regards to electricity, lights and AC electric motors.
So I think its going to really depend on where computing goes in the next 100 years. If some of the basic constructs that we use now are still a part of computing then Jobs will likely have a bigger paragraph in the history books. If it vastly changes and others come along who take it in ways that make what we currently have pail by comparison then it may well be a footnote.
We won’t know until we get there!
I could not agree more. We are way too close to the actual events and accomplishments to accurately assess their historical significance. That will be for future generations to decide.
Another relic from a forgotten time. By the way, what’s a newspaper??
Funny thing is if this dinosaur’s remarks would have stayed within the confines of his newspaper, very few would even know about his small thoughts.
The is a reason they call it the wasington compost..
NIETZSCHE: “God is dead.”
GOD: “Nietzsche is dead.”
Apple’s impact on the world has only just begun, and I think it will eventually become history’s most influential company. Steve Jobs co-founded Apple, and later, after a string of mediocre leaders, came back to keep APPLE from becoming a footnote in history (like Commodore). The ultimate legacy of Steve Jobs, “a century from now,” is tied directly to Apple.
If he did spend a significant portion of the last few years mapping out Apple’s future, that’s why he did it. He lives on in Apple…
I’caled for my grandkids.
Plonkers, there’s one in every group …
The Washington Post just has more than their fair share.
Lots more!
Samuelson…here’s a footnote, you’re a jackrabbit!
The WP is irrelevant. They now run Kaplan University, an education scam to defraud the US government.
Well, he says he uses “the internet”.
Guess which company developed the modern web browser?
(Hint: It was started by Steve Jobs)
He also started NeXT which is what what we think go as the web started. There was an interconnection of computers before that but not something you could browse and search the way you can now. It all started on NeXT.
Jobs was working at NCSA?
NASA only invented the idea of having a big network for computers. The modern day browser and the whole idea of being able to browse and search the internet the way we do was created on a NeXT computer. Before that, you basically dialed in to other computers, it was all a crappy text based thing. Remember the movie Wargames, how the network was all text? It was like that before NeXT and the web browser. Jobs and NeXT is responsible for a lot of foundation of what we think of as the web today.
oh I miss read NCSA as NASA. Yes NCSA made the first web browser but it was on NeXT.
I found what I was looking for on Wikipedia:
“Several developers used the NeXT platform to write pioneering programs. Tim Berners-Lee used a NeXT Computer in 1991 to create the first web browser and web server[36][37]; accordingly, NeXT was instrumental in the development of the World Wide Web.”
“The company also launched WebObjects, a platform for building large-scale dynamic web applications.”
“WebObjects failed to achieve wide popularity partly because of the initial high price of $50,000,[62] but it remains the first and most prominent early example of a web application server which enabled dynamic page generation based on user interactions as opposed to static content. WebObjects is now bundled with Mac OS X Server and Xcode.[62]”
Of course Apple it’s self under Jobs is currently responsible for a big chunk of the tech in forthcoming HTML 5 web standard as well as many other non web related technologies.
I did NOT know that about NeXT/Jobs…
again, you learn something new everyday.
I imagine horse lovers said the same thing about Henry Ford.
He’s just trying to maintain the curmudgeon track after Andy retired at CBS. Fact is, before MDN dug his article out of the bin, I’d never heard of him whatsoever. I doubt he’ll even make it to the index.
It is better to keep your mouth closed and have people think you may be stupid, than it is to open it and have it confirmed.
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” – Abraham Lincoln
I thought about it and decided not to click.
The power of positive thinking…
The writer has what is known as the the “Old fart Syndrome”, I don’t understand computers, thus why would any one else use them, when my portable Royal typewriter still works fine. Now it Steve Jobs had invented the portable type writer I may reconsider.
Strange that a fellow who shuns modern day electronics is still working for a printed paper. Little does he know that his paper will be gone in the very near future and the technology that spurred its demise came from the inventions and ideas of Steve Jobs and Apple, Inc..
If only he, Samuelson, could understand the scope of his oblivion, he would see that fame and glory span time only for the inventors. Bet he thinks Ford came up with automobile too…
Wash. Post’s Samuelson is a schmuck.
antibiotics, air travel, a/c, tv he lists as more significant than iSteve changing the way 6 industries work.
he’s judging from not touching an Apple product, as he stated. it’s like religious idiots who judged 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ or 2004’s Passion of the Christ, without watching it!! or it’s like my college professor who taught european art history without ever setting foot there – all theoretically. such life has no passion. Samuelson is biased.
as to the bigger significance in:
ANTI-BIOTIC: exactly. it’s ant-nature. it sure helps but the world ran without it for 1000s of years. i never take anti-bios and i’m 44! common sense is health, you don’t need f’g pharma up your rears to cure: they profit from your addictions. modern medicine is not much further along the pharaonic med. it’s still in its infancy. our biggest medical achievement in modern society is chemo, yet modern society & stress has created it; its cure rate is minimal anyway. oh, there’s viagra too, but i rather get off on real women & if i need a pill, well, i have to simply accept natural aging! it’s all so superficial nowadays.
AIRPLANES:
great, but there are ships, trains, autos, bikes, horses etc. humans lived 1000s of years without being air bound. nature made us human not birds of the sky. not that progress isn’t it. but airplanes also destroyed the ether, ozone, and our space shuttles/rockets pollute the orbit. until we invent eco-friendly planes, it’s not so worth it. it is a wonder how a plane can carry tons of weight & fly, yes. live near an airport to really dis-appreciate planes! Zeppelins could work too, they’re eco, more pleasant. just modernize them since wwii. want to impress for speed-travel? finally come up with a silent, eco-friendly spaceship or star-trek-like beam.
AC:
air + conditioning.
use harem-like comforting concepts.
a/c would be much more impressive without the poisonous freon.
again, humans lived without it 1000s of years. our industries are heating up the planet. live on mountains or where there’s a breeze. if you can’t use wind-power or upgrade fans with cooling not just blowing. surely, the industrial & digital revolutions created enough evolution to achieve such an advancement?! we can fly to planet mars, but can’t handle a cool fan?! our priorities are so lofty, yet unrealistic.
TV:
it surely entertains billions. but is it necessary for survival? did the world not function for 1000s of years prior to this? in germany they call tv “Volksverdummung”. the invention is to keep the folk occupied, lazy, brainwashed, lethargic etc. it’s a main function anyway.
STEVE’s advancements:
he takes the ordinary, like TV, music, movies, games, photography, videography, typewriters, software, phones, retail, marketing, advertising, manufacturing, packaging, industrial design, gui, desktop OS, mobile OS etc. and simples it all, giving power to the people, democratizing the world more than any manager ever…
the worthiness of accomplishment or inventiveness, is not
1. who invents 1st
2. comfort
but
1. how you implement inventions, simplify things
2. how you free people
worthiness is philosophical more than materialistic,
it’s intangible, it’s love, passion, vision, excitement,
change, craziness not banality, creativity not standards etc.
steve constantly brought us the NeXT thing. he never sat on his lazy ass by inventing one thing and sucking the life out of his buyers’ purse for the rest of his life like over 90% of corporations.
have some respect Mr. Sam.
get your history right.
get a life.
you are correct though, in that not all new things are better than the past solutions. you’d lose the romance of things.
yet, how is Steve’s or Apple’s changes in society,
if they bring smiles to billions around the globe,
a sin or an error or insignificant?
in other words, give me one other human,
who brought so much happiness.
not just smiles to consumers,
but livening up 1000s of lives with jobs, related directly or indirectly to Apple.
even your article, that you got paid to write in the Wash. Post now,
is writing material thanks to Steve and/or your pc was invented thanks to Steve when Xerox/IBM never believed in the personal computer…
If Steve Jobs had been the one who changed how typewriter had impacted print industry, Samuelson would have hailed Steve Jobs as the greatest man since Adam and Eve because old print is his bread and butter. But he haven’t used the computer as his main tool in his trade, he still uses the typewriter.
But wait, haven’t the computer swept away the typewriter? I think Samuelson has sour grapes syndrome.
If brains were gasoline, this turd wouldn’t have enough to drive an ant sized go-cart, one lap, around the inside of a cheerio.
Next he is going to say….64k is enough memory for anyone.
Oh wait….
Samuelson who?? Never heard of him. And if not for this posting, never would have.
That guy really makes my blood pressure rise.
At least 60 Minutes has found their replacement for Andy Rooney.
And his opinion matters, why? It’s like reading a car review written by someone who doesn’t drive!
Just a contrarian who thinks spewing this crap will get him some hits. Will Jobs be remembered in the same league as Ford or Edison. Hard to say, although the things he has given us are, to me, as revolutionary. But don’t bother clicking. Ignore the old man and his grouchy schtick.
Well, this Samuelson person will not even be a footnote, blip, speck in history. He’ll be nothing, thats right, blank, zippo, nada, invisible nobody in history.
So the GEICO caveman got a job with a newspaper.
What an assmunch!
What a dick.
Question for the editors of the Washington Post. Given this guys admitted background,
Why is this guy writing for you?
So… He’s an admitted Luddite, yet he thinks he has the authority to state where history will take our descendants?? Let’s consider the television, one of his ‘Change the world’ inventions. In fifty years, no one will know what a television (traditional) is. We’ll be getting our info-tainment on screens or something else that’s a direct descendant of today’s ‘gadgets.’ I’d say that’s changing society. Only those with their heads buried in the sand don’t realize this.
This is a luddite critiquing the industrial Revolution and saying it was a blip in history.
Bobby, you’re a putz! The fact alone that even technophobes such as you are able to type and print short pieces of pretentious prose using a personal computer is owed to the vision of the late Mr. Jobs and the Macintosh team.
No, the disclosure is not enough. This guy REALLY doesn’t understand technology. The current form of computing, including the internet is built upon the Mac GUI platform, which included the GUI desktop, the mouse, and the internet this guy is using. So, either this guy doesn’t know technology or he is just out there trying to grab attention to his site.
if this guy really thinks inventing the first true “PC” PERSONAL computer that was affordable/simple enough for mass ownership/use, as opposed to “work stations,” was “tiny” – and not as important as television – he needs to hang ’em up right now. clearly does not grasp the meaning of the word “empowerment” either.
instant laughingstock.
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
Abraham Lincoln
Im going to do two things here. First take his quote out of context than complete agree with him.
“In death, he has been lionized as the era’s greatest business leader” – Samuelson.
Yup I feel that’s absolutely right.
On a side note.
We all know that Apple will be holding a day of remembrance for Steve Jobs on Wednesday October the 19th.
I’m gathering like minded Apple folk to join at the BJ’s brewhouse and pizza bar in the Apple parking lot for honoring Steve’s memory.
I’m figuring drinks, food, laughs, gadgets, gizmos, great apple memories, and raising the celling on how many apple fans/nerds/geeks can squeeze into the cupertino area
Wednesday October 19th BJ’s Brewhouse, in front of Apple Inc. HQ from open to close.
Come join if you can.
http://www.facebook.com/HonoringSteve
This is not spam, just an Apple minded person trying to gather people in honor of a Legend.
Bravo douche
One word: Luddite.
Before you read this you should know I don’t drive a car and I use only candlelight around my house…
Mark my words, Edison and Ford will be forgotten in just another couple of years.
Exactly man I’m with you…
Edison, Ford, Tesla ??? Who the hell were these people?
* I can churn butter by hand without an AC electric motor.
* My horse is great to ride and sometimes I use a covered wagon with 3 of em’ to haul my family… the ORIGINAL SUV baaby…
* Who needs lights? Without electricity I have no reason to even stay awake after dark… besides I gotta be up at day break to milk the cow and tend to the hogs
These guys just made “Gadgets”… agreed.. they’ll easily be footnotes in history.. if they are even mentioned at all!
Click bait. I did not need the reminder. No clicking from me.
I didn’t click, but what’s quoted above is funny. I like how the guy says he only uses a desktop computer, email and the internet. Well, jeez, the internet’s pretty big, but maybe he doesn’t know that.
I’m sure the IT dept. at the Post loves him.
I bet the IT dept has never heard of him either.
they have no clue how to install windows on a typewriter..
I realize it’s the lowest form of debate, name-calling… But what a douchebag!
How can so much BS come out of one person?
This is the guy Steve mentioned in one of his famous quotes. If I had asked people they wanted, they would say a faster horse. now, this is the faster horse guy in the age of the automobile. Likely had this guy been writing when Henry Ford started the production line. The article would say in a hundred years that Ford would be little known and little more than a footnote at best.
Here To the ignorant dullards!
Y’know… Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile. He perfected its production and popularized it.
Edison didn’t invent the light bulb. He perfected it and popularized it.
Jobs didn’t invent the computer. He perfected and popularized it.
100 years from now, I wonder if anyone will look up Robert J. Samuelson’s name?
Who?
Well… people remember Tesla but not George Westinghouse, who’s promotion made possible the choice of using AC power over Edison’s scheme to have DC power plants on every other street corner.
Tesla = Wozniak
Westinghouse/Oppenheimer = Jobs
Well, according to Mr. Samuelson’s bio, his “alleged” area of expertise is in economics and business.
Irrespective of Steve Job’s accomplishments with regards to computers, digital music, Pixar, etc., the fact that he took a struggling company (Apple) that was on the verge of financial collapse and within 14 years took it to be one of the most valuable companies in the world is something that seems to escape Mr. Samuelson’s breadth of financial analysis or attention. I think that omission in and of itself speaks volumes about Mr. Samuelson.
And that’s not counting how Steve Jobs also turned his $10 million or so investment in Pixar and sold it to Disney for $7.4 BILLION within 10 years or so.
To say Mr. Samuelson is an elitist, “blowhard” is putting it mildly.
Your comparison with the talented financial wrangling puts Jobs more in the league of JP Morgan.
As Jonathan Swift said:
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
Jonathan Swift also said ‘A nice man is a man of nasty ideas’.
And he also wrote a charming little tome called
‘A Modest Proposal’
where did the post dig up that old fossil?
This asshole needs a faster horse.
So this person who knows nothing about technology blurts out this non-sense and expects people to believe him when he is the only one with this idiotic opinion.
And what historian is he talking about who has this opinion?
His opinion is worthless that’s for sure.
This man does not know what he is talking about, does he still have a job? I mean does he get paid to write this crap. I agree the disclaimer says it all.
To quote Mr Jobs: “Was he inebriated?”
What an blind ignorant ass…
I can see where Samuelson is coming from and agree with him somewhat. Read me out before flaming…
Samuelson was born in 1945. Grew up as a teen early 60’s. What two things happened. First, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 gave us the highways all over the USA that we enjoy today. Second, got his license, most likely, in early 60’s in the era of the Ford Mustang, etc., but probably had a used car from the 50’s no less to enjoy using on all those new highways.
Bottom line, Samuelson has a more intimate relationship with something Henry Ford gave us, and even by his own admission, then Steve Jobs. So he is biased with regards to elevating Ford over Jobs and saying Jobs will be just a footnote a hundred years from now.
Me, cars are superfluous. There is nothing ‘magical or revolutionary’ about cars. The only thing that gets me excited regarding cars is when I pass a gas station with low prices! Now that’s magical! But Henry Ford, to me, is a footnote.
I entered the computer age during a decade after the Macintosh miracle of ’84. I got to witness Jobs coming back to Apple, which wasn’t in the best of shape. I got to witness Jobs business savvy that after a little more than a decade had Apple becoming the most profitable company in America next to Exxon. I, we, got to experience the ‘revolutionary and magical’, time and time again with OS X, the iMac, the iPod, ITMS, iPhone, iPad and more… that left us devotees asking “What’s next?”. But not with cars. That industry is too well established that we take it for granted. But not with computers, because we are still in it’s infancy. But 100 years from now, when people just expect from their computers in whatever form they may be, the same as we with cars and expect the same. In a hundred years, Jobs a footnote? Sure, just as Ford is a footnote to us now.
But my oh my, how lucky were we to be here during the time of Steve Jobs! I for one am thankful! Thanks Steve.
I agree that Henry Ford made the more substantial contribution.
Not many people can grasp nowadays what it was like before cars..or paved roads even.
I always saw Jobs as being closest in comparison to J Robert Oppenheimer. The way the Mac and the atomic bomb were developed have some remarkable similarities: a strong charismatic leader pushing talented people to do their best work, and being able to cause different separate teams to work to complete a single final product.
I wonder if he cranks his car to start it.
Samuelson? Samuelson? Who’s that?
Samuelson’s lack of intellectual curiosity, which accounts for his ignorance about Steve Jobs’ many contributions to society & humanity, is one big reason to retire the guy. He’s hopelessly irrelevant. Or maybe he thought he could increase his readership by being an ass?
Jobs changed my life, I met my girlfriend through an iPhone app!!
that may be one of those things you don’t tell everyone..
I have come across some dribble in my time but seriously how does someone quite this out of touch with reality seriously get a job expressing his shear lunacy. What Steve Jobs has done for society is beyond compare to Henry Ford who simply mechanised the process of building cars before the next person and who’s company is rapidly becoming irrelevant to the process. as for Edison he was an overated inventor of the serial patent process who didn’t even invent the thing that everyone identifies him with and who told Bell his telephone wouldn’t work, probably as he hadn’t been able to steal the idea. Tv was ridiculed for almost as long as the Mac has existed and it was probably Samuelson’s dad who was doing it and it is the very technology that Jobs has pioneered that will continue to make it and indeed much business air travel for that matter less relevant. Somehow someone who has only just given up their typewriter is hardly the first person I would listen to to determine the future course of his country and its position in the World. The fact is in an age when competition for ideas and technology far outstrips those others he mentions concepts Jobs has evolved will establish him as one of the supreme originators of what makes our World what it is while Samuelson’s musings will if they are quoted at all go down in history as examples of the dumbness of commentators who look backwards rather than forwards.
Henry Ford did a lot more than mechanize the process – he made the car affordable for anyone. (Thus also leading to a good reason to have paved roads)
Without Henry Ford (or paved roads) 23 year old Steve may have not been able to escape rapidly enough from his pregnant girlfriend.
This guy is just an ‘Attention Whore’ …
I always thought Wozniak made the greater contribution with his low-cost scaled down design, and homemade operating system.
That he was able to see it in his head and then make it is remarkable.
You know whose name I won’t remember in 15 min? Robert J. Samuelson.