"My neighbor, Steve Jobs, has been in the news lately. The talk of the town is the recent announcement he will be stepping aside to let other seeds grow at Apple. The business press, the general press, the blogosphere, and just about everybody else has waxed poetic about the 'greatest CEO of all time' saying that this 'boy wonder' has shaped the very nature of our lives with his genius. It's all true, but here in Palo Alto, Steve Jobs isn't just an icon, he's also the guy who lives down the street." I like stories that put a human being behind a public figure. As much as I dislike Apple's recent policies, Jobs is still just a regular person, like all of us. It's easy to forget that when you're sitting behind a glass desk 4000 kilometres away.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2009-03-17
... or economists ;-)
If you look at the majority of our social institutions, be it government, churches, or corporation, they are for the most part sociopathic in nature: they look out for their self preservation first, prioritizing it over their supposed mission statement in many cases.
So it is no coincidence that for the most part, people who end up in power positions tend to be somewhat sociopathic, since that is the qualities the systems expect.
Even if they are the nicest people at home, the ability to compartmentalize empathy is a defining trait of sociopathy. Which is ironic, since some posters are using that compartmentalization as proof of the opposite. That is basically a manifestation of cognitive dissonance .
And that cognitive dissonance ultimately is what ends up preventing societies having an open and honest debate about the implications of the institutions/systems we have based our societies around.
Anyhow, that is neither here not there. As this is a blog about Operating Systems. But then again this fluff piece by a bored housewife was equally out of place...
Edited 2011-09-01 21:40 UTC
Member since:2006-10-20
or they end up burning everyone around them and end up broken and alone. I've known a few girls that are like this. They treat everyone like crap and play people off against each other for their own ends. Guess what? people generally grow to hate these people and they become outcasts from everyone they knew.
Member since:
2005-08-18
Hmmm...I read somewhere that sociopaths grow up to become great leaders, successful businessmen or serial killers.