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Jobs was certainly an inspirational entrepreneur and CEO but he always talked out of both sides of his mouth. He'd mug for the cameras and say all of that lofty stuff about creativity, bicycles for the mind, etc., and then go back to the office for a knock-down, drag-out fight with Woz about whether the Apple ][ should come with expansion slots or a padlock.

In business terms, Heathkit isn't something that he would have respected as anything but an unscalable niche hobby. Sucks that he would've been right about that.




All of these things are true. Jobs was clearly brilliant and creative and also ultimately a shrewd (and somewhat ruthless) businessman.

But he was right about the transformative power of building things yourself.




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