FBI File Notes Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field 337
Hugh Pickens writes "Bloomberg reports that the FBI has released a decades-old file it kept on Steve Jobs, the deceased Apple co-founder, after a background check for a possible appointment by former President George H. W. Bush conducting interviews with unnamed associates of Jobs to judge his character, drug use and potential prejudices. 'Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs' honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals,' according to the materials. Several people commented 'concerning past drug use on the part of Mr. Jobs,' according to the file including marijuana, hashish and LSD during the period 1970 – 1974. The file also noted that Jobs was not a member of the communist party."
Hardly a unique trait (Score:5, Insightful)
Most people (we are not all paragons of virtue) do that. The difference was that Jobs was apparently good at it.
Old Pot/Kettle drama (Score:5, Insightful)
Drugs (Score:5, Insightful)
Tons and tons of people have used a bit of hash and LSD in their past, but few will admit it to their employers if they work in the professional world.
It's not that these activities actually make a person of bad or suspicious - it's that many people _believe_ that they do. This turns casual and innocent drug users into liars because they have to protect themselves from the horribly ill-informed and paranoid power structure.
Re:Old Pot/Kettle drama (Score:3, Insightful)
You can run, but you won't win... People keep crying out that they want to curb career politicians, but when you have Joe Nobody on the ballot vs. someone you've seen on the TV, people will vote for the one they saw on TV.
Re:Breaking news (Score:5, Insightful)
What is absurd about the FBI having a file on someone who was a potential presidential appointee?
"twist the truth and distort reality" (Score:5, Insightful)
to achieve his goals.
The man outright stated he was willing to bankrupt the company he was in charge of making a profit for in order to avenge a perceived theft.
I would say the guy has reality, vengeance, and anger issues that rivals that of women I've let into my life.
Seriously, the guy had a very elegant approach to things, that's why Apple is very popular among those who don't mind having choices made for them, because despite the premium they're good solid choices as long as you don't have anything outside the box to accomplish. There's no doubt in my mind the guy had control issues, the fit he threw when the iPhone boot-loader was cracked, the fact he won't let you deal with multi-media data on external USB/FireWire drives on Mac OS X, the FUD he had the company spread about OGG/Vorbis, and the face Apple officially doesn't even acknowledge Linux exist even though it counts MS/Windows as a bonus feature combined with temper and obsessiveness stories that leaked about his first term as CEO tells me Jobs was likely a sociopath.
Re:Breaking news (Score:5, Insightful)
Get a life bonch. A Slashdotter who lives in one of the most boring places in the world is telling you to Get. A. Life.
Re:"twist the truth and distort reality" (Score:4, Insightful)
none of that, I've got a nice set of knife scars to remind me how some people react to not getting their way, or at least having their supply of drug money cut off
"Communist" is just branding (Score:3, Insightful)
Communist China is communist like Roman Meal bread is from Rome.
Re:Old Pot/Kettle drama (Score:4, Insightful)
You can try (and by all means, I support any efforts) but there's a membrane (glass ceiling?) that has to be broken through for people to even seriously consider someone running via Youtube, etc. You'll never be invited to any debates, people will not do research on their own to find out what you support and they will continue to vote for the person with "experience". You pretty much have to start from the city/local government at a young age and work your way up to be considered for spots that are intended to be filled by common citizens, but you're not going to be a common citizen if you work up the ladder and you have to dedicate your life to it unless you have a ton of money to spend on ramping up that campaign.
Re:wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Breaking news (Score:5, Insightful)
They're better than human, they're a corporation; All the rights and privileges, a lot less of the requirements.
Hacks (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it me, or is it the more we learn about the inner workings of our government via WikiLeaks, social media, and other channels that it becomes clear the last thing on earth any reasonably intelligent person should ever do is give their trust or dollars to the government or big corporations?
As a young man I had an impression of at least certain departments of the government as being competent, such as the FBI, CIA, and State Department. The first of those to fall was the CIA, with whom I had personal contact in the late 90's; calling them room temperature IQ's would be an effusive compliment. Then the FBI botched investigation after investigation throughout their lab screw-ups. And their modus operandus seemed to increasingly be to frame their suspects and violate the basic constitutional rights of innocent Americans. The State Department's sign-off on yellow-cake uranium was the first big blow to my confidence in that bunch; the next big strike against them was breezing through their application process only to wonder why it was no people of color made it; and the nail in the coffin was Cablegate.
Now, maybe DARPA has mettle left. The SEALs seem to prove themselves again and again. Apple and Google appear to be effective. But why do we cede so much to all the rest, given how shot through with corruption, collusion, and incompetence they are, and at such horrific cost?
We are, many of us, so much brighter and better and deserving of more to have our collective potential so utterly frustrated by such dross. It's not an information problem so much anymore. We have any one of dozens of channels to chose from to communicate. Is it a question of will or organization? As refugees from the system of ritual abuse constituted by the status quo, are we constitutionally unable to work with others cohesively or deeply afraid of bullies who will walk up and punch us?
I struggle with this because I see the deep intelligence of so many of my colleagues and of the general community on /., and I wonder what challenges we could not surmount if we could break free of our learned social inhibitions. We have all grown up in a world ruled by salesmen, thugs, and psychopaths, but that's not the world I'd like to leave to my kids. I'd like them to live in a world led by artists, engineers, scientists, and humanitarians.
Re:"twist the truth and distort reality" (Score:4, Insightful)
Sociopaths are actually quite good at reading people and giving them what they want (and telling them what they want to hear). That's not empathy, it's just a very skilled ability to mimic empathy. Ted Bundy was a classic example. Almost everyone who knew him described him as charming, personable, and charismatic.
Re:Old Pot/Kettle drama (Score:4, Insightful)
Our problem isn't that the people are stupidly voting crooks in. Our problem is that we never fire them. Imagine what would have happened last summer during all that budget nonsense if several of the people in that room had to deal with the threat of being recalled.
Re:Hacks (Score:5, Insightful)
We have all grown up in a world ruled by salesmen, thugs, and psychopaths, but that's not the world I'd like to leave to my kids. I'd like them to live in a world led by artists, engineers, scientists, and humanitarians.
Artists, engineers, scientists and humanitarians do not have an unquenchable, innate thirst for power.
Salesmen, thugs and psychopaths do. So they work hard to gather, consolidate and maintain power while decent people don't. It's that simple.
Re:Breaking news (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Drugs (Score:5, Insightful)
This is what bad laws do, turn everyone into a criminal. Once you're a criminal, deservedly or not, you lose at least some level of respect for the law. It's somewhat self defeating.
But then, what do I know, I don't like Star Wars much.
Re:Old Pot/Kettle drama (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is (usually) the kind of person who wants to run for this office isn't the kind of person you want to hold it.
Re:Breaking news (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hardly a unique trait (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Breaking news (Score:4, Insightful)
Corporations are what you'd get with a human who:
- Never sleeps
- Never needs air
- Has no conscience
- Has enough funding to run a team of lawyers 24/7
- Cannot be imprisoned or arrested, even for a single hour
I'll believe a corporation is a person when one can be given the death penalty for murder. Oh, wait, they just fine the corporation lots of money and the people responsible for the murderous decisions get off scot free with a golden stock parachute...
Re:Hardly a unique trait (Score:4, Insightful)
Some of those failures did end up being the next big thing. Lisa became the Mac, NeXT OS became OSX, the cube was part of a new of thinking that (re)valued design in computers. Jobs did have flight of fancy though, like his state of the art factories [youtube.com] where he obsessed over how to make the process beautiful. Ironically abandoning those white elephants and going to China like everyone else is now a major point of criticism for Apple.
Re:Hardly a unique trait (Score:4, Insightful)
They never could count on him to figure out the next new thing correctly. (Can anyone say 'Lisa'? 'Cube'?)
What? Your expectation is for every single product to work out? A hen that lays golden eggs? Dream on, it doesn't exist. Jobs had more products that were milestones in computer evolution than he had failures. That's a pretty unique success rate.
Why do slashdotters hate success so much? Does it make them feel inadequate?