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."
Job Requirements? (Score:2, Interesting)
>> Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals,
Sounds like a politician to me!
Re:Breaking news (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Old Pot/Kettle drama (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Old Pot/Kettle drama (Score:5, Interesting)
[Retracted] concluded the interview by stating that even though he does not consider Mr. Jobs to be a friend, he (Mr. Jobs) possesses the qualities to assume a high level political position. It was [retracted]'s opinion that honesty and integerity are not required qualities to hold such a position."
Re:Old Pot/Kettle drama (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hardly a unique trait (Score:5, Interesting)
Most people (we are not all paragons of virtue) do that. The difference was that Jobs was apparently good at it.
The difference between SJ and most people, not referenced in his report but available from anyone who ever worked closely with him, was that SJ was addicted to backstabbing even when it would hurt him as well. Do a favor for SJ? Either disappear immediately or count on him going out of his way to hurt you.
TOP SECRET clearance at PIXAR? (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a note that Jobs once held a TOP SECRET clearance while at Pixar. I wonder what Pixar was doing for the Government.
Re:Old Pot/Kettle drama (Score:5, Interesting)
My favorite paragraph was this one:
_______concluded the interview by stating that even though he does not consider Mr. Jobs to be a friend, he (Mr. Jobs) possesses the qualities to assume a high level political position. It was ______ opinion that honesty and integrity are not required qualities to hold such a position. _____ recommended him for a position of trust and confidence with the Government.
He said this after the beginning of his/her interview where he characterized Jobs as a "deceptive individual and not completely forthright and honest," and then mentions the usual reality distortion field stuff.
Good enough for CEO work, good enough for Government work, lol.
Best quote from entire document (Score:5, Interesting)
[redacted] concluded the interview by stating that even though he does not consider Mr. Jobs to be a friend, he (Mr. Jobs) possesses the qualities to assume a high level political position. It was [redacted]'s opinion that honest and integrity are not required qualities to hold such a position. [redacted] recommended him for a position of trust and confidence with the government.
That quote alone is awesome on so many levels I can't even begin to describe the joy and mirth I experienced while reading it.
Re:what's with the all-caps emails? (Score:4, Interesting)
When I hired into a high tech company in 1996, they were still using a home-grown electronic mail system running on a mainframe, using a tn3270 emulator to access it. Most people had transitioned to SMTP mail for most purposes (they quaintly called it "Internet mail"), but there was still an important segment of mail traffic that went over the old system.
The older, proprietary message system did allow mixed case, and most people used it that way. But, there were still a handful of people (mostly in HR) that had been there 20+ years, and still sent all their messages in ALL CAPS. (One person I remember specifically had their tn3270 emulator set to force CAPS mode.)
That proprietary system got retired about 2 years after I hired in. I wasn't sad to see it go.
My point, anyway, is that old habits die hard. Mixed case may have been supported or may not have been, but ALL CAPS was slow to die out in certain corners. Heck, aren't NWS alerts still in ALL CAPS?
Re:Hardly a unique trait (Score:0, Interesting)
If he hadn't been so good at it, maybe he wouldn't have fooled himself into thinking that he didn't need the possibly life-saving surgery for his cancer until it was too late.
Anti communist seems anti democratic (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm baffled by America's continuing war on stamping out communists.
Sure, this is a democracy, we want to stay a democracy. We had enemies who were communists; however, the witch hunt against communism, which is still going on to a lesser degree is baffling.
When I applied for my green card, and later my citizenship (as recent as 2 years ago)- I had to fill in a form saying I hadn't overthrown any governments, wasn't a communist, etc, etc, etc. ... and no, I'm not a communist- although I joined a joke "communist party" in university that parodied the Republican and democrat clubs (I'm actually very centrist)- surprise they didn't find that and block my citizenship... :)
To me it seems to be "undemocratic" to try and stamp out an individual party or belief like that. Sure- if they try to over-throw the country- or do terrorist acts- or represent a foreign nation- but to try to keep people out because of their belief. Obviously the made a point- even as late as the 80's to make sure Jobs wasn't a commie... this was after the worst of the cold war- and after McCarthyism was en vogue.
Even MLK was demonized by the FBI- they spread false rumours about him trying to discredit him because he had communist friends and they FBI was worried he too might be a communist trying to spread communism.
I dunno- but even as someone who is opposed to communism - I find the attack on communism by the government to be kinda creepy- it feels as if some rights are being violated somehow. If I did want to be a commie- should I not be allowed to? Should I not be allowed to have a political opinion that is not main stream? What if a Republican government later decides to attack and out law the green party, or the democrats?
Am I the only one who finds this wrong? I know we're supposed to hate the commies- but we're also supposed to let people believe whatever they want and only arrest them if the commit a crime or conspire to do so.
Re:"twist the truth and distort reality" (Score:3, Interesting)
You're dead on about the sociopath stuff. I never worked directly for him, but I had a number of projects where I was reporting to those who did. There was an employee communications meeting being held by an exec VP when Jobs came back which was particularly amusing. They opened up the floor to general questions and this bright eyed girl asked "What is he like in person?" VP pauses for a good 10 count and then says "Well, you kind of have to be a bit of a meglomaniac to do what he does."
And that's the truth of it. At the end of the day what separates Jobs from a number of other geniuses is a lot of those other people probably listen to the opinions of others.
Re:Breaking news (Score:5, Interesting)
I second that motion. Corporations break the law and commit things that would be considered felonies, yet they just get a small fine and a slap of the wrist. The fine is always ridiculously small, it is like having a $90 fine for stealing $100 worth of goods from a store. The chances of getting caught by someone you can't bribe are small, and when you do get caught, the fine isn't that bad.
In some states, convicted felons lose the right to vote. Yet, corporations convicted of felonies are allowed to sway elections with unlimited campaign contributions.