There’s a very interesting article on the CNET news site today about a 2003 Rolling Stone Magazine interview with Steve Jobs, by Jeff Goodell, re: digital music, the iTunes Music Store, the future of Apple, and the future of the music business as it relates to the digital realm.
The article, which takes a retrospective look at Jobs’ predictive abilities, is pretty amazing. I leave it to you to read it if you’re interested. But there was one graf from the article that I think offers keen insight into the recent media-driven hand-wringing over Steve Jobs’ health and his public response to his own health issues: Â
At one point, Goodell asks Jobs if he wrung his hands over the decision to bring iTunes to Windows. The tech legend responded, “I don’t know what hand-wringing is.”
While there’s no way for me to know this of a certainty, I don’t think Steve’s statement was in any way limited to the Mac v. Windows question presented by Goodell. It’s a philosophical way of life. It governs everything that Steve Jobs does. In short, says Jobs, “I’m not wringing my hands over anything as it relates to me and my endeavors, why the frack should you?”
To some this translates as arrogance, especially to those whose whole scared-of-their-own-shadow existence is predicated on one hand-wringing decision after the next. They see it as arrogance, but it’s not. It’s something more like principled living. I’m guessing that’s what scares the hell out of them.