Daniel Finkelstein, writing in The Times today:
….in many ways Jobs was dreadful. He was manipulative, egotistical, ready to trample over people to an extraordinary extent and his head was full of highly eccentric notions, particularly about his health and diet.
He was also simply brilliant. And there was a connection between his impossible personality and the impossible results he achieved. He simply insisted that his singular vision, his concept, however extreme and impractical it might seem, was delivered exactly as he had conceived it.
He was quite unwilling to compromise with anybody or even with reality. He ignored cost, or even whether the parts he wished to include in his new product existed. He thought anyone who couldn’t see things as he saw them was a fool and should be treated as such. He lied and cheated to get his way. And he succeeded.
