re: #236 iossarian

But that’s the problem, really. If you “do a Steve Jobs*”, waltz in to some established company, shake things up, fire a bunch of people and replace them with young hip go-getters…

Then you might make a bunch of money for the shareholders (but the people you fired are still fired) or you might crater the place and leave with a fat check and some board memberships. Either way you win - in some cases some people lose (the fired workers) while in other cases lots of people lose (the fired workers, the shareholders, people forced to endure your shitty products if you have an entrenched monopoly etc.).

The idealized Steve Jobs approach might be more appropriate in a differently-conceived version of capitalism with alternative funding models, career security and so on. Currently I think it only works plausibly in start-ups.

* This is not necessarily what actual Steve Jobs did, more an exaggerated version of what people do if they’re trying to be like Steve Jobs.

I was talking about starting a business…not taking one over and fucking it up. To my knowledge, Jobs didn’t screw up a company that existed. That’s the regret and following your passion to do what Jobs did.