Malcolm Gladwell says Steve Jobs will be forgotten, Bill Gates remembered

"Tipping Point" author Malcolm Gladwell.

/ Brooke Williams

(CBS News) In 50 years will you remember Steve Jobs? According to Malcolm Gladwell, author of "The Tipping Point," no one will.

In a recent talk at the Toronto Public Library's Appel Salon, Gladwell said that Jobs, the late Apple co-founder, will likely be forgotten for his contributions to the technology industry. The author suggests that entrepreneurs, like Jobs, aren't worth being idolized.

Gladwell does, however, think that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates will be remembered, but for his philanthropy not entrepreneurship.

"Gates is the most ruthless capitalist, and then he wakes up one morning and he says, 'enough.' And he steps down, he takes his money, he takes it off the table," said Gladwell. "I firmly believe that 50 years from now, [Gates] will be remembered for his charitable work, no one will even remember what Microsoft is."

Gladwell is referring to Gates' charitable work, which he has been increasingly focused on after stepping down as Microsoft's chief executive officer. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have given over $2.6 billion in grants to causes around the world since 1994.

"And of the great entrepreneurs of this era people will have forgotten Steve Jobs. Who's Steve Jobs again? There will be statues of Gates across the third world."

Gladwell's scrutiny doesn't seem to be an attack on Jobs, but rather a sharp criticism of how business-leaders are celebrated.

"[W]e need to be clear when we venerate entrepreneurs what we are venerating," said Gladwell. "They are not moral leaders. If they were moral leaders they wouldn't be great businessmen. So when a businessman is a great moral leader, it is because they have maintained their conscience separately from their operations."

[michaelmitsakos]

http://moneyandblues.com/widen-the-scope-of-good/

[Scimajor]

Yet another guy trying to make money from his book by saying asinine things in his book. The more asinine the more money apparently.

[Fill_F_Fill]

Gates certainly is more public with his use of celebrity to advance the (wonderful) agenda of his foundation. Jobs and Apple are much lower key when it comes to their philanthropic work, which some incorrectly assume is evidence that they haven't done much philanthropic work. That said, I think Jobs has the edge of a more noteworthy legacy in the tech industry due perhaps mostly with his quirky personality traits. It would be interesting to see what even Windows would have looked like today without Apple's influence. Remember even Gates lacked the vision to see the value of the Internet (which he famously called the 'Home Shoplifting Network') or a windowing system until it was demonstrated by somebody else. And Ballmer's long history of bazaar antics and string of blatantly incorrect predictions, like Apple couldn't ever significantly tap the already saturated cellphone market or the tablet market has already been shown to be nonexistent.

[can.da.spam]

Mr Gladwell appears to have had a fall or suffered a stroke -- he's lost contact with reality and turned his attention inward to his own ego in vainglorious behavior. Jobs and Apple are historic landmarks in the tech industry, in industrial design, retail, brand management, even social evolution. Good grief.

[gwjvan]

There is a quote left out of this article from Mr Gladwell:

"Every single idea he ever had came from somebody else. And he would be the first to say this. He would also take credit for things. He was shameless. He was an extraordinarily brilliant businessman and entrepreneur. He was also a self-promoter on a level that we have rarely seen."

Mr. Jobs is recorded on video admitting that Apple steals from where ever they can (and Jobs himself "stole" credit from his fellow employees). They made great products, but I am hard pressed to figure out what major leaps they made independently, other than harnessing and polishing existing technologies.

It is as if Apple could make a slightly prettier, better performing plunger and then they and their followers will claim they invented the plunger and effectively work to destroy the foundational progress they are standing on (the work of other technology developers) to claim their tiny improvements as the be-all, end-all leaps of innovation. It is not healthy/valuable for anyone to think in this way.

[zatoGibson]

"Every single idea he ever had came from somebody else..."

The Microsoft worshiping taliban never fails to add its ugly BS to any article that mentions Apple.

[gwjvan]

@zatoGibson

I don't use Microsoft products, but I actually have a G4 PowerBook that is a beautiful machine.

If you want to call me a Linux idealist, that would be closer to the truth. (Though, I'm open to various opinions and points of view, and haven't wrapped my head around all of the issues yet)

[cmptrwhiz88]

Gladwell is really overstepping here, and since so many companies exist on the back of the MS non-proprietary OS, I think that Gladwell is hoping that his spin is true...but unfortunately, it's only spin. MS is going down the toilet as I write, and the horizon of Widows 8 is very dim and unworkable. If you need to make a living and work, and the computer is more than just a toy for you, you will be relieved to know that the MAC OSX delivers 100%. As Steve Jobs used to say, "It just works." Steve Jobs will be remembered for his innovative ideas, intuitive technological leaps, and uncanny great products...a perfect mix of tech and art. Bill Gates will be remembered as a shrewd business man who sometimes ran afoul of the justice department, AND when his ideas and products hit a dead end, decided to become charitable.

[rsamii]

Well, not sure where Gladwell is coming from. Steve Jobs will be remembered for generations to come. He is the Edison, Galileo, Copernicus of our century.

Now, talking about philanthropists - name 7 philanthropists who are no longer with us........

Human beings do not remember good deeds, they remember good products, they remember items that transformed, revolutionized their lives and those of their generations. This is why, STEVE JOBS will be remembered for ever!!!! BEcause he has gone beyond the TIPPING POINT!!!!!!

[boycott-microsoft]

Who is Bill Gates, he has done nothing the last ten years! Why would we remember BillG? Windows will be long gone in ten more years, noone will be using the product since the company will have faltered another operating system push and their stock pluments. MSFT has been so close to extinction that they are not even innovating, PLUS most importantly their manufacturing partners are not even wanting to make thier products for fear of losing profits and going under like other companys that sign exclusive manufacturing agreements. When MSFT does bad so does their partners and vendors, doubt they have anymore steam left.

Steve Jobs will be known just as he wanted, wanting to change the status quo. Which is did and his legacy will be remembered and emulated by others in the future.
Why would companies/people want to be ruthless, stealing code just as BillG did in his tenor. It only looks like this article wants to remember an icon that left the industry after raping from the public as their was nothing left to pillage. Jobs changed the planet with his ideals and did it unconventional from others without the severe impact and destruction of those opposed. Billg philanthropy was only guilt.

[msouth468]

Ha, windows gone in 10 years? Wanna make a bet on the matter?

[Elron_Aven]

"innovation" as you call it, is easy when you don't care about backward compatibility of an installed base of corporate customers who can't just change on a whim.

[Pogi1211]

Who is Gladwell? Never heard of him.

[Bojax39]

Some guy who looks sort of like Alfred E. Neuman with all his teeth, I guess.

[hypnotoad72]

Both are marketers who used predatory practices and unethical behavior. Since when does being good and nice lead to success on the scale they achieved?

But feel free to relish in the myths surrounding these people.

"I think you have to think differently to buy a Mac. A lot of times people think they're crazy, but in that craziness we see genius."'

(Doesn't Jobs' own line make you feel warm and fuzzy all over? Go buy one.)

I could post a zillion examples, but when placing his royal self into the hands of others, even in a field they know more in, he ends up acting like a pompous arse anyway:

http://www.styleite.com/media/steve-jobs-photo-shoots/

Steve, they know their jobs. Grow up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/04/apple-dc-lobbying-efforts-get-fierce_n_818874.html

If free market proponents are for small government, what's his lot doing trying to get entitlements?

http://www.zdnet.com/photos/apple-granted-patent-on-macbook-air/6368200?seq=7&tag=photo-frame;get-photo-roto

Another patent granted for a very generic outline. And speaking of patents:

http://www.zdnet.com/debate/software-patents-broken-system-or-needed-for-innovation/6366766?tag=main;top-stories

Note the line of

"
Imagine if the current methods applied to physical devices. A patent for "a device for capturing or killing small rodents with a mechanism activated by a sensing device" might have been granted. There goes the eternal search for a better mousetrap. "

So forgive people when anyone talking about "innovation" and "competition" is not taken seriously, and do remember that patent 'reform' was signed in Sept 2011, with much bipartisanship, and with little fanfare, and anyone reading up on it will quickly fathom who benefits - and it's not those who do the work, and people will be less likely to want to try anything when some big thug will say "MINE! I own the patent!"


I could be here all day with a zillion tangents on Apple, but want to show I have no favoritism, especially as people claim Gates will be remembered, so let's have a partial recap of his record:


Their origins:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcWjOodAtoE
(Dramatized, but based on factual evidence)
?
They dislike piracy,
http://gadgetopia.com/post/6679

unless it benefits them, of course:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/07/23/100134488/
?
They make sure they get all the sales, even when they can't get the sales ethically,

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/desktop-os/2004/07/13/the-legacy-of-microsofts-1994-consent-decree-39160392/



http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-233992.html
?
They dislike government:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft
?
But they'll engage the ultimate "marketing tactic" to Congress anyway:

http://mydd.com/story/2007/2/7/184312/5388


http://hubpages.com/hub/HowH1BVisaFRAUDiskillingAmerica

Not to mention, they love taking taxpayer money despite years' worth of profit margins showing their bootstraps are quite pulled up:
http://www.ctj.org/html/corp0402.htm

But then make threats to government officials when they don't get their way:
http://www.businessinsider.com/ballmer-threatens-obama-says-hell-move-jobs-overseas-2009-6

Plenty more where that one came from - they're freeloaders and anti-"free market" with their own antics, if they have to meddle to have their own way.

And do note, their history is replete with incidents - my response to you barely scratches the surface of the tip of the iceberg.

[skeezix06]

I agree.