[silvestrov]

I'd say that it was not so much that he was a founder, but that he was the kind of business person that was happy talking to Steve Wozniak, Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, and similar nerds.

He was able to make friends with them instead of treating them like cattle.

I've met so many business people that think talking to nerds is a total let down, a degradation of social status.

[OhMeadhbh]

Steve Jobs famously did not make friends with his engineers. I do not know where you get this info. Or rather... he was the type of friend who probably made you prefer your enemies. a. He dicked Woz on the Breakout design, telling him he would split the proceeds 50/50 - turns out it was more 25/75. b. He dicked Dan Kottke (very early Apple employee and friend from Reid College with whom he backpacked in India) by cancelling his stock options when apple IPOed - Woz stepped in and gave Dan some of his share allocation. c. The last time I saw Burell Smith, he was homeless living on the streets in Palo Alto - very friendly of Steve to not do anything for him. d. Steve dicked Jef Raskin (who kicked off the original Macintosh project, thought Jef's idea was WAAAAY different than the Mac that eventually emerged)

What I learned working with (not for) NeXT in the early 90s was "Steve is not your friend."

[mckn1ght]

It sounds strange that someone could go from lofty Apple engineer to homeless (though it certainly wouldn’t be the first fall from grace in human history).

I read the brief wikipedia page about Smith, which states he has bipolar disorder and has at least one incident that was publicized in the early 90s. Was your encounter with him before or after that?

Sadly, with some people it doesn’t matter how much money they have or how much help you give them behind the scenes. I’m not saying Jobs went to the end of the earth for him, I don’t know. But I know people from my own life where it didn’t matter, so it’s in the realm of imagination at least.

The stock bs sounds dickish though.