Essay The movies Jobs and Pirates of Silicon Valley each follow the story of how Apple incorporated was formed and how it rose to become a central player in the personal computing industry.
The story naturally holds a focus on Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs, revealing much about the man himself, though the films had notable differences in how they chose to depict Steve Jobs.
In this essay, I will analyze Steve Jobs’ character according to his portrayals in the movies. At the start of both movies, Steve Jobs started out as a simple young adult going through his life, yet to find his place. Still, even in this early stage, we see several aspects of his character that prove to be constant throughout the movie. For example, we see that he has a passion for spirituality and art, a trait that bled into his vision of computers. Even when Apple grew into a fully­fledged company, Jobs remained constant in his desire for the computer to be an intuitive tool that integrated science, art, and spirituality. This vision of the computer that he maintains leads to him going for goals that strike as outright impossible ­ often sinking large sums of money into projects to make his vision come true, and finding criticisms in even the best work that his employers produce. Steve Jobs is, clearly, a very demanding person, seemingly capable of finding flaws in anything. Jobs’ demanding attitude is further fuelled by his ambitious nature. Throughout both films,
Jobs’ ambition shines through very clearly. From the time he spends trying to seek funding for
Apple in its early days to the wild dreams he holds as CEO of Apple. He takes every opportunity presented to him to further the company. We also see that Jobs is a very difficult person to work with. Steve is shown to be prone to outbursts, from his days building motherboards in his parents’ garage to his days as CEO of a multinational corporation. He is a boss that demands perfection and efficiency from his employees, and tolerates nothing less than perfection. The biggest problem I have with Steve Jobs’ character is his short temper, petty attitude, and his tendency to bring the issues of his personal life into his business life. He frequently allows himself to fly into fits of rage, firing people for any reason between lacking his vision and him simply being in a bad mood. In Pirates of Silicon Valley, Jobs is shown to practically be a slave­driver, encouraging employees to work extra hours and neglect sleep. This has clear effects on morale, and often sparks infighting between project teams. In fact, after being kicked off of the development team for Lisa, Jobs outright segregates the Macintosh team from the rest of Apple. He shows clear favouritism towards the Macintosh team, calling them family and treating them better than the rest of his employees.

He also seems to have little ability to self­criticize. When his long­time girlfriend gets pregnant, he falls into denial that the child is his, despite both her insistence and a positive paternity test. He even ignores advice to pay for child support despite the fact that the money wouldn’t even make a dent in his wallet. Eventually, he seemingly comes around and accepts responsibility, but it takes many years for him to finally acknowledge that he should help raise the child. In conclusion, I am of the opinion that Steve Jobs is a highly flawed individual. He has many glaring faults to him, and in the end I feel that they harmed his personal relationships as well as the work environment at Apple incorporated. However, there’s no denying that Steve Jobs is certainly an intelligent and ambitious person ­ an ideal leader for the emerging company that Apple was.

Discussion Dillon Apple Essay Response <p>Interesting insights. I agree with you on your point that Apple has lost its original purpose of selling computers that are meant to be for the everyday person, though I’d like