A Sociology of Steve Jobs

jamesmcintyre · on Oct 12, 2011

Probably the most holistic write-up I've read on Apple's disposition.

pedrolll · on Oct 12, 2011

Agreed. Seeing how shallow most of the articles on Jobs' life have been, this makes me feel a strange tingle of pride for being a sociology student.

Seriously though, that article is beautifully written. I wish my writings would be half as coherent.

jacobolus · on Oct 12, 2011

Kieran is one of the writers at the excellent group blog Crooked Timber http://crookedtimber.org/ which is one of the best places on the web for smart discussion of economics, political science, sociology, philosophy, etc.

kitsune_ · on Oct 12, 2011

I'm fascinated by sociology. By the works of people like Max Weber or Elias Canetti especially because they invoke a kind of mysticism which is hardly captured by most modern authors and researchers.

I remember the impact that reading Elias Canetti's "Crowds and Power" had on me when I was around 16 years of age. It was in my dad's book shelf, an old and battered book. Afterwards I picked up Konrad Lorenz' "On Aggression" from the same book shelf. Good times.

I'm neither a great writer nor am I a blogger, and English isn't my native language. I wished more tech articles would be less mono-thematic. So kudos for this article, I enjoyed reading it.

I was never a big Apple fan boy, but what Apple had going for them was a leader with many interests and a curiousness that ventured outside the established boundaries.

JanezStupar · on Oct 12, 2011

On the half-life of charisma.

I think that it is imperative, that anybody on the inside be banned from "invoking the Steve".

Or else a series of religious leaders will arise, securing the monopoly on interpreting the word of Steve and send everything down the drain.

Another option would be to erase Jobs and his character from the company history.