By Jim Connolly
There are various stories all over the Internet, regarding Steve Jobs and his health. After Jobs appeared at this year’s WWDC, looking underweight and pretty frail – the Internet started buzzing with claims and counter claims regarding how healthy or ill Steve Jobs is.
The bottom line is this. None of us know what’s wrong with him (if anything.) Leave Steve Jobs alone, I believe his health really has nothing to do with any of us. If you are an Apple investor and you are worried, sell your stock – otherwise, wish him well and focus on his work, his company and his beautifully designed, over-priced products.
I am not an Apple fanboy (I’m writing this post on a linux box) – I just think health should be a personal issue. That’s why I was plesantly surprised today to see Jason Calacanis call Newsweek’s Dan Lyons ‘low class’ for his vile, shit-awful post about Jobs’ health on his blog.
SHOULD STEVE JOBS HEALTH BE OPEN TO PUBLIC DEBATE?
I wanted to know, so I asked some of the biggest names in ‘technology blogging and technology news for their opinion. Here’s what they told me!
Robert Scoble just told me; “Jim, Steve Jobs is CEO of a public company. He should come clean about his health. It’s something that GREATLY affects his investors.”
Jason Calacanis says; “seems like folks are mostly pro Steve Jobs having privacy re:health issues. Wonder if this is split by those who have dealt with cancer + not?”
I asked Om Malik from the superb Gigaom.com blog if he thought Steve Jobs’ health should be left alone by bloggers. He told me;”Yes, I think it should” Om has also said he will blog about this!
Lance Ulanoff, Editor at PC Magazine.com told me; “Apple’s a public company and Jobs’ is the face and brain of it. His health and ability to lead goes right to the bottom line.“
Reading: http://tinyurl.com/5hwfhk I totally agree with Jim Connolly.
We are all moments from death at any time. No one is promised tomorrow. Healthy doesn’t mean much, just ask Lance Armstrong who was practically bionic when he was diagnosed.
I am a leukemia / stem cell transplant survivor. One day I was working, 3 days later I was getting my first of six rounds of chemo. I had no symptoms before my diagnosis.
I think speculating about his heath may be just as bad if not worse than know if he is sick. People will pull their money regardless. But personally I’m like, if you don’t like it, find something else to invest in. It’s hard enough to be sick, but worse when people put you on death’s door.
Hi,
This post was actually written over 6 months ago and wrongly included in a post on fastcompany today – by someone too lazy to check the date of the post! Back when this was posted, Steve Jobs’ had just given a keynote looking thin – that was all.
Your point’s a good one though and thanks for stopping by!
Debutaunt,
What can I say – thanks for making such a powerful comment.
I can understand both sides of this; as a business owner and as a human being. I think the problem is that as soon as a blog posts ANYTHING with Steve Jobs’ name in the title it gets a lot of attention.
I guess that’s always an issue for blogs that sell advetising. I would hate having to blog just to get hits, like the commercial blogs do.
Excellent post and a very good question. I think there’s good reasons to blog about Jobs and his health and there are negative reasons. As Scoble and others have said, he is the guy behind a business with a LOT of money invested in it. This means his health is widely relevant.
Props to Calananis for what he said to that asshole Lyons!
Balveer
OK – so for me there is no doubt that Jobs is ill. The only question is how ill? If his medical condition is severe then he needs to disclose it, like Lance ulanof and scoble said.
I hope for apples sake and just as a fellow human being that they guys gonna be alright.
Carly
Hey Balveer,
I am lucky to have such great feedback from these busy and influential bloggers / journalists.
I agree with your point about the importance of Jobs to those who invest in Apple stocks. I still think there needs to be some middle ground. Free speech also has to be considered – I HATE anyone blocking the individual’s right to express an opinion.
It’s a tough call and it’s getting a LOT of interest!
Thanks Balveer,
Carly,
Everyone wishes the guy all the very best!
Forget about Silicon Valley Disease, when you have a very visible “visionary” that seems to be the driving force of a company, it doesn’t feel good to throw money behind it via VC, development, whatever.
Steve Jobs is Apple. Until he proves otherwise, I would be very concerned about his health.
Hey Rad!
Interestingly, other than Om Malik, all the top tech ‘insiders’ I spoke with agree with you.
By the way, I LOVE the design of your homepage – excellent!
[...] recently, Om Malik, Robert Scoble, Lance Ulanoff and Jason Calacanis all commented on a post I wrote about Steve [...]
Jim, while I agree with your viewpoint, the irony is that the more we write about leaving Steve Jobs alone, the more we are not leaving him alone. Rational investors focus on meaningful business analysis, but irrational investors focus on the very mindset that has created the greater financial mess we are all witness to. If focusing on Steve Jobs reminds us of rational behavior that is the single greatest reason why should leave him alone. M.