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In 50 years, Steve Jobs will be forgotten, Gladwell says

by quan on 6/8/12, 5:52 AM with 10 comments

• by chime on 6/8/12, 6:47 AM

  Forgotten may be too harsh of a word. Less revered or idolized might be more like it. If SpaceX and Tesla continue on their path, Musk might join the likes of Carnegie and Gates.

• by josephcooney on 6/8/12, 7:10 AM

  Interesting - I was thinking about this just the other day. When you look at the wealthiest people of all time (of which Jobs is certainly not even close, nor is Gates) most of them aren't exactly household names. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_historical_f.... Thomas Edison is kind of a parallel with Jobs, in that many of his 'inventions' weren't originally invented by him, but he was responsible for their commercialisation and refinement. 100 years on Edison is certainly well remembered, but Edison was a much more prolific inventor that Jobs was, and perhaps his inventions were more significant. Electricity > iPad/iPhone/Mac. Hopefully I'll still be around to see how this one plays out.

• by skennedy on 6/8/12, 6:49 AM

  To be remembered for 50 years is more than most people in the world could ever achieve. Including world leaders.

• by swombat on 6/8/12, 7:02 AM

  If Jobs leads to a transformation of the corporate landscape, where more large companies stop paying so much attention to their share price and start paying much more attention to delighting their customers with great products, then Jobs will certainly be remembered as the instigator of this shift for the better.

  Apple itself, with all its awesomeness, may only be worth a small footnote, though the "return of the Founder" is a powerful myth and that alone may lead to Jobs and Apple being studied in MBA courses for decades to come. However, the start of a wave of Apple-like companies (if it does start, which is by no means guaranteed) would probably earn Jobs a place in business history as one of the great influencers of his time.

• by coffeegeek on 6/8/12, 5:21 PM

  What does "forgotten" mean in this context? There are plenty of people that if I hadn't read about them in history class, they would, too, be forgotten. Is Gladwell saying people will stop writing about Jobs, or any popular literature that mentions him will be burned?

  And from the article: "no one will even remember what Microsoft is" I guess that assumes we'll all be dead in 50 years. Actually, less time than that. This assumes that at some point in the future, Microsoft disappears, and shortly thereafter its memory. After reading that I stopped reading the article.

• by JackpotDen on 6/8/12, 12:08 PM

  Steve Jobs will most likely become the Edison of our times.

  In every way.

• by ziadbc on 6/8/12, 6:58 AM

  This is like 6 minute abs but in reverse for Gladwell. Outliers require 10000 hours, but if you want to outlive the pyramids, better start earlier than kindergarten.

• by petrilli on 6/8/12, 2:07 PM

  How many years before we can forget Gladwell?