Small Stuff
Bijan Sabet on Steve Jobs:
His relationship with friends deteriorated for the most part. His relationship with family wasn’t great either.
Obviously none of us know the real story but the book reflects conventional wisdom: Steve was focused on Apple and Steve. And in that order.
The question which comes to mind (for me) then is: what if Steve was happy and had a balanced life?
- Could he have fixed Apple?
- Could he have led Pixar and Apple to greatness?
- Could he have it all?
Sabet draws a line, pointing out people fall into two camps for the most part:
- stressed out of their minds, loving their work but wiped out. Relationships strained or worse.
- relationships stronger than ever but the work isn’t what it used to be.
Interesting observation. Brings to mind Paul Graham's article on good and bad procrastination:
The most impressive people I know are all procrastinators. They're type-C procrastinators: They put off working on small stuff to work on big stuff.
What's "small stuff?" Roughly, work that has zero chance of being mentioned in your obituary.
Question is, do your family and friends qualify as small stuff?