I've chatted with a few potential cofounders over the past several months who have exhibited these traits - the arrogance, the condescension, the overall shady attitude. It's exhausting trying to explain to people that they are not Steve Jobs (also, that The Social Network is not indicative of how things actually work out here).
They might be the next Steve Jobs. You do not know that. Our culture handicaps a lot of people by promoting mediocrity and conformity and groupthink and putting artificial walls and ceilings around what a person is expected to do, nothing more or less.
Could Steve Jobs have been even more effective if he wasn't, in Spolsky's words, "a dictatorial, autocratic asshole who ruled by fiat and fear"?
It's possible. I know quite a few very talented ex-Apple engineers that left because they felt the environment was oppressive and stifling. Was Apple a better place without them?
I don't know. Jobs was crazy successful at what he did, but there's nothing in that to suggest that it was for the most visible reasons.
