I felt his calligraphy anecdote needed more context. Jobs' actual achievements are enough: we do not need to indulge him as far as brazen self-mythologising. Jobs' "elitism" (by today's bourgeois standards) does not offend me; I was brought up accepting such concepts. But I believe in meritocracy, not a self-appointed elite. By merit Jobs is a stellar marketer and, in some ways, a champion of taste. At a distance, it even looks more like humanism than elitism (although Raskin is the total humanist).

I still feel Raskin is an underdog worth defending and a good and penetrating writer, if a little frustrated by lack of attention. Despite his mild tendency to self-promotion, careers like his are too easily eclipsed by the glare of megastars like Jobs. He makes some essential points in the second citation above.

What bothers me about Jobs is that up close, by all reports, his behaviour closely resembles that of a former boss of mine, from which experience I learned that basic civilities and self-control are not optional no matter how engorged one's ego becomes. I cannot overlook this alleged defect.

Michael Malone's Infinite Loop doesn't cut him any slack, and makes unfavourable comparisons with hi-tech icons such as David Packard, who was never known to belittle or abuse an employee. The most devastating skewer was a quote which I cannot give verbatim (having posted the book to a friend this afternoon, and not finding the quote on the web, to my surprise) but which can be summarised: "Everything that a mensch is, Steve Jobs is not."