Alan Jacobs’ comments are good. I would add this: for all the talk of the world-changing (or, even, universe-denting) stuff Jobs did with Apple, what fundamentally matters is how the man was to the people closest to him. Was he available to his children? Did he pour himself out for his wife as he did for his company? Did he have love? Or was he sounding brass and clanging cymbal? Of course, being apart from the Son of the God who is love—as Jobs was—no one can have love. And by all accounts, he was hard to be around. Many stories about Jobs indicate that he was personally irascible, hot-tempered, and an awful person to be around—but that’s all okay, they hasten to add, because he was an inspiring visionary.
From all accounts, he was sounding brass and clanging cymbal, a man in tune with the future (whatever that means), but out-of-tune with the people who had to live with him.
Steve Jobs