Precisely. And then he was brought back, and in retrospect, many of his skills the second time around (charisma, design instinct, product focus) were the same that he had brought to Apple originally, but in the meantime, he had learned to temper his worst personal flaws (largely by learning to trust and listen to a small group of people who could counteract them).

I saw Ed Catmull (Pixar) give a post-Jobs death talk on youtube about how Jobs had completely changed during his 10 year hiatus and was far more empathic.

so empathetic he didnt want to give Pixar employees even a cent of equity before the IPO.

Any chance there is a recording of this available online?

Very interested in this as well. Parent says it was on Youtube?

Edit: I imagine it's this interview at AllThingsD[1]. Ed jumps into this topic right off the bat.

1. https://youtu.be/U8kH5eZdIqA

In his book "Creativity, Inc" there is also a chapter "The Steve we knew" talking about this.

I'd say down votes because it wasn't clear whether Apple would have fallen if Jobs remained. He pushed the same vision when he came back as when he was fired.

Yeah but he was less of an asshole when he came back.

Was he?

He was an asshole of monumental proportions before and after. I am so far removed that I am a poor judge, what would be a good place to look into this.

That is why he was absent.

And then got rehired because Apple needed him

Apple is an electronics company.