The secrecy surrounding the health of superstar CEOs reminds me of the way the major sports leagues used to handle injuries. NFL teams, for example, used to be quite cagey about their players' health---a practice you could easily defend on the same grounds people use to defend CEOs like Jobs. The problem is that, propriety aside, injury information is extremely valuable, especially to gamblers, and the result was that oddsmakers went to great lengths to acquire injury information surreptitiously (by bribing trainers, etc.). Eventually, the NFL (and other leagues) decided to stop denying reality and institute formal injury reports; now all teams are (relatively) forthcoming about players' injuries.

As with athletes, and like it or not, CEO health information is often quite valuable. Vilifying those who seek to ferret it out is just shooting the messenger.

  Vilifying those who seek to ferret it out is just shooting the messenger.

People certainly have every right to discuss what they want. I gladly exercise my right to call them out as tasteless in a public forum with my name attached to the comment.

I disagree with this last bit of your comment though. My comments aren't about the messenger. I don't mind TechCrunch posting it. It is news when a CEO posts a message like this. I don't like the segment of the audience whose motivations I question who made him post it.

Remember an athlete's injury is usually not life threatening. A broken leg is significantly different from pancreatic cancer.

Missing the point. It's all about value. A broken leg is is an impediment to an athlete. A pancreatic cancer, along with its treatment, is a hurdle for a CEO.

I disagree. While I am certainly sad personally that Steve Jobs is not doing well health-wise, I think that his behavior is directly responsible for the uproar about his health.

From any number of articles that I have read, Steve has set up his company to be centered around him. As CEO, he gets involved in minute decisions regarding the design or function of a product. I've seen his management style described as "controlling" or "micromanageing" a number of times. He has created a public persona of the hipster CEO dressed in black who presents every year to throngs of amazed people, "Oh, and one more thing...".

So, when he creates himself to be a single point of failure, his health becomes a big news. He should have figured this out 4 years ago when he was trying to cure his cancer homeopathically, and his board of directors had an intervention with him to get him to go to the doctor.

Media companies have a similar systems when they work with stars. When the success of a multimillion dollar organization depends heavily a single person's performance or health, you better believe that that person's health has a very large insurance policy. And, there's a lot of tabloid interest in that person's health. Just ask Oprah.

I fully agree with you. Personally I find it not in good taste. I read a vehement comment from someone on another forum earlier about how it is Jobs duty to let his shareholders know, but frankly if he feels he's up to the job (and the board do as well) then that would be good enough for me. Look at what he has achieved at Apple and let him continue if he is. I do wish him the very best for his health - as I would anyone.

I think that there is no way to explain this fully without invoking "the Cult of Mac." A lot of people see Steve Jobs as a visionary and important to the development of a number of products that they care deeply about. Very deeply. I don't know another consumer product like it.

Further, Jobs is wasting away in front of everyone's eyes. That makes wonderful press, just like the opposite tends to do: CNN tells me that Oprah has gained her weight back.

I guess I don't really judge anybody for being curious. I certainly don't judge Jobs for being jealous of his privacy. It's a human tragedy and one that we'll all face one day ourselves (those of us who aren't lucky enough to have our heart give out unexpectedly while on top of a 17-year-old mistress in a seedy hotel that is). Man is mortal and all our works perish.