Probably not. Steve Jobs having good taste would have been meaningless if he hadn't been willing to forcefully ram it through the noise of other peoples' opinions. "Designed by a committee" is a pejorative for a reason.

Of course, being an asshole might be necessary but is not sufficient for a good product. For every Steve Jobs, there's probably a thousand examples of somebody ramming their bad taste into a design.

> Is it not possible to be like Steve Jobs and not be an asshole?

No. Nicely calling out stupidity works in small groups. But humour and ridicule are more viral, which dominates in large groups.

It's honestly interesting to contemplate to what extent Steve Jobs' death might have created the vacuum into which the Holmes, Bankman-Frieds and Musks of the world stepped.

Yes, it is. People often confuse being an asshole with being assertive, but they are two entirely different things.

Aren‘t you confusing the external perception? Wouldn’t somebody assertive seem like „an asshole“ to somebody else if the perspective don’t align 100%?