ImGoingToHellForThis

Woz was definitely smarter when it came to chip design and computer architecture. Jobs had a ton of flaws (the thread illustrates a major one), but to discount his overall intelligence and label him solely as an opportunist does a great disservice to him. He had a unique vision and passion that changed the direction of Apple and altered the course of several pivotal pieces of tech. From stealing the mouse from Xerox and using it to make a more approachable user experience, to harping on about font support in core operating system he directed the team at Apple in a way that genuinely did make personal computing more approachable. Similar stories about tyrannically obsessing over optimizing the size of the iPod and simple wheel interface made it more desirable than other options like the Nomad Jukebox. When he advocated for the acquisition of FingerWorks to bring multitouch to a device that was almost entirely touchscreen based, fit in your pocket and was a combination of a music player, an internet broswer, and a phone, he lead the industry in a direction towards consumers and away from the focus on business (like the market dominant BlackBerry).

Jobs wasn’t a genius in the sense that he made all of these things himself. He was a genius in his focus on the user experience and ignoring contemporary wisdom about what a computer was. Again, tons of flaws, probably not a nice dude in a lot of ways, but he changed the world.