And thus, as I said earlier, Jobs inspired legions of imitators, all of whom have been far more obviously villainous than was #SteveJobs, who was at least taking credit for some genuine achievements and innovations out of #Apple—though I would argue that Jobs's Second Coming in the 1990s brought an end to true innovation from Apple. Since then Apple's method has been generally about squeezing as much as possible from the boutique nature of their "walled garden" branding. Apple did not invent the MP3 player or the smart phone, but with deft packaging and marketing Apple was able to get itself written up in the press as if they were somehow the chief inventors and innovators of these things, just as Jobs got himself written up as though he were the chief inventor of all things Apple.

Thanks to Jobs's model we now have ten thousand #tech execs, other scammers who dress themselves up in artfully chosen "business casual" styles and who have been accorded a ridiculous degree of latitude and gentle treatment at the hands of technology journalists who report upon the doings and sayings of (say) Sam Altman or Marc Andreessen the same way they reported upon Steve Jobs, i.e. uncritically, sycophantically, Walter-Isaacson-style, faithfully copying the tech execs' own marketing postures into their stories.

(cont'd)