“He was not filtered with his input. If he was in a meeting that was boring him, he would be blunt. He’d say, ‘I don’t need to see this, let’s move on.’ And we would. He didn’t suffer a fool.”
Uhm, that's considered being blunt? I would call that being good at leading a meeting. Saying when information (or so detailed information) is not needed is crucial and necessary in order to keep meetings tight amd relevant.
a : abrupt in speech or manner
b : being straight to the point : direct
So yeah, that's exactly what blunt means.
Don't be confused by all the people who think bluntness is automatically rude. It's not. Those people just have really tender feelings and can't handle the truth. They need to have it sugar coated.
Those people just have really tender feelings and can't handle the truth.
This is perhaps unnecessarily blunt :-)
I agree that bluntness is not automatically rude. Indeed, to me, the whole purpose of using the word "blunt" in this way is to draw an important distinction between outright rudeness and behavior that risks being insensitive but does so for a constructive purpose.
Nonetheless, I think some confusion about the meaning of the word is understandable.
“Blunt” has different connotations for me, rudeness seems like a part of it. Saying “I don’t need to see this, let’s move on.” seems just honest to me, not blunt. “I’m bored by this, why do you tell me all this crap?” would be something I would be willing to call blunt.
But yeah, being honest (or blunt, if you will) is something I’m perfectly alright with. I want the people I’m working with or for to be like that. I’m not so crazy about rudeness, but if that quote is accurate Jobs wasn’t rude (at least in those situations).
I don’t really have a lot of work experience but this happened at meetings both when I was an intern (though not as often as I would have liked) and I have this professor who is really fond of asking people to leave details out and only present the big picture (and I appreciate that very much). We met regularly to present the progress of our thesis and he knows how to keep it tight and relevant for everyone.
Maybe this has something to do with culture? All that happened to me in Germany and it doesn’t seem extraordinary to me.
Most business meetings aren't led like a professor guiding students (or, frankly, interns). Steve also doesn't talk like the quote, it would be something more like, "Why the fuck are you wasting my time? What the fuck do you even do here?" He's one of a kind--arrogant as they come but with the talent, smarts and execution that actually back it up.
As an intern I was sitting in on the meetings, mostly just watching. Those weren’t meetings targeted at interns, they were normal, everyday meetings. (I was there mostly to get to see how those things work and to get a bit of context.)
I’m not sure why you are just asserting a different language. I see no evidence for that. The article treats the statement as a quote, as long as we don’t know any better we have to treat it like that.
I was asserting different language because I've never heard of Steve being so kind. Competent professional adults don't collude to not be in the elevator with someone who simply kindly asks someone to move on.
Steve is a genius, but he leaves a huge trail behind for HR/PR to clean up.
A fun anecdote from a friend of mine, who was excited as someone can be to meet Steve for the first time. It was a press meeting at the Macworld conference, years and years ago. Steve asks his handler who my friend was, she replied it was so and so from MacCentral. What followed was something to the effect of, "MacCentral? I fucking hate MacCentral. How did he get in here? Who the fuck invited MacCentral? What have they ever made?" End of meeting followed by profuse apologies from everyone but Steve. Friend was still stoked, reality distortion field and what not.
Unfortunately the corporate world has become frequent, long, useless meetings. It is rare that anything is accomplished during them, more and more people attend them, and no one questions them (everyone complains in private). The best skill to have in the modern corporate world is getting along with other people, not getting things done.
Depends on what the meeting is about, and what was boring him. If it was something crucial that needed to be discussed, that's crap. But if the purpose of the meeting is to inform him about something, then of course - skip the parts that don't matter.
Uhm, that's considered being blunt? I would call that being good at leading a meeting. Saying when information (or so detailed information) is not needed is crucial and necessary in order to keep meetings tight amd relevant.