10 Interesting facts about Steve Jobs

Unless you’ve been living in a cave or some remote location for the past week you can’t fail to have noticed the media hype and speculation surrounding the recently announced resignation of Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple Inc.

Whether you love, loathe or are completely indifferent to the man there’s no denying the impact that Steve Jobs has had on technology and culture in general. From making computers cool and accessible to the general public to reinventing and redefining our relationship to technology through innovations like the iPhone and iPad Jobs and Apple have consistently been at the forefront of combining technology, elegance and possibility into seamless experiences that are enjoyed by millions.

But how much do we really know about the man credited with bringing Apple back from the brink of ruin and leading its current renaissance?

Opinions are divided when the subject of Steve Jobs is mentioned. There are those who describe him as a mercurial control freak, berating and belittling employees and responsible for creating an insular apple-centric technological ecosystem locked down to his own personal vision. Then there are those who point to his ability to lead and inspire, effecting change in Apple when it was desperately needed leading the company to its current resurgence in popularity and his ability to democratise technology, bringing a simplicity and elegance to its use that only serves to enhance its effectiveness.

There are certainly industry insiders and pundits who could attest to all of the above but here’s 10 interesting facts about Steve Jobs that you may not know:

Possibly the most famous and influential arab in the world
His biological father is a man named Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian born political science professor who emigrated to the United States in the early 1950’s. Jobs would, as a result of conservative attitudes at that time, later be adopted and raised by a working class couple, Paul and Clara Jobs in the San Francisco area
Buddhist businessman
Jobs studied zen buddhism in his youth and, at one time, considered becoming a monk. His guru Kobun Chino, who presided over his 1991 wedding, convinced him otherwise
Vegetarian
Much has been made of Jobs following a vegetarian diet for years, possibly linked to his interest in buddhist teachings. With his recent history of health related problems, industry insiders have reported that Jobs is now following a vegan diet heavy in dark green vegetables which are renowned for their anti-cancer properties
Never graduated from college
Like fellow industry movers and shakers, Microsoft co-founder (and erstwhile rival) Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Jobs also never graduated from college
Doesn’t even make minimum wage
Jobs famously only collects $1 a year in his salary from Apple making him, in some respects, the most exploited worker in modern history. He does however receive compensation, mostly in the form of shares, in the technology giant which have, in addition to his other business revenues from Pixar/Disney, seen his personal fortune estimated at $5.5 billion
Is listed as either primary inventor or co-inventor in 313 awarded patents or patent applications
Walt Disney Company’s largest single shareholder
In 2006 Jobs, with Disney’s acquisition of animation studio Pixar, became Disney’s largest individual shareholder
Experimented with psychedelics
Jobs has never been shy of admitting his experiences with psychedelic drugs, famously stating that his experience with LSD was one of the two or three most important things he had done in his life. In a poke at rival Bill Gates he once remarked that Microsoft’s co-founder would, "be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once."
Dyslexic
Apparently Steve Jobs is, according to various sources, dyslexic which, if true, would place him in the company of other famous dyslexics such as Alexander Graham Bell, Albert Einstein and Henry Ford
He is employee No. 0 at Apple
Jobs wasn’t happy being designated as employee no. 2, after the board of directors decreed that every Apple employee needed to be issued a name tag and an employee number based on their date of hire (Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was employee no. 1). He eventually became employee zero based on the mathematical model known as number line where 0 comes before 1.