I think the reason why so many of us look up to the Woz in the tech world is that he is genuine, in an industry where we see so much of the opposite regularly - and we want to be the same.
There's an interesting job interview question: do you want to be more like Woz or S. Jobs? Elon Musk's management style is very Jobs-like: Motivates via manipulation and wow-factor of cutting edge, has grand visions, yet knows what factories and the market can and can't handle, tries odd drugs, etc. However, Jobs rarely stuck his nose into politics; Jobs mostly just trolled about tech.
I'm definitely a Woz. I appreciate both Jobs and Musk despite their blemishes, but I must say where Musk has Jobs beat is vision. Jobs was content to give everyone a computer. Musk is trying to bring the optimistic future to life on all fronts.
Job's vision was seeing that hardware and software vertically integrated had a strong position in the market, despite being told to sell off the hardware division and focus on OS work. His vision was to never give out dividends or buy back stock: always plough the money right back into the company.
Musk has the unbound optimism of his ability to succeed. He's good at selling that optimism to others. His decision making is often heavily seated by public opinion and the market.
Also the whole fascism thing.
Of the two Jobs actually accomplished what he sets out to do. Musk's batting record is more spotty. He's got some wins (Falcon 9) but boy howdy does he have a lot of losses, and he's just gearing up to take increasingly more L's
As a younger millenial I am somewhat familiar with the legends of yore. But not as familiar as someone older that was around when the tech world was much smaller and more intimate. Where people casually met a wild Stallman at random conferences.
Given how much bigger the software and tech world has gotten, with how much time has passed, and how much things have changed, I wonder if people still see Wozniak as tech hero and as part of casual tech culture knowledge.
Dude. Yes we still see him that way 1000%. It's just that there are a lot of tech people on this planet and they all have different ages and experiences, so they don't all think the same.
