[KeyLimePi]

I had to laugh at this piece where Jobs tells a student to 'leave us alone.' I've worked for some big companies and it's very frustrating when students call to try to get 'help' with an assignment. 'Help' usually means 'teach me things I should have learned somewhere else' and, as in this case, it's almost always urgent due to their lack of planning or general procrastination.

Still it bugs me a little that this student was trying to pass herself off as a journalist. She was working on a homework assignment pure and simple. And if she really plans on being a journalist she needs to learn two things: (1) Fortune 500 companies don't work around your deadlines and (2) dragging companies through the mud because they didn't stop what they're doing to help you is a great way to assure no one ever helps you.

[andi*pandi]

um, what did she think he'd say?

I'd say she got her quote for her article, all right.

[Jawbone54]

"Please leave us alone."

Freakin' hilarious.

[turtle777]

Apple declined comment for this story, and Jobs did not respond to an e-mail from ABC News.

Steve should have told ABC News "Please leave us alone."



-t

[bmcgonag]

This is outrageous! How could Steve do such a thing? I just can't believe that he believes himself to be too busy to help this poor girl.

I mean he's only running one of the most innovative companies in the world, and only 300 million users, he ought to have them taken care of by lunch each day.

I'm not buying anymore Apple products! ( )

This young lady gets a full on for her wing-nutted-ness.

[imitchellg5]

The video at the OP's link is absurd.

Also absurd is reaching out to Apple for a quote about something that can be found on Apple's media site before you can even find a press contact.

Would you email Bill Gates asking him about the success of Windows on netbooks? No...

[olePigeon]

She bugged Steve Jobs cuz if she had bugged Steve Ballmer she'd 've gotten a chair in her face.

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

"Number one, I am one of your 300 million users..." she writes from her IBM laptop.

I thought Jobs' responses were very tame compared to what he must have really wanted to say.

Her arrogant sense of entitlement to have everyone else meet her demands ("or else I'll try and make you look bad on CBS news!") because she has a paper due is really annoying, but also not all that uncommon these days.

[tooki]

Why do so many people think that their deadline is anyone else's problem?! I work in tech support (and many of our customers are students) and deal with this regularly. Why the heck would you wait until 2 days before the due date of your PhD thesis to see if the citation style you need exists and to see how your document formats?

[Captain Obvious]

She was ugly and had bad hair

[thibaulthalpern]

Originally Posted by KeyLimePi 

I had to laugh at this piece where Jobs tells a student to 'leave us alone.' I've worked for some big companies and it's very frustrating when students call to try to get 'help' with an assignment. 'Help' usually means 'teach me things I should have learned somewhere else' and, as in this case, it's almost always urgent due to their lack of planning or general procrastination.

Still it bugs me a little that this student was trying to pass herself off as a journalist. She was working on a homework assignment pure and simple. And if she really plans on being a journalist she needs to learn two things: (1) Fortune 500 companies don't work around your deadlines and (2) dragging companies through the mud because they didn't stop what they're doing to help you is a great way to assure no one ever helps you.

Indeed, I think the student's greatest mistake was framing her request as one that needs responding to by Jobs because of her grade. Now, that's just plain idiotic or perhaps just plain naïve.

I don't see a problem if students, for their homework assignment, embark on a research project that involves interviewing CEOs of tech companies etc. They do need to be aware though that their methodologies might fail because they may not have access to the CEO or whoever else they want to talk to in the company. CEOs and the Media Relations department are not obligated to talk to students.

I don't know the details of the student's assignment, but if I were a teacher (and I have been one at a university) the way we handle research projects usually includes something like this:

1. give the student an assignment but parse it out into stages

2. one of the stages would be to write out what their potential methodology is. This would give us chance to troubleshoot potential problem areas such as in this student's case where the likelihood of getting an interview with the CEO of a major company is next to zilch.

3. Send back methodology paper to student marked with questions and maybe even not approve some of the methods (e.g., "Interview CEO of Apple", because frankly it is unlikely they will be able to do that!

[thibaulthalpern]

Originally Posted by CRASH HARDDRIVE 

"Number one, I am one of your 300 million users..." she writes from her IBM laptop.

I thought Jobs' responses were very tame compared to what he must have really wanted to say. .

I was actually surprised that Jobs responded AT ALL, because the implicit message in the student's email was "please respond to my request because my grade is at stake here."

The student needs to learn that her problem does not constitute someone else's problem.

[macaddict0001]

I like the punchline the most, despite (maybe) not being intentional.

Apple declined comment for this story, and Jobs did not respond to an e-mail from ABC News.

[Spheric Harlot]

It was a really good paper.

[Oisín]

Isaacs wasn't deterred, and she wrote back, ""Thank you for your reply. I never said that your goal should be to 'help me get a good grade.' Rather, I politely asked why your media relations team does not respond to emails."

Jobs parries: "We have over 300 million users and we can't respond to their requests unless they involve a problem of some kind. Sorry."

So … in order to write to the media relations team at Apple, you have to be a user with “a problem of some kind”?

Why the hell call it a media relations team, then?

[osiris]

Steve never responds to my emails, so I think this woman is lucky if a bit obnoxious.

But I guess I should stop sending those emails to Steve, I mean, I'm not even sure if he's into German S&M.

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

So … in order to write to the media relations team at Apple, you have to be a user with “a problem of some kind”?

Why the hell call it a media relations team, then?

I can't think of many, if any instances (publicized) where Jobs sent a reply to something that wasn't a problem. Normally it's a "We're working on it" or something similar.

[Spheric Harlot]

The media relations team deals with media, not individual users writing homework assignments. Ellen excepted.

[andi*pandi]

Yes, but it's an interesting line where media is concerned. A journalism student I think would be well-suited to cross that line; they have to make interview requests, research, fact checking, etc just like pro media. It's the point; a journalism student writes real articles to train to be a pro. However, they don't need to whine when big corporations don't take them as seriously as the NYTimes.

Is a tech blogger media? How much of an audience would a blog need to be "pro"?

[imitchellg5]

The line between journalism and blogging is quite blurred these days. Take for example Engadget. That site has been nominated for both blogging awards and web journalism awards. Which is it really?

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

The line between journalism and blogging is quite blurred these days. Take for example Engadget. That site has been nominated for both blogging awards and web journalism awards. Which is it really?

Both. Blogging is a form of journalism.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

I can't think of many, if any instances (publicized) where Jobs sent a reply to something that wasn't a problem. Normally it's a "We're working on it" or something similar.

Jobs, yes.

The media relations team, however, would logically be the place to go if you need a specific fact or number or whatever for an article you’re writing. Which seems to be what this girl did, and was completely ignored. That’s not particularly efficient media relationing, even if she doesn’t represent the New York Times but is only a journalism student.

Writing back and forth to Steve was a bit whiny, yes; and getting the whole thing into the media was definitely very whiny. But I can’t see why she’s so wrong in trying to get her Apple facts intended for media content from Apple’s media relations department. Seems logical enough to me.

[Laminar]

He's back!