The lesson that certainty and how you frame your view of the world to other people has a massive impact both on your own world and those around you is valuable, and does not require a flexible attitude towards ethics even though that same lesson can of course be horribly exploited by those that does have a flexible attitude toward ethics.

Most of us distort our own reality. The problem is that a lot of us interpret it more negatively than it really is. E.g. shy or introverted people have a tendency to remember peoples reactions as more negative than they actually are, and to underestimate how well we come across to people we meet in person, and so give up on a lot of opportunities.

Consciously "tuning" your own distortion field more towards certainty and focusing on the positive can be immensely beneficial without requiring you to turn into a liar and manipulator.

The former may very well have been mostly based on lies and Jobs was also not above selectively presenting information that suited his narrative. The effect that Jobs had on the outside world, however, is something that I'm sure many people would like to replicate.

Like this article states, it is all about perception. I'm not sure if Apple could have pulled off a product like the iPod (especially the Shuffle) without Steve Jobs. He was able to convince you that you didn't need the features that it lacked over other products. When Steve was on the stage, he pulled you into his reality and made you see the world differently. And then you forked out 1500 for a laptop :P

Up to me, Jobs clearly met the criteria of what we call in psychiatry personality disorders (antisocial: failure to respect others' rights, lying, cheating, borderline: instability in relationships, and histrionic: excessive attention seeking).

Yet, I think the RDF can be used as a communication tool instead of a weapon. An idea is often worthless if it cannot be communicated. Outright stealing of others' ideas is just an extreme.