John Gruber argues against Malcolm Gladwell’s assertion (itself derived from Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography) that Jobs was more of a “tweaker” than a true inventor. 

I’d still argue that Gladwell’s thoughts on this are interesting and worth thinking about. But Gruber is right to note that the issue is anything but black and white. 

If you think about it, has anyone in the past 50 years been a true inventor by Gladwell’s stringent definition? I know the answer is “yes”, but it’s hard to think of people.

One name that comes to mind is Dean Kamen with the Segway. But you could argue that was just a “tweaking” of the scooter, I suppose. Plus, despite the initial hype, that device has changed the world far less than a dozen other things Jobs did. 

What about the portable digital music player itself, which Gruber agrees is probably the closest thing to a “tweak” product that Jobs did?

If Wikipedia is to be believed, a British scientist named Kane Kramer invented it in 1979 with a device called the IXI.(Incidentally, Apple ended up hiring Kramer as a consultant and used him in an iPod patent legal case decades later.) But couldn’t you argue that such a product is really just a “tweak” of existing portable music players? 

The first actual portable MP3 player was made by a company called Audio Highway in 1996. But couldn’t you just argue that it was just a “tweak” of the portable CD player, which itself was just a tweak of the cassette-based Walkman? They’re all the same basic idea, it’s the format for the music that changed. 

And aren’t all of those just “tweaks” of any home audio playback equipment? Most work the same way, it’s just the portability that’s different. 

Etc. Etc. Etc.

I’d fully support Joe Stump as CEO of Yahoo and all the moves he intends to make — even though I’m not sure Yahoo could afford Twitter or Square in its current weakened state, let alone both. 

Meanwhile, John Gruber, in linking to Stump’s post has a couple of questions. First, “How did Instagram eat Flickr’s lunch, for example?”

Here’s how (and why). 

Second, “What exactly has Carol Bartz even tried do while CEO of Yahoo?”

Her goal, as far as I can tell, has only been to improve Yahoo’s bottom line to bolster the company with Wall Street and make them a more attractive acquisition target. She’s not doing that by building new products or pushing new initiatives, she’s doing that the easier way: by slashing and burning. 

She seems to think she’s trimming the fat — and to some extent she is — but at the same time, she’s been trimming Yahoo’s soul as well. 

Everyone is now pissed off and calling for Bartz’s head because her strategy hasn’t paid off — at all. Wall Street still doesn’t love Yahoo, and it doesn’t look like any would-be acquirers do either. And consumers don’t love Yahoo because it seems like they haven’t done anything worth talking about in years. And they haven’t.

It’s hard to build great new products when someone has a knife in your side.