Your main leader doubles as a magnificent obituary to Steve Jobs (“The Magician,” October 8, 2011). You focus on his inspired showmanship, his drive for simplicity and elegance, and his ability to inspire his own company. You also mention that his critics thought of him as a control freak whose products were closed and inflexible, all in the name of the greater ease of use. Besides, you warn that the gap between Apple and its competitors is likely to narrow in his absence. His replacement, Tim Cook, is regarded as competent but uninspiring, which bodes ill in a highly competitive world of electronic gizmos for personal use. All this is fair enough. But you fail to touch the main reason why Steve Jobs has become such a star in the last few years: his public fight with cancer. It spread magic both ways. He put all he had left into his company. And the customers responded with equal zeal in full knowledge of his suffering. His ever more emaciated face only added to the passion. The mass hysteria thus created worked wonders for Apple while it lasted. And it is this bit of social psychology surrounding imminent death that is of greatest interest in this story. To wit, there is not much for strong and healthy company owners to learn from it.