Unless you're under a rock you've heard that Steve Jobs announced he'd be taking a sabbatical to deal with his health issues.  I'm going to "go off the reservation" for a second and post this exchange I had over on Hacker News verbatim.  I'll give a little commentary afterwards...

This is not terrible news. Terrible news would be him staying on while he was sick and making it worse. The man is taking a really brief respite to rest after contracting an illness. That's what he's SUPPOSED to do.

Realty check: People get sick and they rest and then they get better. That's what's happening here.

If this were undiagnosed, or a really serious condition, or life threatening, or anything like that I'd have a different opinion. But as of right now all I see is a bunch of people trying to make a really big deal out of a relatively small thing in order to drive hits/sell newspapers.  

3 points by PersonWhoWillRemainNameless 

>Realty check: People get sick and they rest and then they get better.

Pretty often, actually, people get sick and then die. Especially people who've had cancer. :(

Reading between the lines here, I suspect his health is in really bad shape. I hope I'm wrong, though.

Not that often and those who are ill enough to be at risk of death are usually hospitalized.

More to the point he has a disease that causes depression, fatigue, hair loss, urinary tract infections, and other embarassing conditions. So it makes perfect sense for him to stay at home to recover.

Other than he had Cancer 5 years ago what lines are you reading in between that makes you think he's sicker than he says?

A hormone imbalance is serious. Anything "more complex" than that is very serious.

Anything so serious that it could cause a CEO to leave a company for six months is extremely serious.

The fact that he's taking a significant leave of absence makes me think maybe his doctors said "you have a one in X chance of beating this thing". Again, I really want to be wrong.

1 point by TomOfTTB

Are you kidding? You think things are so bad that it could be fatal yet he's just hangin' out at home? If something's that close to being fatal a person get's hospitalized.

Second this isn't a significant amount of time off. Perfectly healthy 53 year olds with millions of dollars in the bank take sabbaticals all the time.

If something's that close to being fatal a person get's hospitalized.

If you're that rich, you don't go to the hospital, the hospital comes to you.

1 point by TomOfTTB

No, it doesn’t. Hospitals have thousands of Doctors with all kinds of specialties along with millions of dollars of specialized equipment. People are hospitalized so they have quick access to all those Doctors depending on what happens to them. You can’t “bring a hospital to you”

No, they probably told him he's going to die, so he is taking time off Apple to be with his family. There might be a 1 in X chance of him surviving, and it's better for him to be hanging out at home than to be stressed with work.

This is a huge amount of time. No healthy CEO of a fortune 100 company takes this amount of time off for no reason at all. There's always a motive.

1 point by TomOfTTB

Oh get real, of course they do. Do a Google search for “CEO takes a sabbatical” for Gods Sakes. One of my personal heroes in the tech industry was a guy named Brad Silverberg. He was #3 at Microsoft under only Gates and Ballmer and he took a year sabbatical to ride his bike of all things.

As far as "there’s always a reason" I have to ask: Have you looked at what the symptoms are for the disease he has? Fatigue, Hair Loss, Urinary Tract Infection, etc... I’d take a few months off if I were him. It doesn’t mean he’s any sicker than he says he is.

I'm sorry but these people are a little creepy in my opinion.  If you just want to believe the worst no matter what that's not concern that's what I can only describe as "narcissistic emotionalism." 

I mean, lets be honest here, these people don't give a damn about Steve Jobs.  If your mom or someone else you care deeply about is sick you don't speculate on how close to death's door they are.  You certainly don't extrapolate on how they're about to die based on no evidence.  So this isn't caring.

But on the other hand they don't hate Jobs either.  I'd consider it a little disturbing if they hated him and were speculating on his death to get some perverse joy out of it.  But that isn't what's happening here either.

If you really analyze this you start to realize that Steve Jobs' life is basically "a thing" to them.  Like someone with an old car worrying that it will break down because then they'll be inconvenienced in having to buy a new one.  That person feels no guilt about assuming the worst because a car isn't sentient to them. 

In that same way these folks are jumping to the worst possible conclusion because Jobs' health only matters to them in that it might make their stock fall or their computer slightly less cool.  Their complete lack of caring empowers them to assume the worst. 

I have to say, I find that reaction very disturbing.

Addendum: One more issue that's been coming up a lot in regards to this.  There's a difference between withholding information and flat out lying.  To the best of my knowledge, Apple and Jobs have never flat out lied about his health.  So the fact that Mr. Jobs said the diagnosis has been confirmed makes me think he's telling the truth (because again, he has no history of out right lying)