Steve Jobs is Ron Popeil, and I mean that as a compliment to them both.

I’m reading Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, “What the Dog Saw.” It is a collection of his essays from The New Yorker. I like some of them very much, especially a profile of Ron Popeil called “The Pitchman.” Give it a read from the archive on Mr. Gladwell’s website, and substitute “iMac” for “Showtime Rotisserie Oven.” I think you’ll see that Steve Jobs and Ron Popeil are very similar personalities on a number of levels. I’m a huge Steve Jobs fan, and I mean this as a compliment. To both of them.

Especially interesting is that both men share a fanatical obsession about perfecting even the most minor details of their products that would be insignificant or go unnoticed by others, and that both men see marketing and product development as fundamentally interwoven rather than two separate business functions. Also, both are consummate “pitchmen.”