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Indeholder "Personer", "Indledning", "Barndom", "Umage par", "Droppet ud", "Atari og Indien", "Apple I", "Apple II", "Chrisann og Lisa", "Xerox og Lisa", "Børsintroduktion", "Mac bliver født", "Det virkelighedsfordrejende kraftfelt", "Designet", "Mac bliver til", "Sculley gør sin entre",
Kronologisk fortalt biografi om Steve Jobs, 24. februar 1955 til 5. oktober 2011.
Jobs er adoptivbarn. Hans biologiske forældre er Joanne Schieble og Abdulfattah Jandali, men de var studerende - 23 år gamle begge to - og begge hold forældre var meget imod forholdet, så da Joanne blev gravid, besluttede hun at bortadoptere. Paul og Clara Jobs slog til og døbte deres nye barn, Steven Paul Jobs.
Joanne havde egentlig som betingelse at adoptivforældrene skulle have en collegeuddannelse, men lod sig nøjes med et løfte om at barnet skulle have en collegeuddannelse, når den tid kom. Paul og Clara adopterer et par år senere en lille pige, kaldet Patty og spænder deres økonomi hårdt for at give børnene en god opvækst. Nabolaget er fyldt med ingeniører og små og store radio- tv og senere elektronikbutikker.
Stanford University ligger i nærheden og deres naturvidenskabelige dekan stabler en 28 hektar stor forskerpark på benene.
HP, Fairchild og Intel er også lige i nabolaget.
Steve er overordentlig kvik og fuld af lopper. Han møder Steve Wozniak og de falder i hak omgående. Jobs er helsefreak på en sjov måde. Wozniak er småkvabset og bleg. De passer ret perfekt sammen. Woz er supergod til at lave elektronik men kan ikke finde på at lyve eller tage penge for sine ideer.
Han synes fx at det er sjovt at omdesigne en pdp-8 til at bruge det halve antal kredse.
En dag opdager de Captain Crunch og laver en lille kasse, Blue Box, der kan dreje teleselskabet en knap, så man ringer gratis. De sælger 100 af dem og tjener pænt.
Det var en god øvelse, så Apple I bliver næste skridt. I 1972 bliver han optaget på Reed College, som er det eneste, han vil gå på og så må Paul og Clara betale selv om det egentlig er for dyrt for dem. Jobs er meget selvstændig - eller fræk, ubehøvlet, utaknemmelig eller hvad man ellers kan kalde det. Paul og Clara tager det pænt uden at kny.
Jobs har taget sin båndoptager med på College og har enorme mængder af piratoptagelse med Bob Dylan.
Han får et helseflip og spiser fx kun frugt i lange perioder. Desuden mener han at han så ikke behøver tage bad!
Han kommer også i nærheden af en foruroligende lang række af karismatiske bondefangertyper og ser ud til at tage ved lære.
Efter halvandet år på Reed College dropper han ud og tager hjem for at finde et job. Han får job ved Atari på trods af manglende pli og hygiejne. Han vil til Indien og Al Alcorn hjælper ham med at komme det første stykke, nemlig til Tyskland. "De har ikke engang et ord for vegetar!" Derfra til Italien, Schweiz og så Indien. Han er 19 og har stort set ingen penge med og starter med at få dysenteri.
Men han klarer sig syv måneder i Indien og beskriver det som et større chok at komme tilbage til USA.
I 1975 kommer den første hjemmecomputer en Altair til 495 dollars på markedet. Det er bare en dynge dele, men det sætter gang i vildt meget.
Bill Gates og Paul Allen går fx i gang med at lave en BASIC til den.
Det er jo 1970'erne, så lsd, hash og biodynamisk æbledyrkning er også in.
Wozniak får ideen til en personlig computer og vælger en motorola 6800 som cpu fordi den er meget billigere end en Intel 8080. Jobs sælger 100 stks Apple I til The Byte Shop for 500 dollar stykket, og så er de i gang.
Woz vil sælge for ca hvad det koster at lave dem, Jobs ganger med 3 for at finde butiksprisen.
På en udstilling kigger Jobs på konkurrenterne og konstaterer at deres maskiner ser ud til at være bygget af voksne, så han begynder at gå meget op i hvordan produktet skal se ud. Apple II bliver meget pænere.
Mike Markkula kommer med ombord og de begynder at få investorer med. Dog ikke Nolan Bushnell, der kunne have fået en tredjedel af Apple for 50000 dollars "Jeg vidste bedre, så jeg sagde nej. Det er lidt sjovt at tænke på, når jeg ikke græder."
Marketing bliver Regis McKenna, som Jobs håndplukker med sin blanding af begejstring, charmestråle og tryglen. Mike Scott bliver ansat til at holde lidt styr på Jobs.
Privat kommer Jobs lidt sammen med Chrisann Brennan og de får en datter, Lisa, hvilket Jobs dog er meget længe om at håndtere på en bare lidt anstændig vis.
I 1981 sælger Apple 210000 Apple II computere og pengene vælter ind. Apple III bliver derimod et flop. Jobs finder på et nyt projekt, Lisa, og får åbnet kimonoen på Xerox Palo Alto laboratorium mod at Xerox får lov at købe aktier i Apple. Apple går på børsen og nogle, men fx ikke vennen Daniel Kottke, får aktieoptioner og bliver millionærer på en nat. Jobs er 26 i 1982 og chef for en virksomhed som omsætter for 600 millioner dollars.
Han giver Paul og Clara aktier for 750000 dollars og de indfrier deres boliglån.
Jobs er stadig forfærdelig som chef og bliver taget af Lisa projektet, blot for at kaste sig over Macintosh. Jef Raskin forsøger at lave en billig mac og ryger ud. For Canon laver han Canon Cat, der bliver et megaflop.
Ideen om at Jobs har et virkelighedsfordrejende kraftfelt breder sig. De ansatte indstifter en pris til den, der er bedst til at sige Jobs imod.
Jobs går vældigt meget op i detaljerne i Macintosh, fonte, menubjælker, motherboardet, indpakningen, alt får vældigt mange iterationer før han er tilfreds. Til gengæld bliver produktet forrygende godt.
Regis lærer Jobs at bruge eksklusivinterviews til at kontrollere pressen med. Jobs får John Sculley med om bord, men fortryder allerede da Sculley får Macintosh prissat til $2495 i stedet for $1995. Macintosh lanceringen bliver til gengæld et brag af en reklamekampagne, som dog giver bagslag, da Macintosh computeren er nuttet, men også langsom og med et enkelt diskettedrev som eneste lagermulighed.
Bill Gates og Microsoft kommer indover, men som lillebror i starten, for Apple er 10 gange større, men i længden er Gates bedre til at læse markedet. Gates er menneskelig i sammenligning med Jobs, der ender med at blive væltet i en paladsrevolution. Fx kan Gates godt give Jobs kredit for de ting, han er god til, mens Jobs ser Gates som middelmådighedens og tredjerangsprodukternes mester.
Jobs har en brutal måde at lede på, men har øje for at holde på A-spillerne og mener kun det kan lade sig gøre ved at skille sig af med B- og C-folkene.
Efter at være gået fra Apple grundlægger Jobs et nyt firma, NeXT, men det bliver ikke rigtig en succes. Pengene fosser ud af NeXT og han hælder også en masse penge i Pixar, fordi han identificerer sig med Lasseter. Pixar ender med at vinde en oskar for Tin Toy, men tjener ikke penge.
I juni 1986 dør Clara Jobs af lungekræft og Steve Jobs opsporer sin biologiske mor. Han har en søster Mona. Hun opsporer deres far, men han er egentlig mest ligeglad, også da han senere finder ud af at hans søn er Steve Jobs. Steves far og mor har været gift, men er skilt igen og begge har været involveret i flere forhold siden. Steve har også flere forhold, fx med Joan Baez. Men han finder Laurene Powell og det går bare godt.
Imens kører Apple ned ad bakke, fra 70 til 14 dollar pr aktie. Jean-Louis Gassée har grundlagt Be, men overspiller kortene da han forsøger at sælge Beos til Apple. Amelio har en virkelig kattepine og Jobs står parat på sidelinien (med Larry Ellison som hovedrig ven på sidelinien). Apple sætter NeXT og Be stævne for at sammenligne og Be kikser ved ikke at sige andet end at "det har vi jo vist tidligere". Amelio vælger Jobs og køber Next for 400 millioner dollars. Med om bord får han Jobs og det tager ikke mange uger, før Apple's bestyrelse fyrer Amelio og tigger Jobs om at træde til.
Det gør Jobs, som derefter får næsten alle i bestyrelsen til at træde tilbage. Til gengæld rejser Jobs Apple fra graven og starter på at gøre rigtig mange ting rigtig meget anderledes end Amelio. Han får John Ives om bord som højt skattet designer og går på ny op i alle detaljer. Han udsteder også masser af ordrer af typen få den lagerbeholdning ned på det halve nu! Og med nul tolerance overfor folk, der ikke makker ret med det samme. Det Virker!
En sjov detalje: skuffen i iMac's cd-drev fører på pudsig vis frem til at piratkopiering og mac ikke hænger så godt sammen.
Apple Stores er også Jobs ide, som kommer lige efter at et andet firma har opgivet at lave detailbutikker selv. Apples butikker tiltrækker 50 gange så mange kunder og bliver et stort hit.
Pixar, Lasseter, Eisner og Iger ender med at gå op i en højere enhed og Disney ender med at købe Pixar dyrt. Apple skifter til gengæld til Intel, hvilket imponerer Bill Gates meget. Med iPhone skaber Jobs igen en revolution og den bliver fulgt op med iPad og iPad2. Han går meget op i detaljer og fx iPhone får lige en tur igen, da den er næsten klar til at gå i produktion. Med iPad bliver han sur over reklamerne: det ligner noget for Visa! Og alt imens slås han med kræft. Han fik konstateret en sjælden form for bugspytkirtelkræft og valgte i 9 måneder at kurere på sig selv i stedet for at blive opereret. Måske havde det reddet ham, hvis han var kommet under kniven hurtigt, men det er der ingen, der ved. I alt fald blev hans sidste år ikke lette og han fik en levertransplantation i 2010, selv om prognosen ikke var god.
Nogle steder halter oversættelsen men fx afsnittet om iTunes er virkelig spændende. Sony lå i intern krig, mens Jobs faktisk fyrede folk, hvis afdelingerne ikke samarbejdede. Det er også fascinerende hvor meget han er gået op i alle detaljer i alle produkter og har slået på at ting skulle være enkle og ligetil at betjene.
Super bog.
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"Lanceringen", "Gates og Jobs", "Ikaros", "NeXT", "Pixar", "En almindelig fyr", "Toy Story", "Genkomsten", "Genopbygningen", "Tænk anderledes", "Designprincipper", "iMax", "Adm. Dir.", "Apples butikker", "Det digitale samlingssted", "iTunes Store", "Manden og musikken", "Pixars venner", "Macs til det 21. århundrede", "Første runde", "iPhone", "Anden runde", "iPad", "Nye slag", "Mod det uendelige", "Tredje runde", "Arven", "Kilder", "Noter", "Illustrationer".Kronologisk fortalt biografi om Steve Jobs, 24. februar 1955 til 5. oktober 2011.
Jobs er adoptivbarn. Hans biologiske forældre er Joanne Schieble og Abdulfattah Jandali, men de var studerende - 23 år gamle begge to - og begge hold forældre var meget imod forholdet, så da Joanne blev gravid, besluttede hun at bortadoptere. Paul og Clara Jobs slog til og døbte deres nye barn, Steven Paul Jobs.
Joanne havde egentlig som betingelse at adoptivforældrene skulle have en collegeuddannelse, men lod sig nøjes med et løfte om at barnet skulle have en collegeuddannelse, når den tid kom. Paul og Clara adopterer et par år senere en lille pige, kaldet Patty og spænder deres økonomi hårdt for at give børnene en god opvækst. Nabolaget er fyldt med ingeniører og små og store radio- tv og senere elektronikbutikker.
Stanford University ligger i nærheden og deres naturvidenskabelige dekan stabler en 28 hektar stor forskerpark på benene.
HP, Fairchild og Intel er også lige i nabolaget.
Steve er overordentlig kvik og fuld af lopper. Han møder Steve Wozniak og de falder i hak omgående. Jobs er helsefreak på en sjov måde. Wozniak er småkvabset og bleg. De passer ret perfekt sammen. Woz er supergod til at lave elektronik men kan ikke finde på at lyve eller tage penge for sine ideer.
Han synes fx at det er sjovt at omdesigne en pdp-8 til at bruge det halve antal kredse.
En dag opdager de Captain Crunch og laver en lille kasse, Blue Box, der kan dreje teleselskabet en knap, så man ringer gratis. De sælger 100 af dem og tjener pænt.
Det var en god øvelse, så Apple I bliver næste skridt. I 1972 bliver han optaget på Reed College, som er det eneste, han vil gå på og så må Paul og Clara betale selv om det egentlig er for dyrt for dem. Jobs er meget selvstændig - eller fræk, ubehøvlet, utaknemmelig eller hvad man ellers kan kalde det. Paul og Clara tager det pænt uden at kny.
Jobs har taget sin båndoptager med på College og har enorme mængder af piratoptagelse med Bob Dylan.
Han får et helseflip og spiser fx kun frugt i lange perioder. Desuden mener han at han så ikke behøver tage bad!
Han kommer også i nærheden af en foruroligende lang række af karismatiske bondefangertyper og ser ud til at tage ved lære.
Efter halvandet år på Reed College dropper han ud og tager hjem for at finde et job. Han får job ved Atari på trods af manglende pli og hygiejne. Han vil til Indien og Al Alcorn hjælper ham med at komme det første stykke, nemlig til Tyskland. "De har ikke engang et ord for vegetar!" Derfra til Italien, Schweiz og så Indien. Han er 19 og har stort set ingen penge med og starter med at få dysenteri.
Men han klarer sig syv måneder i Indien og beskriver det som et større chok at komme tilbage til USA.
I 1975 kommer den første hjemmecomputer en Altair til 495 dollars på markedet. Det er bare en dynge dele, men det sætter gang i vildt meget.
Bill Gates og Paul Allen går fx i gang med at lave en BASIC til den.
Det er jo 1970'erne, så lsd, hash og biodynamisk æbledyrkning er også in.
Wozniak får ideen til en personlig computer og vælger en motorola 6800 som cpu fordi den er meget billigere end en Intel 8080. Jobs sælger 100 stks Apple I til The Byte Shop for 500 dollar stykket, og så er de i gang.
Woz vil sælge for ca hvad det koster at lave dem, Jobs ganger med 3 for at finde butiksprisen.
På en udstilling kigger Jobs på konkurrenterne og konstaterer at deres maskiner ser ud til at være bygget af voksne, så han begynder at gå meget op i hvordan produktet skal se ud. Apple II bliver meget pænere.
Mike Markkula kommer med ombord og de begynder at få investorer med. Dog ikke Nolan Bushnell, der kunne have fået en tredjedel af Apple for 50000 dollars "Jeg vidste bedre, så jeg sagde nej. Det er lidt sjovt at tænke på, når jeg ikke græder."
Marketing bliver Regis McKenna, som Jobs håndplukker med sin blanding af begejstring, charmestråle og tryglen. Mike Scott bliver ansat til at holde lidt styr på Jobs.
Privat kommer Jobs lidt sammen med Chrisann Brennan og de får en datter, Lisa, hvilket Jobs dog er meget længe om at håndtere på en bare lidt anstændig vis.
I 1981 sælger Apple 210000 Apple II computere og pengene vælter ind. Apple III bliver derimod et flop. Jobs finder på et nyt projekt, Lisa, og får åbnet kimonoen på Xerox Palo Alto laboratorium mod at Xerox får lov at købe aktier i Apple. Apple går på børsen og nogle, men fx ikke vennen Daniel Kottke, får aktieoptioner og bliver millionærer på en nat. Jobs er 26 i 1982 og chef for en virksomhed som omsætter for 600 millioner dollars.
Han giver Paul og Clara aktier for 750000 dollars og de indfrier deres boliglån.
Jobs er stadig forfærdelig som chef og bliver taget af Lisa projektet, blot for at kaste sig over Macintosh. Jef Raskin forsøger at lave en billig mac og ryger ud. For Canon laver han Canon Cat, der bliver et megaflop.
Ideen om at Jobs har et virkelighedsfordrejende kraftfelt breder sig. De ansatte indstifter en pris til den, der er bedst til at sige Jobs imod.
Jobs går vældigt meget op i detaljerne i Macintosh, fonte, menubjælker, motherboardet, indpakningen, alt får vældigt mange iterationer før han er tilfreds. Til gengæld bliver produktet forrygende godt.
Regis lærer Jobs at bruge eksklusivinterviews til at kontrollere pressen med. Jobs får John Sculley med om bord, men fortryder allerede da Sculley får Macintosh prissat til $2495 i stedet for $1995. Macintosh lanceringen bliver til gengæld et brag af en reklamekampagne, som dog giver bagslag, da Macintosh computeren er nuttet, men også langsom og med et enkelt diskettedrev som eneste lagermulighed.
Bill Gates og Microsoft kommer indover, men som lillebror i starten, for Apple er 10 gange større, men i længden er Gates bedre til at læse markedet. Gates er menneskelig i sammenligning med Jobs, der ender med at blive væltet i en paladsrevolution. Fx kan Gates godt give Jobs kredit for de ting, han er god til, mens Jobs ser Gates som middelmådighedens og tredjerangsprodukternes mester.
Jobs har en brutal måde at lede på, men har øje for at holde på A-spillerne og mener kun det kan lade sig gøre ved at skille sig af med B- og C-folkene.
Efter at være gået fra Apple grundlægger Jobs et nyt firma, NeXT, men det bliver ikke rigtig en succes. Pengene fosser ud af NeXT og han hælder også en masse penge i Pixar, fordi han identificerer sig med Lasseter. Pixar ender med at vinde en oskar for Tin Toy, men tjener ikke penge.
I juni 1986 dør Clara Jobs af lungekræft og Steve Jobs opsporer sin biologiske mor. Han har en søster Mona. Hun opsporer deres far, men han er egentlig mest ligeglad, også da han senere finder ud af at hans søn er Steve Jobs. Steves far og mor har været gift, men er skilt igen og begge har været involveret i flere forhold siden. Steve har også flere forhold, fx med Joan Baez. Men han finder Laurene Powell og det går bare godt.
Imens kører Apple ned ad bakke, fra 70 til 14 dollar pr aktie. Jean-Louis Gassée har grundlagt Be, men overspiller kortene da han forsøger at sælge Beos til Apple. Amelio har en virkelig kattepine og Jobs står parat på sidelinien (med Larry Ellison som hovedrig ven på sidelinien). Apple sætter NeXT og Be stævne for at sammenligne og Be kikser ved ikke at sige andet end at "det har vi jo vist tidligere". Amelio vælger Jobs og køber Next for 400 millioner dollars. Med om bord får han Jobs og det tager ikke mange uger, før Apple's bestyrelse fyrer Amelio og tigger Jobs om at træde til.
Det gør Jobs, som derefter får næsten alle i bestyrelsen til at træde tilbage. Til gengæld rejser Jobs Apple fra graven og starter på at gøre rigtig mange ting rigtig meget anderledes end Amelio. Han får John Ives om bord som højt skattet designer og går på ny op i alle detaljer. Han udsteder også masser af ordrer af typen få den lagerbeholdning ned på det halve nu! Og med nul tolerance overfor folk, der ikke makker ret med det samme. Det Virker!
En sjov detalje: skuffen i iMac's cd-drev fører på pudsig vis frem til at piratkopiering og mac ikke hænger så godt sammen.
Apple Stores er også Jobs ide, som kommer lige efter at et andet firma har opgivet at lave detailbutikker selv. Apples butikker tiltrækker 50 gange så mange kunder og bliver et stort hit.
Pixar, Lasseter, Eisner og Iger ender med at gå op i en højere enhed og Disney ender med at købe Pixar dyrt. Apple skifter til gengæld til Intel, hvilket imponerer Bill Gates meget. Med iPhone skaber Jobs igen en revolution og den bliver fulgt op med iPad og iPad2. Han går meget op i detaljer og fx iPhone får lige en tur igen, da den er næsten klar til at gå i produktion. Med iPad bliver han sur over reklamerne: det ligner noget for Visa! Og alt imens slås han med kræft. Han fik konstateret en sjælden form for bugspytkirtelkræft og valgte i 9 måneder at kurere på sig selv i stedet for at blive opereret. Måske havde det reddet ham, hvis han var kommet under kniven hurtigt, men det er der ingen, der ved. I alt fald blev hans sidste år ikke lette og han fik en levertransplantation i 2010, selv om prognosen ikke var god.
Nogle steder halter oversættelsen men fx afsnittet om iTunes er virkelig spændende. Sony lå i intern krig, mens Jobs faktisk fyrede folk, hvis afdelingerne ikke samarbejdede. Det er også fascinerende hvor meget han er gået op i alle detaljer i alle produkter og har slået på at ting skulle være enkle og ligetil at betjene.
Super bog.
Show Less
Genres
Publication
[Kbh.] : Gyldendal, 2011.
Description
Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years, as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues, the author has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering. Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted. Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple's hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values. -- From publisher.… (more)
Media reviews
Steve Jobs dreamed of a legacy that awed people. He wanted to be in the pantheon of great product innovators, indeed surpassing Edwin Land and even his early icons William Hewitt and David Packard. But, Jobs created more than great products. Just as significant was his ability to create great
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companies with valuable brands. And, he created two of the best of his era: Apple and Pixar. Show Less
Isaacson’s book is long, dull, often flat-footed, and humorless. It hammers on one nail, incessantly: that Steve Jobs was an awful man, but awful in the service of products people really liked (and eventually bought lots of) and so in the end his awfulness was probably OK. It is not Isaacson’s
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fault that Jobs from early on had a “admixture of sensitivity and insensitivity, bristliness and detachment,” as Isaacson describes it, or that Jobs abandoned friends, thought almost everyone else was a shithead, showed little interest in his daughters, and made life generally miserable for anyone who had to provide a good or service to him. But it is Isaacson’s fault that the biography is so narrowly focused on one moral theme. The reader is left to judge, with plenty of evidence both ways—and a clear idea of where Isaacson’s sympathies lie—whether Jobs deserves the Artist’s Exemption. Show Less
As Walter Isaacson says in this incisive biography, Jobs behaved like a Nietzschean superman, using his will – transmitted through an unblinking stare – as a remote-control device that compelled others to do his bidding.
While Jobs was a vigorous competitor, he also came to view himself as an elder statesman with a responsibility for giving advice to Google’s Page, Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other emerging technology executives, according to “Steve Jobs,” an authorized biography by Walter Isaacson
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and published by CBS Corp. (CBS)’s Simon & Schuster. It goes on sale Oct. 24. Show Less
Mr. Isaacson treats “Steve Jobs” as the biography of record, which means that it is a strange book to read so soon after its subject’s death. Some of it is an essential Silicon Valley chronicle, compiling stories well known to tech aficionados but interesting to a broad audience. Some of it
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is already quaint. Mr. Jobs’s first job was at Atari, and it involved the game Pong. (“If you’re under 30, ask your parents,” Mr. Isaacson writes.) Some, like an account of the release of the iPad 2, is so recent that it is hard to appreciate yet, even if Mr. Isaacson says the device comes to life “like the face of a tickled baby.” Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member Smiler69
The book follow's Steve Job's personal life, which is to say it talks about his beloved company, Apple throughout, since Jobs' modus operandi at Apple has been part of Steve's DNA from the moment his adoptive father showed him that design excellence means getting even the details that nobody sees
If you, like me, are interested to learn about the thinking behind these revolutionary products, this book is just the ticket for you. If you want a book with plenty of quotes and comments from people who knew and worked with Steve Jobs, along with plenty of comments from the horse's mouth, again, this is the book to go to. I found the evolution of the thinking behind each product and how it came to be designed and produced to be fascinating. But.
For the first half of the book, I kept wondering why I was even bothering with it. Jobs comes off as one of the most unlikeable people imaginable. It may be that he was as unpleasant as portrayed, but I found it strange that he didn't seem to have a single redeeming quality, save for his focus on perfection. His personal charm was mentioned casually as just another tool in his arsenal, another means to an end, when the bullying had run it's course.
I wish I'd kept track of amount of times the term Reality Distortion Field was mentioned. As says on wikipedia: "RDF was said to distort an audience's sense of proportion and scales of difficulties and made them believe that the task at hand was possible. While RDF has been criticized as anti-reality, those close to Jobs have also illustrated numerous instances in which creating the sense that the seemingly impossible was possible led to the impossible being accomplished." I got the point the first and tenth and fiftieth time.
I suppose that Isaacson wanted to be true to Steve Jobs' manner of expression, so the entire book was filled wall to wall with expletives. Although I'm a big fan of Apple products, I don't have a particular bias towards Job; but what grated on me was that his brand of genius as a visionary with faultless design sense and a brilliant marketer didn't seem to carry much weight. Imagine someone writing about Picasso and focusing most of all on what a horrid man he was to others with offhanded mentions of what a brilliant artist he was. Comparing Jobs to Picasso might not be entirely appropriate, but it's undeniable that both men left a legacy that did, and will outlive them both. Yet, Jobs, ever the control freak, repeatedly told Isaacson he would not ask to see the manuscript and would not read the book when it was published, saying he knew there was a lot of it he wouldn't like, but trusting the author would write an accurate portrayal of him. To me, that speaks of a man who accepts himself with all his foibles, and that alone is a quality worthy of admiration.
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well crafted. The first half of the book talks about his biological parents and how he came to be adopted. Then about his adoptive parents and his early childhood and propensity for getting into trouble at school, mostly because he was so clever that he was easily bored. Then comes the friendship with Steve Wozniak with who Jobs created the first Apple computer. Wozniak was another genius, and passionate about engineering. Things get very technical to explain their early experimentation with electronics, as we're taken through the process of how the first Apple computer came to be, then the Apple II, then the Lisa, and finally the Macintosh, all created when Jobs was still in his early 20s. To show just how integral Apple was to his life and what a complex personality Jobs was, he named the Lisa after a daughter he had more or less abandoned in his early 20s. His personal life was messy. He studied Zen Buddhism from his late teens, adopted all kinds of extreme vegan diets, experimented a lot with LSD, did the whole India thing, and all these experiences somehow became connected to the products he created. How and why he was ousted from Apple in the 80s is discussed at length and in great detail, with countless quotes and bits of dialogue from many of the players involved, which to me ended up sounding more than anything like office politics being discussed around the water cooler. I've never been a water cooler kind of person, so found that part very irritating. Eventually in the second half, we get to Steve returning to Apple after several failures and the timeline continues to cover both his personal life and the inventions and products he created with the iPod, iTunes, the iTunes store, the Apple stores (which were thought by some analysts to fail miserably after one year), then the creation of the iPhone and finally, the iPad and the iCloud. Of course the last chapters examine his cancer and treatments, and how he eventually came to succumb to the illness. If you, like me, are interested to learn about the thinking behind these revolutionary products, this book is just the ticket for you. If you want a book with plenty of quotes and comments from people who knew and worked with Steve Jobs, along with plenty of comments from the horse's mouth, again, this is the book to go to. I found the evolution of the thinking behind each product and how it came to be designed and produced to be fascinating. But.
For the first half of the book, I kept wondering why I was even bothering with it. Jobs comes off as one of the most unlikeable people imaginable. It may be that he was as unpleasant as portrayed, but I found it strange that he didn't seem to have a single redeeming quality, save for his focus on perfection. His personal charm was mentioned casually as just another tool in his arsenal, another means to an end, when the bullying had run it's course.
I wish I'd kept track of amount of times the term Reality Distortion Field was mentioned. As says on wikipedia: "RDF was said to distort an audience's sense of proportion and scales of difficulties and made them believe that the task at hand was possible. While RDF has been criticized as anti-reality, those close to Jobs have also illustrated numerous instances in which creating the sense that the seemingly impossible was possible led to the impossible being accomplished." I got the point the first and tenth and fiftieth time.
I suppose that Isaacson wanted to be true to Steve Jobs' manner of expression, so the entire book was filled wall to wall with expletives. Although I'm a big fan of Apple products, I don't have a particular bias towards Job; but what grated on me was that his brand of genius as a visionary with faultless design sense and a brilliant marketer didn't seem to carry much weight. Imagine someone writing about Picasso and focusing most of all on what a horrid man he was to others with offhanded mentions of what a brilliant artist he was. Comparing Jobs to Picasso might not be entirely appropriate, but it's undeniable that both men left a legacy that did, and will outlive them both. Yet, Jobs, ever the control freak, repeatedly told Isaacson he would not ask to see the manuscript and would not read the book when it was published, saying he knew there was a lot of it he wouldn't like, but trusting the author would write an accurate portrayal of him. To me, that speaks of a man who accepts himself with all his foibles, and that alone is a quality worthy of admiration.
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LibraryThing member jcbrunner
Walter Isaacson has written a perfectly timed, highly readable but incurious Maureen Dowdesque biography of Steve Jobs. To understand Isaacson's approach to biography and journalism, it is helpful to note that Isaacson's leadership drove not one but two venerable US media properties into the ground
Often mentioned in reviews, Isaacson hones in - in pure Maureen Dowd mode - multiple times on the younger Steve Jobs' crazy theory that his vegetarianism made showering unnecessary, a theory quickly disproved by reality and its unpleasantness heavily signaled to Jobs by his environment. Isaacson never confronted Jobs about the issue to discuss and reveal why Jobs persisted in a behavior obviously olfactory hurtful to the people exposed to him. At the core, Jobs remained a petulant, egoistic and often cruel child that never grew up, Peter Pan's evil stepbrother.
Another non- to half-discussed issue is Jobs' Indian influence. How can one square the idea of karma with Jobs' relentless bullying and being a jerk? He notoriously parked on handicapped parking spaces and refused to equip his cars with number plates. Such antisocial behavior is only possible in the Unequal States of America. In a nation of laws, he would have been required to personally demonstrate the application of his plates on his car to the authorities. If he continued driving without plates, he would have been stripped off his driving license. If he then continued driving, he would have been met with the escalating full strength of the government.
Isaacson also excuses Jobs' bullying of countless waiters and receptionists who had to endure Jobs' princess-and-the-pea behavior, sending back products time and again. Jobs' cruelty extended to his own employees whom he cheated out of options and which he tried to deprive of fourteen days severance pay. Social Darwinism not an Indian social contract guided Jobs' philosophy.
Jobs' childlike being was also his source of his strength: Like any child, he was unwilling to accept a no, asking again and again for favors, crying, whining, but especially schmoozing with unblinking eyes and using a child's gift of offering another person its concentrated, full attention. In these moments, Jobs seemed to live with, through and for the other person who became intoxicated with Jobs' flattering them. Jobs trained and perfected his gift for cajoling and flattering audiences first on socially awkward nerds who, in exchange for Jobs' attention, handed him control of their inventions.
Jobs was not an inventor or innovator, he was a prosumer. He was his own client number one. He tested and adapted other people's ideas and products to his own personal needs as a finicky customer. Jobs' products won when the technology leaders failed to do their job. IBM or Xerox should have built the Apple II/Mac, Disney Pixar, Sony the iPod, the telecoms the iPhone and media companies the iPad. When an industry is roused out of its complacency, Apple is typically squeezed out of the market. Jobs' strength was to entice and bully the dinosaurs' ignorant CEOs. Isaacson again fails to deliver the juicy details about these negotiations.
While Apple's genial marketing positioned it as a rebel, about being different, it and Jobs were conservative even reactionary in its views. His love for Big Brother can be best seen in his vision for the new Apple HQ which is in the form of a transparent circle. In architecture, the circle is used for defense and for prisons. The circle offers cheap total surveillance from the center, especially given Jobs' penchant for glass which obliterates personal defensive space. The contrast between the humane Pixar HQ which benefited from other people's ideas and Apple HQ couldn't be starker. The removal of the Mac arrow keys, the inability to exchange iPod or iPhone batteries and the draconic restrictions of the Apple software store are examples of Jobs' predilection for taking away customer control. The masses must be provided with locked-in and closed-off products. In the end, Winston Smith learned not to think different and he loved it.
The products from Cupertino changed how humans interact with technology. Given that Jobs' profited from other people's inventions and ideas, it is highly likely that they would have seen the light of day at some other company under a less controlling CEO sooner or later. Ultimately, the worship and deference shown to Jobs is only partially merited. This biography does not offer a full assessment of Steve Jobs. His standard biography has yet to be written.
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(TIME magazine and CNN). He now directs the Aspen Institute, the Davos for non-thinkers. His approach is characterized by a relentless quest for the shallow, a perpetual "we'll have to leave it there" when faced with real questions, and an inveterate urge to brown-nose the rich and powerful. He can be quite critical about out-of-power and dead persons (Jobs is the chief victim of that), but acting CEOs and celebrities are treated like demigods.Often mentioned in reviews, Isaacson hones in - in pure Maureen Dowd mode - multiple times on the younger Steve Jobs' crazy theory that his vegetarianism made showering unnecessary, a theory quickly disproved by reality and its unpleasantness heavily signaled to Jobs by his environment. Isaacson never confronted Jobs about the issue to discuss and reveal why Jobs persisted in a behavior obviously olfactory hurtful to the people exposed to him. At the core, Jobs remained a petulant, egoistic and often cruel child that never grew up, Peter Pan's evil stepbrother.
Another non- to half-discussed issue is Jobs' Indian influence. How can one square the idea of karma with Jobs' relentless bullying and being a jerk? He notoriously parked on handicapped parking spaces and refused to equip his cars with number plates. Such antisocial behavior is only possible in the Unequal States of America. In a nation of laws, he would have been required to personally demonstrate the application of his plates on his car to the authorities. If he continued driving without plates, he would have been stripped off his driving license. If he then continued driving, he would have been met with the escalating full strength of the government.
Isaacson also excuses Jobs' bullying of countless waiters and receptionists who had to endure Jobs' princess-and-the-pea behavior, sending back products time and again. Jobs' cruelty extended to his own employees whom he cheated out of options and which he tried to deprive of fourteen days severance pay. Social Darwinism not an Indian social contract guided Jobs' philosophy.
Jobs' childlike being was also his source of his strength: Like any child, he was unwilling to accept a no, asking again and again for favors, crying, whining, but especially schmoozing with unblinking eyes and using a child's gift of offering another person its concentrated, full attention. In these moments, Jobs seemed to live with, through and for the other person who became intoxicated with Jobs' flattering them. Jobs trained and perfected his gift for cajoling and flattering audiences first on socially awkward nerds who, in exchange for Jobs' attention, handed him control of their inventions.
Jobs was not an inventor or innovator, he was a prosumer. He was his own client number one. He tested and adapted other people's ideas and products to his own personal needs as a finicky customer. Jobs' products won when the technology leaders failed to do their job. IBM or Xerox should have built the Apple II/Mac, Disney Pixar, Sony the iPod, the telecoms the iPhone and media companies the iPad. When an industry is roused out of its complacency, Apple is typically squeezed out of the market. Jobs' strength was to entice and bully the dinosaurs' ignorant CEOs. Isaacson again fails to deliver the juicy details about these negotiations.
While Apple's genial marketing positioned it as a rebel, about being different, it and Jobs were conservative even reactionary in its views. His love for Big Brother can be best seen in his vision for the new Apple HQ which is in the form of a transparent circle. In architecture, the circle is used for defense and for prisons. The circle offers cheap total surveillance from the center, especially given Jobs' penchant for glass which obliterates personal defensive space. The contrast between the humane Pixar HQ which benefited from other people's ideas and Apple HQ couldn't be starker. The removal of the Mac arrow keys, the inability to exchange iPod or iPhone batteries and the draconic restrictions of the Apple software store are examples of Jobs' predilection for taking away customer control. The masses must be provided with locked-in and closed-off products. In the end, Winston Smith learned not to think different and he loved it.
The products from Cupertino changed how humans interact with technology. Given that Jobs' profited from other people's inventions and ideas, it is highly likely that they would have seen the light of day at some other company under a less controlling CEO sooner or later. Ultimately, the worship and deference shown to Jobs is only partially merited. This biography does not offer a full assessment of Steve Jobs. His standard biography has yet to be written.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Pennydart
I’m not a big fan of Apple products. I appreciate the sleek physical design of their computers, but for me computer technology is more about function than form, and while there was a time when Apple machines just plain worked better than PCs, those days are long gone. Like most people today,
All this surprises, and sometimes irks, the many of my colleagues in the IT world who are huge Apple fans. Just as Apple attracts almost zealous support from its customer, so did Apple’s founder Steve Jobs. I was in Palo Alto a few days after his death this past fall, and the local Apple Store had become a shrine, its entire plate-glass windows covered with sticky notes eulogizing him, and the sidewalk out front covered with bouquets and Teddy Bears. But if Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs is even half accurate, Jobs was not an easy man to like. Admire, yes, in some ways, but not like. While Isaacson lauds Jobs for being a genius who had a remarkable string of achievements that dramatically changed at least five industries, he pulls no punches in his portrayal of Jobs as a seriously flawed human being: someone who was arrogant, petulant, bullying, disloyal, and flat-out mean. It’s almost stunning that Jobs, with his keen interest in Zen, didn’t worry about the bad karma he exuded making its way into the products about whose designs he cared so deeply.
Some of Jobs’ personal characteristics were already well-known, notably including his extreme need for control. His ability to see the world as he wanted it to be and not how it really is—what Jobs’ friends referred to as his “reality distortion field”—is also fairly widely known: it’s what enabled him time and again to make the seemingly impossible happen, and to convince those around him to help in his quests to do so. But it may also have played a direct role in his death, as he put off surgery for his newly detected cancer for nearly 9 months, possibly partly because he simply chose to believe that the cancer’s threat wasn’t real.
Jobs asked Isaacson to write his biography, and although Isaacson originally declined, Jobs pressed the issue when it became clear that he was dying. In complete contrast to his usual control-freak nature, he gave free reign to the biographer, except for one detail: he chose the cover art, a black and white photo in which Jobs stares straight on at the reader, his thumb posed at his chin, looking, well, visionary . Jobs tells Isaacson that he knows that much of what’s written in the biography will make him angry, and says he won’t read it until a year after it’s been published, although he also knows that the likelihood of him living that long is extremely slim. And indeed, Jobs did die, several weeks in advance of the publication. It’s hard to say what Jobs would have thought of the book: whether he’d have taken pride in its recognition of the tremendous impact he had on the world, or whether he’d have been embarrassed by its bald description of the bad behavior he exhibited towards so many people around him. Almost certainly he would have appreciated Isaacson’s clear, straightforward, and brutally honest writing.
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probably 80% of what I do on a computer involves using Microsoft tools—Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook—and they just don’t work as well on Macs as they do on PCs. This may not be Apple’s fault, but it’s the reality. My iPod is fine, but I’ve never owned an iPhone: I’m a Verizon customer and until recently iPhones weren’t available for Verizon, and so I’ve purchased Windows Mobile and Android devices, which have met my needs. And as for iPads: well, I had one, which I very seldom used, and I eventually gave it to my grown daughter.All this surprises, and sometimes irks, the many of my colleagues in the IT world who are huge Apple fans. Just as Apple attracts almost zealous support from its customer, so did Apple’s founder Steve Jobs. I was in Palo Alto a few days after his death this past fall, and the local Apple Store had become a shrine, its entire plate-glass windows covered with sticky notes eulogizing him, and the sidewalk out front covered with bouquets and Teddy Bears. But if Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs is even half accurate, Jobs was not an easy man to like. Admire, yes, in some ways, but not like. While Isaacson lauds Jobs for being a genius who had a remarkable string of achievements that dramatically changed at least five industries, he pulls no punches in his portrayal of Jobs as a seriously flawed human being: someone who was arrogant, petulant, bullying, disloyal, and flat-out mean. It’s almost stunning that Jobs, with his keen interest in Zen, didn’t worry about the bad karma he exuded making its way into the products about whose designs he cared so deeply.
Some of Jobs’ personal characteristics were already well-known, notably including his extreme need for control. His ability to see the world as he wanted it to be and not how it really is—what Jobs’ friends referred to as his “reality distortion field”—is also fairly widely known: it’s what enabled him time and again to make the seemingly impossible happen, and to convince those around him to help in his quests to do so. But it may also have played a direct role in his death, as he put off surgery for his newly detected cancer for nearly 9 months, possibly partly because he simply chose to believe that the cancer’s threat wasn’t real.
Jobs asked Isaacson to write his biography, and although Isaacson originally declined, Jobs pressed the issue when it became clear that he was dying. In complete contrast to his usual control-freak nature, he gave free reign to the biographer, except for one detail: he chose the cover art, a black and white photo in which Jobs stares straight on at the reader, his thumb posed at his chin, looking, well, visionary . Jobs tells Isaacson that he knows that much of what’s written in the biography will make him angry, and says he won’t read it until a year after it’s been published, although he also knows that the likelihood of him living that long is extremely slim. And indeed, Jobs did die, several weeks in advance of the publication. It’s hard to say what Jobs would have thought of the book: whether he’d have taken pride in its recognition of the tremendous impact he had on the world, or whether he’d have been embarrassed by its bald description of the bad behavior he exhibited towards so many people around him. Almost certainly he would have appreciated Isaacson’s clear, straightforward, and brutally honest writing.
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LibraryThing member Hectigo
Steve Jobs was a remarkable person, truly the corporate leader of the century - but maybe also the hardest person to work with in the whole industry. The book pulls no punches to criticize his person and uses superlatives lavishly while describing his work, which is as should be. Personal computing
There are a few faults in the pacing, that might have been improved by editing, and the book might have provided more insight into Apple if it had waited until the last products Steve worked on would be on store shelves. But while it might be a bit rushed, it's still based on thorough research, and is a must read for anyone planning to do business related to technology. Recommended.
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has transformed our lives in a fundamental way, and no-one else has had a stronger influence to that revolution as Steve. Thus the book is also more than the story of his life: it's a story of the Silicon Valley, told from a very good vantage point. It has sound insights into running a small or large company, how to market technology products and how to make a dent in the universe while doing so.There are a few faults in the pacing, that might have been improved by editing, and the book might have provided more insight into Apple if it had waited until the last products Steve worked on would be on store shelves. But while it might be a bit rushed, it's still based on thorough research, and is a must read for anyone planning to do business related to technology. Recommended.
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LibraryThing member DanStratton
I think I killed Steve Jobs. I’m sorry everyone. I didn’t mean to, but I think it was me.
You see, I have been a Windows kind of guy for my whole career in computers. I bought an IBM XT clone for my first computer back in 1987. I knew about Apple computers, but I was a Microsoft guy, through and
I listened to my artistic friends go on and on about how wonderful their Macs were and basically ignored them. When my son and daughter got into video editing, I broke down and bought them an iMac. I tried to use it, but I couldn’t figure it out. I guess I was too engrained in the Windows way of the world. I did have an iPod. In fact, I have had three over the years. I even bought an iPhone early last year because I was tired of trying to find a smartphone that was a good phone.
But back to my confession. I really think I killed Steve Jobs. I bought a MacBook Air on October 4, 2011. He died the next day, unable to withstand the shock of my conversion.
You would think after my conversion, I would have lined up first to read Isaacson’s biography of the man who sucked me in. I didn’t. I resisted for a long time, just like I did with my computer. I knew I would eventually give in. I listened to my friends comment about the book. Much of what they said, confirmed what I thought of Steve Jobs. A couple of weeks ago, though, I finally decided it was time to find out the story behind the man everyone has been heralding as a modern prophet of innovation.
A few years ago, Steve Jobs requested Walter Isaacson, a report he knew, to write his biography. Isaacson resisted for a long time. He didn’t know about Jobs’ cancer and thought it was a project for “some day”. Every time Jobs saw him at press events for the next few years, he would insist he do it. When Isaacson learned of Jobs’ cancer, he realized he needed to get started. I am glad he did, too. The result was a uncensored view one of the most influential men of the century.
Jobs promised to not try to influence who he spoke with or what he wrote and he held to that promise. The more I read about Jobs’ career, I can see that must have been the most restraint he had ever exercised. Jobs was a controlling pursuant of perfection in every aspect of his life. He domineered everyone he came in contact with. He would inject his standards on every aspect of everyone around him.
The stories Isaacson tells confirmed all the rumors I had heard over the years about Steve Jobs. A tyrant to work for, he would scream and yell at anyone who didn’t measure up, regardless of their position or abilities. His employees knew that if they ever produced anything with a flaw, or sometimes even when it was perfect, there was always a chance Jobs would go off like a rocket, swearing, belittling and heaping on the the verbally abuse. He would even do it to other CEOs without regard. Even casual acquaintances or US presidents were not exempt: both Rupert Murdoch and Barrack Obama received unsolicited advice on their shortcomings.
He wasn’t any better with his family, either. His daughters were largely ignored. The family always took second seat to his first love: Apple. He did spend time with his son and even prayed that he would survive his cancer long enough to see his son graduate, but his three daughters did not enjoy that level of interest.
Isaacson offers a uninhibited view of why we forgive this poor excuse of a human being. In short, his brilliance in designing user friendly products is unparalleled. His drive for perfection created some of the most widely accepted products the world has known. His string of successes in quite amazing. The Apple II, Macintosh, iMac, MacBook, MacBook Air, iPod, iPhone and the iPad. Don’t forget Pixar. Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, The Incredibles and many others form an unbroken string of blockbusters. On the way, he built a dominant company, was kicked out, came back, rescued it and built it into the most valuable company on planet Earth, all in 56 years.
While I don’t admire the man for how he lived his life, I do admire the success he had in spite of all his personal weaknesses. I don’t hold him up as the titan others may do, but my hat is off to what he accomplished in his short life. I am glad he left extensive notes for Apple’s future and built a group of achievers just as committed to his dreams as he. I believe he did exactly what he wanted: build a long-lasting company and give the world amazing tools to express themselves. He made a convert out of me.
You see, I have been a Windows kind of guy for my whole career in computers. I bought an IBM XT clone for my first computer back in 1987. I knew about Apple computers, but I was a Microsoft guy, through and
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through. I left a mainframe computer programmer job to work on PCs. I wrote code on a beta version of Windows 95.I listened to my artistic friends go on and on about how wonderful their Macs were and basically ignored them. When my son and daughter got into video editing, I broke down and bought them an iMac. I tried to use it, but I couldn’t figure it out. I guess I was too engrained in the Windows way of the world. I did have an iPod. In fact, I have had three over the years. I even bought an iPhone early last year because I was tired of trying to find a smartphone that was a good phone.
But back to my confession. I really think I killed Steve Jobs. I bought a MacBook Air on October 4, 2011. He died the next day, unable to withstand the shock of my conversion.
You would think after my conversion, I would have lined up first to read Isaacson’s biography of the man who sucked me in. I didn’t. I resisted for a long time, just like I did with my computer. I knew I would eventually give in. I listened to my friends comment about the book. Much of what they said, confirmed what I thought of Steve Jobs. A couple of weeks ago, though, I finally decided it was time to find out the story behind the man everyone has been heralding as a modern prophet of innovation.
A few years ago, Steve Jobs requested Walter Isaacson, a report he knew, to write his biography. Isaacson resisted for a long time. He didn’t know about Jobs’ cancer and thought it was a project for “some day”. Every time Jobs saw him at press events for the next few years, he would insist he do it. When Isaacson learned of Jobs’ cancer, he realized he needed to get started. I am glad he did, too. The result was a uncensored view one of the most influential men of the century.
Jobs promised to not try to influence who he spoke with or what he wrote and he held to that promise. The more I read about Jobs’ career, I can see that must have been the most restraint he had ever exercised. Jobs was a controlling pursuant of perfection in every aspect of his life. He domineered everyone he came in contact with. He would inject his standards on every aspect of everyone around him.
The stories Isaacson tells confirmed all the rumors I had heard over the years about Steve Jobs. A tyrant to work for, he would scream and yell at anyone who didn’t measure up, regardless of their position or abilities. His employees knew that if they ever produced anything with a flaw, or sometimes even when it was perfect, there was always a chance Jobs would go off like a rocket, swearing, belittling and heaping on the the verbally abuse. He would even do it to other CEOs without regard. Even casual acquaintances or US presidents were not exempt: both Rupert Murdoch and Barrack Obama received unsolicited advice on their shortcomings.
He wasn’t any better with his family, either. His daughters were largely ignored. The family always took second seat to his first love: Apple. He did spend time with his son and even prayed that he would survive his cancer long enough to see his son graduate, but his three daughters did not enjoy that level of interest.
Isaacson offers a uninhibited view of why we forgive this poor excuse of a human being. In short, his brilliance in designing user friendly products is unparalleled. His drive for perfection created some of the most widely accepted products the world has known. His string of successes in quite amazing. The Apple II, Macintosh, iMac, MacBook, MacBook Air, iPod, iPhone and the iPad. Don’t forget Pixar. Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, The Incredibles and many others form an unbroken string of blockbusters. On the way, he built a dominant company, was kicked out, came back, rescued it and built it into the most valuable company on planet Earth, all in 56 years.
While I don’t admire the man for how he lived his life, I do admire the success he had in spite of all his personal weaknesses. I don’t hold him up as the titan others may do, but my hat is off to what he accomplished in his short life. I am glad he left extensive notes for Apple’s future and built a group of achievers just as committed to his dreams as he. I believe he did exactly what he wanted: build a long-lasting company and give the world amazing tools to express themselves. He made a convert out of me.
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LibraryThing member rivkat
Steve Jobs loved design, and built a massively valuable company on that love (also Pixar, a large success on its own). People, he had more problems with—as recent revelations about the human impact of that love of design have shown, with workers suffering massively to make beautiful things at
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acceptably low prices for Apple. Isaacson doesn’t cover that, though he does discuss how Apple demanded price concessions and sited production in China in order to keep costs down—its beautiful products were already expensive, after all. Jobs seems like he was a nightmare to work with, from insisting that keeping to weird diets meant that he didn’t need to bathe to taking credit for any idea he didn’t conclude was “shit” to deliberately saying the cruelest things he could think of to people who’d disappointed him. Also, though Isaacson doesn’t come out and say it in so many words, he favored his son over his daughters (not just the daughter it took him years to acknowledge, but the younger ones—he took his son to business meetings and on a trip of his son’s choice, but reneged on the same promise to his next youngest daughter a few years later). Random thought—it’s hard to imagine a huge biography about a major female figure that acknowledges in passing that she had an eating disorder (even using that term) that contributed to her early death, and doesn’t spend any time psychoanalyzing the source of same. Actually, it’s hard to imagine a woman getting away with half of the crap Jobs pulled. One might be left with the question “was it worth it?” but I’d also want to ask “is that really the tradeoff?” Now I want a biography of Bill Gates, who is increasingly rising in my estimation simply by contrast—he shows up here mostly to get pounded on and occasionally to snap back about design v. openness. Show Less
LibraryThing member JollyContrarian
You're either an Apple Fan boy or you're not (I'm not, as a rule). I suspect many of the reviews of this book are, therefore, proxy votes not on Walter Isaacson's talent, but Steve Jobs'.
Isaacson has, as the heart of his book, the Steve Jobs business philosophy. It is this, as much as jobs'
It is difficult to conceive of how different the world now is - hard to remember how rigid and immovable was the social architecture which the internet blew away (but which, if Zitrain is to be believed are regrouping forces). Flying in the face of the Web 2.0 dogma, Steve Jobs, virtually alone, believed in closed, tightly integrated, designed, controlled products. This remains a profoundly old-fashioned outlook for a tech company to adopt.
Isaacson does an excellent job of highlighting a colossal *conceptual* chasm between Apple and the rest that most users simply won't credit. An iPhone is, philosophically a very different thing to an android smartphone. An iMac is a profoundly different thing to a PC. Your preference between them still comes down to an instinct: as between closed and open; tight and loose; predictable and flexible; probable and possible; centrally planned and laissez faire; design and fiat and even, melodramatically, God and evolution. These days most folks seem to prefer centrally planned, at any rate inasmuch as they buy Apple's articulation of it.
Apple's articulation of it, of course, has been incredible. Even Bill Gates acknowledges that Apple has made some really cool stuff. (I'm hacking this review out on a dented Blackberry Curve, but coveting the iPad on the lap next to me. It irks me, but I really want one). And Steve Jobs accomplished this in a way that illustrates the validity of his model, however awkward that might be for the political orthodoxy. And he was a beastly bit of work while he was at it.
Walter Isaacson gives the most sullen Googlista reason to respect Steve Jobs' achievement, and the most fawning mac apologist reason to abhor him. Jobs was a difficult individual with little of the grace and style of his products. He was prone to angry tirades, and was often instantly dismissive of what turned out to be excellent suggestions. He was similar with his family. Those who stayed close enough, personally or professionally, to understand how he ticked (notably Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, wife Laurene Powell, chief Apple designer Jony Ive and Isaacson himself) learned to accommodate his foibles remarkably effectively, ignored the histrionics and did what they felt was the right thing anyway. Which, as Isaacson makes clear, is what Jobs expected anyway.
This is a well told story about the singular vision of a remarkable man.
Olly Buxton
Isaacson has, as the heart of his book, the Steve Jobs business philosophy. It is this, as much as jobs'
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unnatural flair for design, which separates him from his peers: most of the rest of the founding fathers and prophets of the tech revolution - Hewlett, Packard, Grove, Gates, Brin and Page, Fanning, Lessig, Zitrain - even Apple's own Wozniak - are united by the same insight: that modular components which put the decision in the hands of the user make for a tremendously powerful thing. This is the genuinely revolutionary, anarchic disposition which has shocked the political, corporate and social order over the last 20 years. It's a revolution of which Steve Jobs, and his beloved Apple, wanted no part.It is difficult to conceive of how different the world now is - hard to remember how rigid and immovable was the social architecture which the internet blew away (but which, if Zitrain is to be believed are regrouping forces). Flying in the face of the Web 2.0 dogma, Steve Jobs, virtually alone, believed in closed, tightly integrated, designed, controlled products. This remains a profoundly old-fashioned outlook for a tech company to adopt.
Isaacson does an excellent job of highlighting a colossal *conceptual* chasm between Apple and the rest that most users simply won't credit. An iPhone is, philosophically a very different thing to an android smartphone. An iMac is a profoundly different thing to a PC. Your preference between them still comes down to an instinct: as between closed and open; tight and loose; predictable and flexible; probable and possible; centrally planned and laissez faire; design and fiat and even, melodramatically, God and evolution. These days most folks seem to prefer centrally planned, at any rate inasmuch as they buy Apple's articulation of it.
Apple's articulation of it, of course, has been incredible. Even Bill Gates acknowledges that Apple has made some really cool stuff. (I'm hacking this review out on a dented Blackberry Curve, but coveting the iPad on the lap next to me. It irks me, but I really want one). And Steve Jobs accomplished this in a way that illustrates the validity of his model, however awkward that might be for the political orthodoxy. And he was a beastly bit of work while he was at it.
Walter Isaacson gives the most sullen Googlista reason to respect Steve Jobs' achievement, and the most fawning mac apologist reason to abhor him. Jobs was a difficult individual with little of the grace and style of his products. He was prone to angry tirades, and was often instantly dismissive of what turned out to be excellent suggestions. He was similar with his family. Those who stayed close enough, personally or professionally, to understand how he ticked (notably Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, wife Laurene Powell, chief Apple designer Jony Ive and Isaacson himself) learned to accommodate his foibles remarkably effectively, ignored the histrionics and did what they felt was the right thing anyway. Which, as Isaacson makes clear, is what Jobs expected anyway.
This is a well told story about the singular vision of a remarkable man.
Olly Buxton
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LibraryThing member JA_Paul
I loved this book. I learned more than I ever imagine I would when I started it. The man behind Apple/Next/Pixar was a fascinating individual who covered an extreme range of intellect, emotion and behavior. If you are a Macintosh, Apple, Pixar, iPod, iPhone or iPad fan I think you will find this
The book not only highlights Jobs but many, if not most of the Silicon Valley tech guru's as these people floated in and out of his life.
It also covers all aspects of his life from early childhood to his last days with cancer. How he did and did not interact with his own family to his forcibly direct and brutal honesty while touching on his sometimes vain and delicate emotions.
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biography as interesting as I did. The book not only highlights Jobs but many, if not most of the Silicon Valley tech guru's as these people floated in and out of his life.
It also covers all aspects of his life from early childhood to his last days with cancer. How he did and did not interact with his own family to his forcibly direct and brutal honesty while touching on his sometimes vain and delicate emotions.
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LibraryThing member nmele
Isaacson doesn't just tell you who Jobs was and what he did, he explains why he was who was and why he did what he did. Great book, great character study.
LibraryThing member invisiblelizard
You sort of have to get through the introductory hippy-dippy parts (first 4-5 chapters) before you get into the good stuff. Sure, Jobs was a free thinking, drug taking, world traveling, non-bathing, weird dieting person back then (which I guess sort of explains his idiosyncrasies later in life) but
Personal takeaway from this book: I now have more walking meetings. Whenever possible I get out of the office and have meetings walking around this little pond at the back of our building.
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personally I would have summed that up in one good chapter and moved on. Once you get into his Apple days, the story really takes off. His life reads like fiction, like you couldn't possibly believe this character didn't get invented in the mind of some strange and twisted writer, but it's all true. The first tenure at Apple is interesting enough. Once he's ousted, the story slows for several chapters while you read about his next projects (pardon the pun) and more of his personal life. Then the pace really picks back up when he's brought back into Apple. I've been an Apple fan since my parents got me an Apple 2 back in the early 80's, so I was already familiar with a lot of the products Jobs ultimately worked to develop. Reading this book added a nice back-story to all of the toys I've loved over the years. Reading about his struggles with cancer was a bit depressing, but I knew going into this biography that the Titanic sinks at the end. I think the thrill (for me) is seeing how his legacy extends. He's been gone 6 months now, and I'm still amazed at how his influence set the pace and tone there at Apple to product great devices.Personal takeaway from this book: I now have more walking meetings. Whenever possible I get out of the office and have meetings walking around this little pond at the back of our building.
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LibraryThing member petterw
An excellent biography of one of the greatest and most influential geniuses of our time, but at the same time a flawed individual who knew he was just that. The book reads like a thriller, and for me who have been a follower of Apple since the first Macintosh to today's iPad. I have learnt more
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from this biography than from the total collection of business books I have read the last couple of years, how to focus on product before profit, how to focus, how to empathise with your customers - and not the least to impute value in your products. Walter Isaacson has written a biography with a lot of respect, while at the same time avoiding adolation. The result is a naked portrait of a whole individual, one who has influenced my generation more than most. Show Less
LibraryThing member eireannach
This is a workmanlike biography although, one feels, not one that would have satisfied the subject's passion for excellence. The ending felt rushed, with the last few chapters appearing to have been cobbled together without a coherent narrative. A bigger failing, however, is the author's inability
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to understand and explain Jobs' personality. True, he informs us - ad nauseum - that Jobs was an emotional character, often driven literally to tears, while also being bi-polar, or at least probably missing a sense of empathy and having narcissistic tendencies, but clearly there was more to Jobs than that, as evidenced by the depth of some of his friendships. Isaacson, though, fails to get there. Overall, he does a reasonable job of describing the evolution of Apple, and for anyone with an interest in technology, or anyone with an interest in understanding what makes a company excellent, this book is a worthwhile read. Show Less
LibraryThing member dasam
Jobs was an amazingly creative business leader, but I fear some folks will get the wrong message from his life. He was not creative and effective because he was a jerk. He may have been a jerk sometimes because he was passionate and perfectionistic, but his folks joined him in his endeavors because
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he had passion, vision and creativity and despite his being a bully. Show Less
LibraryThing member realbigcat
I recently attended a lecture by Walter Isaacson and I found him to be a fascinating speaker and so well informed. He spoke often of Jobs and you could tell the tremndous impact Jobs had on Isaacson. I found the book to be so fasinating with Jobs being a creative genius and a quirky individual who
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in his own words could be an asshole. The book is very long but well worth the read as it covers Jobs entire life and the history of Apple. Jobs really was behind creating things that changed the world we live in. He was so complex and had such drive and ambition but yet like most creative people he could be completely lost on the simpliest things. There are so many other reviews with more details but if you want a great biography this is it. Show Less
LibraryThing member dirac
I did not like Steve Jobs. I do not like Apple products as I fall on the side of an open digital planet but this book is phenomenal. Since I am not a member of the cult of Apple, I am not sure how they will feel about this book but the honesty in it was refreshing. I did not want a posthumous 'let
It is annoying when people say he 'invented' anything. He did no such thing but he had vision. He knew what people would like in the future. His record was not a 100% but he certainly learned from his failures.
I did not like him and I still do not think he was a person I would like or want to meet. But I respect him. He was not an inventor but, and it pains me to say this, was a visionary.
The book does not hold back but does lean slightly towards a pro-Jobs view but if I interviewed someone for a couple of years and watch him die, I too would probably form a positive view of him.
Read this book.
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us praise Steve' book. Instead we see the slightly troubled, strong willed but amazingly insightful book of Steve. It is annoying when people say he 'invented' anything. He did no such thing but he had vision. He knew what people would like in the future. His record was not a 100% but he certainly learned from his failures.
I did not like him and I still do not think he was a person I would like or want to meet. But I respect him. He was not an inventor but, and it pains me to say this, was a visionary.
The book does not hold back but does lean slightly towards a pro-Jobs view but if I interviewed someone for a couple of years and watch him die, I too would probably form a positive view of him.
Read this book.
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LibraryThing member bragan
I have to hand it to Walter Isaacson. He was commissioned by Jobs to write a warts-and-all biography, and he absolutely followed through. The portrait of Jobs he paints here is that of a man who somehow managed to combine some of the worst traits of capitalist and hippie, a man who was, frankly, a
As I was reading this, especially the earlier chapters, in which the focus was more on Jobs's personality than his not-yet-fully-realized technology empire, I kept thinking that I was going to end up rating this book lower than I actually have, just because I found spending time with its subject, however vicariously, to be simply too unpleasant. But in the end, I couldn't do it. Isaacson's skills as a biographer are so good, and the details of Jobs's career are so interesting, that it turned out to be an entirely worthwhile read, after all.
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colossal ass. Although, admittedly, a colossal ass with with a real eye for design and a certain amount of vision. (And I can't deny it, I do love my iPod.)As I was reading this, especially the earlier chapters, in which the focus was more on Jobs's personality than his not-yet-fully-realized technology empire, I kept thinking that I was going to end up rating this book lower than I actually have, just because I found spending time with its subject, however vicariously, to be simply too unpleasant. But in the end, I couldn't do it. Isaacson's skills as a biographer are so good, and the details of Jobs's career are so interesting, that it turned out to be an entirely worthwhile read, after all.
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LibraryThing member dtn620
Wow, Steve Jobs was a genius but he was also kind of a dick. Luckily for us Isaacson was freely able to tell the story of the real Steve Jobs. There were a few areas of Apple's history I'd like to have heard more about (for example: how/why AT&T was chosen for the iPhone first) but perhaps those
A number of reviewers rated this book based on their personal feelings of Jobs rather than the quality of Isaacson's book. Isaacson does an admirable job and nails the pacing as I never felt the book dragged. Rarely have I felt sad when nearing the end of a 600 page biography. This time I did, and I think that says a lot about Steve Jobs and even more about Walter Isaacson.
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things had less to do with Steve Jobs than it had to do with the company of Apple.A number of reviewers rated this book based on their personal feelings of Jobs rather than the quality of Isaacson's book. Isaacson does an admirable job and nails the pacing as I never felt the book dragged. Rarely have I felt sad when nearing the end of a 600 page biography. This time I did, and I think that says a lot about Steve Jobs and even more about Walter Isaacson.
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LibraryThing member andy475uk
Put quite simply, this is one of the best biographies that I've read. A really interesting and inspiring insight into Apple and its history that's shot through with lots of humour, pathos, and nuggets of trivia. You won't come out of it loving everything about the man but that's something else that
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is a positive in the books favour - it doesn't try to gloss over the difficult elements of his personality. Show Less
LibraryThing member Anusree
It's interesting but monotonous read
LibraryThing member HelenaMcGe
The book was well-written and well-sourced. But I wound up really disliking Steve Jobs.
LibraryThing member scartertn
This was a great book. This will be an interesting read 20+ years from now looking back on where the technology "was." Steve Jobs was quite the "assaholic" to everyone around him but it goes without saying that he was a genius.
LibraryThing member natalie.reynolds
Exposing a side of Jobs that I had never heard about, Isaacson delves into Steve's personal life and shows how mercurial and unfair he could be. It dragged on at some points, but was thorough and interesting.
LibraryThing member addunn3
A good memory lane for those who traveled the technology road during its early years. It is an easy read, a bit repetitious, but overall, well done.
LibraryThing member briandarvell
Knowing very little about Jobs before starting this biography I found the book to be really informative and a nice page-turner. Not only is the Jobs aspect of the book good but I also found it a good broad overview of how the personal computer market became what it is. I would definitely be
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interested in trying another biography by Isaacson. Show Less
LibraryThing member dannN
A brilliant biography of a man who changed the lives of all of us and paved the way for our children to achieve more than we ever did, by entering the digital world. Steve Jobs was a genius, without question, but he must have left a legacy of people who hated him. Working and living with him must
He will go down in history for future generations to remember, but it will be a long time before his cruelty is forgotten!
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have been intolerable most of the time and I wonder if all of his achievements were worth the number of lives he destroyed with his unkindness.He will go down in history for future generations to remember, but it will be a long time before his cruelty is forgotten!
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Subjects
Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — Audiobook of the Year — 2012)
Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year (Longlist — 2012)
CBC Bookie Awards (Nominee — 2012)
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Nonfiction — 2011)
Christian Science Monitor Best Book (Nonfiction — 2011)
Globe and Mail Top 100 Book (Nonfiction — 2011)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2011
Physical description
671 p.; 22.1 cm
ISBN
9788702117158
Local notes
Omslag: Harvey Macaulay
Omslaget viser et ikonisk fotografi af Steve Jobs, der kigger intenst på læseren
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra amerikansk "Steve Jobs" af Jakob Levinsen
Side 253: Den nye LaserWriter
Side 304: Steve havde det med at opfatte skrøbeligheder og neuroser som åndelige egenskaber.
Side 591: Magneter havde en ladet kerne, som kunne fokuseres præcist. (Mærkelig oversættelse).
Omslaget viser et ikonisk fotografi af Steve Jobs, der kigger intenst på læseren
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra amerikansk "Steve Jobs" af Jakob Levinsen
Side 253: Den nye LaserWriter
Side 304: Steve havde det med at opfatte skrøbeligheder og neuroser som åndelige egenskaber.
Side 591: Magneter havde en ladet kerne, som kunne fokuseres præcist. (Mærkelig oversættelse).
Pages
671
DDC/MDS
| 621.39092 |