Released last Monday 24 October, and devoured in a week, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson is a beginning-to-end chronicle of the greatest CEO in a generation. If you have even the remotest interest in how this vicious but visionary genius founded, built and rebuilt a $400-billion company, having been chucked out of it for 12 years in between, this is compulsive reading. Here are some aspects of it that stood out for me.
*** Beware, light spoilers ahead ***
Highlights in no particular order
The last words: As an officially endorsed biography, no doubt this book contains the majority of Steve Jobs' last public words. Perhaps we'll hear more over time from colleagues, friends and acquaintances and I wait with bated breath for a similar publication from Jony Ive, Tim Cook or Bill Gates. As such, it's poignant, insightful and tragic. Jobs was brilliant, and so right a lot of the time. He died young, with a young family, and arguably when at the top of his game. It's great that this book was written (and it's super easy to read too).
The pursuit of happiness: Perfection is paramount. If it's not right, if it 'feels' wrong, intuitively, then stop, rethink, and don't just push on because of a deadline. While most of us don't have such luxury in our work, perhaps Jobs' greatest legacy could be to broadcast his way of thinking. Don't produce crap. Sweat the details, make it the best you possibly can etc.
The epic: It remains, and will always be, an incredible story of a person. From founding Apple, to being kicked out, to creating NeXT and establishing Pixar, to his return to Apple and the next 14 years of unbelievable progress, Jobs' story will take some beating. Much of the information in the book is not new, but seeing it all so well researched and supplemented with new interviews of colleagues and much time with Jobs himself, this book provides the most 'complete' view of his story to date.
The history: Right time, right place, right person. Jobs was lucky in his meetings of key people and at a unique time in human history - the birth of the personal computer. But who else would have grabbed the opportunities Jobs had with such passion, fervour, and foresight? It's fair to say he was lucky, but also fair to say that the likelihood of someone pulling it off as well as Jobs did was fairly low. Jobs early success - worth $250 million by the age of 25 (in the early 1980s!) - also meant he was never destined for a regular life. That fact played a huge role in his ability to focus, because he 'never had to worry about money again'.
The critic: To Obama:"You're heading for a one-term presidency": On Bill Gates: "He just ripped ideas off, he never invented anything"; On John Rubenstein: "He's basically an HP guy"; On Steve Ballmer: "He's a salesman who's made Microsoft irrelevant (BOOM!)".
The catchprases: "He's a bozo" and, 'This is shit'.
The 'factual' revelation: From Bill Gates no less, that Windows was originally (and to this day?), a 'shit' OS that was a copy of the Mac OS, which Apple itself had principally copied from XEROX:
Jobs on seeing Windows for the first time: "Oh, its actually really a piece of shit." Gates: "Yes, its a nice little piece of shit."
Lowlights
The hypocrite: proud of his early quote "Good artists copy, great artists steal' Jobs seems rather hypocritical with complaints of Google Android being a 'stolen product', as he does with his beefs about Microsoft Windows and Bill Gates 'ripping off' Apple and the Mac OS.
The asshole: Jobs was an asshole. Brutal and cold to friends, colleagues and family alike, his 'laser beam' focus on work and perfection made him a veritable nightmare to be around. Of course, that's heavily countered by the effect his charisma, magnetism and vision and how much effect his epic successes have had on people. There are many moments of compassion in the book too, but the overriding sense of him as a person is not good. He was a unique personality but, despite his brutality, people loved to work for him. This isn't much of a surprise, but the theme is well reinforced throughout the book.
The crybaby: Not really a lowlight, but Jobs seemed to have a fairly regular habit of just bursting into tears. Sometimes because he didn't get his way, sometimes because he was overcome with emotion, sometimes it wasn't clear. Either way, he cried a lot.
The lack of real detail on the most secretive decade - the last 10 years: While it is an incredible story and well written in this book, we still don't get that much new insight. With in-depth coverage of Steve's early life, and early days at Apple - stuff that's been covered in depth many times before - the book picks up pace through the NeXT and Pixar years and flies through the bit we all know less about - the last 10 years. Unfortunately this is the bit that's most relevant now. Given Isaacson's extensive time with Jobs, it's a shame there aren't more - and deeper - insights into those last 10 years. Perhaps over time Isaacson will release more interview tapes, but there's no doubt the latter third of the book feels rushed.
The reality distortion field: Lastly, I wish Steve Jobs had got his cancer operated on straight away, and not tried homeopathic remedies for 9 months. I wish he'd been honest with himself about his health then, and later, and perhaps this biography would not be a posthumous tribute.
For fans, for his company and most of all his family, I wish Steve Jobs' reality distortion field had an 'Off' switch when it came to being introspective. But Steve, apparently, hated 'Off' switches.
Alas.
Summary
Buy Steve Jobs. Read it, be motivated by it, marvel at the story and the place in history Jobs will take. Despite his flaws, he remains a hero for me, and I hope his biggest legacy, Apple, continues to break boundaries. Perhaps though, they could start being a bit nicer to everyone else.
Then, once you're done with this book, go buy Isaacson's biography of Einstein. Both publications are just $9.99 on Kindle or iBooks. (I read 'Steve Jobs' across the iPhone and iPad (of course...).
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