5 reviews for Steve Jobs
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Steve Jobs
by Walter Isaacson
Description:
In the early summer of 2004, I got a phone call from Steve Jobs. It turned out that he wanted me to write a biography of him. This is a book about the rollercoaster 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. You might even add a seventh: retail stores, which Jobs did not quite revolutionize, but he did reimagine. Plus, he opened the way for a new market for digital content based on apps. This is also, I hope, a book about innovation. Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness, imagination, and sustained innovation. He knew that the best way to create value in the 21st century was to connect creativity with technology, so he built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering – Walter Isaacson, from the Introduction of Steve Jobs. Walter Isaacson, the CEO of the Aspen Institute, has been chairman of CNN and the managing editor of Time magazine. He is the author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life and of Kissinger: A Biography, and the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and daughter.
About The Author
Walter Isaacson, the CEO of the Aspen Institute, has been chairman of CNN and the managing editor of “Time” magazine. He is the author of “Steve Jobs”; “Einstein: His Life and Universe”; “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life”; and “Kissinger: A Biography,” and the coauthor of “The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made.” He lives in Washington, DC.
Skryf Review
“Amazing Reading”
Sejal
Steve Jobs was a fascinating person whose powerful personality and extraordinary life make for a very compelling read. He revolutionized many different technological and entertainment industries by successfully blending technology and the liberal arts, giving consumers products they didn’t even know they wanted. He was able to defy reality by simply refusing to accept it (a phenomenon referred to as his “reality distortion field”), enabling him to do the impossible. On a personal level, Jobs was a very sensitive and emotional man, yet he was unable to empathize with the feelings of others, which, along with his “reality distortion field,” led to him act in unsavory ways towards people in both his personal and professional life. After reading this book it was easy to understand why Jobs is such a polarizing figure. But whether you love or hate him, it’s impossible to deny that he had a major impact on the world, or that he was an interesting person.
Kahaan
I was a little surprised when Steve Jobs died that I actually had an emotional reaction of loss. He was always such a warrior for technological evolution, conceiving products that we didn’t know we needed until we held them in our hands. I didn’t know I needed an iPod, now I can’t travel anywhere without slipping 13,000 songs into my pocket. I now have a playlist for any situation, a wedding, a long drive, robbing a bank, meditation etc. What was so unique about Jobs was that he was a creative person who also had the power to bring a progressive product to life. Good ideas did not die in committee at Apple or Pixar. For some reason conservative leaning people elevate to the highest positions in business in this country. Apple also went through a period of time when Jobs was too radical for a board of directors who wanted to make Apple more like other companies. After reading this biography, I know now that Jobs deserved to be ousted, and what a great occurrence for the world because Pixar would have never been created. He benefited from his time away, learning lessons of consolidating power. When Apple floundered and Jobs was brought back he was much better equipped to lead a company.Walter Isaacson is an excellent biographer, I enjoyed his Benjamin Franklin bio very much and intend to read the Einstein biography as well. Steve approached Isaacson to write his biography and Isaacson asked him if he wanted him to write it because he associated himself with Einstein and Franklin. Jobs didn’t deny it. He was well aware of his place in history. I liked Steve Jobs more before reading this biography. I have a deeper understanding of how and why he was so successful. I can not emulate his management style nor would I ever want to. He was a destructive personality that inspired creativity. I feel we are diminished by his absence from the ranks and I can only hope there is a young person in a messy garage, tinkering with the concept that will be the next “thing” that will change our lives.
Smit
This is a fantastically well-written and exhaustive biography of a brilliant, if flawed, man, with no holds barred. Jobs great achievement was to marry an uncompromisingly zen creativity to electronically-advanced products when all around built boxes. The art of form following function taken to its extreme, where even the innards are as beautiful as the case, has an authenticity that appeals to all (even those who won’t pay for an Apple product).I took the road less travelled and it turned out to end up in a tropical mangrove swamp where I sit, pleasantly bogged down. Jobs took the highway, the one with a good surface and plenty of signs. He overtook everyone and reached his destination of unqualified success, excellence, money and credibility in a very short time, and the world would be a lot poorer without him. RIP Steve. You were a true artist and visionary.
Kalgi
When I was at the halfway point I became struck by what a jerk SJ was. Yes, he was brilliant and all that. But he seemed to view other humans as nothing more than ants in his ant farm, sub-biologicals that he could squish whenever he felt like it. And did.But the lesson to be drawn here, future CEOs, isn’t that his cruelty fed his brilliance! He was aware of the pain he was causing other people, yet like so many other cruel, overbearing, harsh, thoughtless and petulant overlords, he was very thin-skinned. Also, I don’t believe that his often-cited sense of abandonment, from having been put up for adoption, justifies his behavior.He was, as the author put it, “bratty.” Jobs would fiddle with design changes to the point of driving his team mad. A thousand different variations of white weren’t satisfactory. He wanted a new color to be invented, regardless of the damage done to the rollout of the new object.