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burlesot's review against another edition
5.0
An incredible story. I did not realize what a horrible person he could be. His brilliance made him a phenomenal creator, but an awful person to work with. You were either brilliant or a moron to him.
jimbowen0306's review against another edition
3.0
This book is about Steve Jobs, the co founder of Apple Compters. It is written by Walter Isaacson, who wrote about Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein too, in other books.
This book is different from the other books I mentioned. Don't get me wrong, it's thoroughly researched and looks like your typical biography in many ways, in as much as it charts Jobs' life thoroughly. This said, it doesn't feel like those books. Maybe it's because the object of his work was still alive at the time it was written, but those books felt more research led, while this felt more interview led, and more gossip.
The book talks of Jobs' "reality distortion field" a number of times in the book, as a way to explain how Jobs seemed to achieve the impossible. This got me wondering if Isaacson fell under the influence of the field in the book. Don't get me wrong, we get a certain lack of varnish in the book, and are left under no illusion that Jobs could be an a** a lot of the time (I was like feeling Jobs was a bully a lot of the time), but it felt a little partisan at tines. As an example, the competition with Microsoft and Bill Gates was covered in the book, but Jobs' claims about Microsoft don't feel challenged, Gates' voice is repeatedly derided (it's repeatedly described as nasally, and whiny), while a lot of what Apple and Jobs does feels all round awesome.
The one thing I'd have liked would be for Issacson to sit down with Jobs and really push him on why he could be such a jerk, which he didn't do, to my satisfaction (given the amount of access he had).
So all in all, not bad, but could do better.
This book is different from the other books I mentioned. Don't get me wrong, it's thoroughly researched and looks like your typical biography in many ways, in as much as it charts Jobs' life thoroughly. This said, it doesn't feel like those books. Maybe it's because the object of his work was still alive at the time it was written, but those books felt more research led, while this felt more interview led, and more gossip.
The book talks of Jobs' "reality distortion field" a number of times in the book, as a way to explain how Jobs seemed to achieve the impossible. This got me wondering if Isaacson fell under the influence of the field in the book. Don't get me wrong, we get a certain lack of varnish in the book, and are left under no illusion that Jobs could be an a** a lot of the time (I was like feeling Jobs was a bully a lot of the time), but it felt a little partisan at tines. As an example, the competition with Microsoft and Bill Gates was covered in the book, but Jobs' claims about Microsoft don't feel challenged, Gates' voice is repeatedly derided (it's repeatedly described as nasally, and whiny), while a lot of what Apple and Jobs does feels all round awesome.
The one thing I'd have liked would be for Issacson to sit down with Jobs and really push him on why he could be such a jerk, which he didn't do, to my satisfaction (given the amount of access he had).
So all in all, not bad, but could do better.
meedamian's review against another edition
5.0
As much as I hated the beginning, and how obnoxious Steve was, I loved the end more. It's a wonderful journey of not only Apple, and Pixar, but also development of Jobs's character, and gaining speed for truly amazing things ahead! Then he dies.
ehsan1358's review against another edition
5.0
The book itself is one the best biographies I've read.
Steve Jobs however, is a very hard person to like. For me he is an emblem of capitalism and I hate many of his dimensions his freakish self indulgence, his thirst for power and control, dark side of his soul that could easily slip into fascism, racism, and Trumpism.
But I cannot deny that he got one thing right which others frequently fail to: simplicity. For example look at the number of handles, knobs, buttons etc. that Toyota puts on RAV4. For aircon control, cruise control, choosing between different modes of driving, indicators, lights, etc. etc. It is insane, stupid. On RAV4 I counted more than 30 controls around the driver for ridiculously simple tasks. Steve Jobs, despite all his arrogant, was good at getting these kinds of stuff right, probably the only likeable side of him.
Ah, I also like his taste of music.
Steve Jobs however, is a very hard person to like. For me he is an emblem of capitalism and I hate many of his dimensions his freakish self indulgence, his thirst for power and control, dark side of his soul that could easily slip into fascism, racism, and Trumpism.
But I cannot deny that he got one thing right which others frequently fail to: simplicity. For example look at the number of handles, knobs, buttons etc. that Toyota puts on RAV4. For aircon control, cruise control, choosing between different modes of driving, indicators, lights, etc. etc. It is insane, stupid. On RAV4 I counted more than 30 controls around the driver for ridiculously simple tasks. Steve Jobs, despite all his arrogant, was good at getting these kinds of stuff right, probably the only likeable side of him.
Ah, I also like his taste of music.
ian230's review against another edition
4.0
I really did enjoy this a lot more than I was expecting. I know the reviews were good, but Isaacson did a very good job of painting a balanced view of Jobs; both his genius and what can only be described as some quite terrible personality traits as regards his behaviour to others. A book I would recommend.
herzog's review against another edition
3.0
This book is well written, and told from a unique point of view that few others could have told. Isaacson knew Jobs through it all, and tells lots of charming anecdotes and stories. It's all there and mostly factually accurate.
What tainted this book for me was Isaacson's very obvious buy-in to the closed ecosystem argument. Throughout the book, Isaacson makes it clear that his view is in 100% agreement with Jobs, that open products and ecosystems "make for bad experiences" and "shit products". There are little factual inaccuracies throughout the book, sure, but that doesn't bother me that much. What bothers me is how this book reads like two guys feeding off of each other's love of closed, controlled ecosystems. He flat out says that competitors to Apple are inferior over and over again. Biographies this important should tell an impartial story, and Isaacson only came partway to doing so.
What tainted this book for me was Isaacson's very obvious buy-in to the closed ecosystem argument. Throughout the book, Isaacson makes it clear that his view is in 100% agreement with Jobs, that open products and ecosystems "make for bad experiences" and "shit products". There are little factual inaccuracies throughout the book, sure, but that doesn't bother me that much. What bothers me is how this book reads like two guys feeding off of each other's love of closed, controlled ecosystems. He flat out says that competitors to Apple are inferior over and over again. Biographies this important should tell an impartial story, and Isaacson only came partway to doing so.
isantelli5764's review against another edition
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Fascinating tale about one of the greatest business/tech/product minds of all time. A little repetitive at times but really interesting and enjoyable.
gadicohen93's review against another edition
4.0
Before I'd started Isaacson's Steve Jobs, I'd never really known what Steve Jobs' capacity at Apple was. I actually still don't really know. Was the only thing he did as CEO screaming at his employees that their work was "shit"? Shit, shit, shit? I don't think they were shit. SJ’s perfectionism was downright arbitrary at times, and perhaps that’s why he succeeded so well. His dictatorship, ruled out of a pair of guerilla-glued-on reality distortion goggles, took its inspiration from Stalinist Russia’s governance structures of Five-Year Plans and forced industrialization. The kind of efficiency he mined out of his workers reminds me eerily of an anecdote my Current Global Macroeconomic Challenges professor David Wyss kept resorting to when discussing China’s growth: One day a government official tells a neighborhood block to find a new home, and the next day there’s a highway in its place. Apple didn’t get things done because of an inherently efficient structure of talent; it got things done because Steve Jobs’ taste buds ruled over Apple like Vladimir over Russia.
Commendable taste buds they were. His web of philosophies, all poking out of a center of zennish Simplicity, guided his every move – though, in the end, it was his gut feeling that really seemed to intuit whether he liked a product or not. Well, duh. CEOs should have gut feelings about things and should usually let their gut feelings dictate those things. Or the gut should, at least, act in an editorial capacity. And I think most of Steve Jobs’ role as Apple CEO could be translated into EAL: editor-at-large – he’d pour over a product, examine it, let his gut grunt its yeas or nays, and either scream his fucking head off or take credit for the idea’s beautiful success.
More than the fact that SJ was a complete asshole, I learned a few things. I learned that life philosophy can drive people in their quests for better products. I learned that customers don't know what they want. Like, graphical user interfaces on computers? Those were not a thing -- not even an intuitive thought, until someone (I forget who) came up with it three decades + ago. I learned that CEOs and company executives and engineers and designers bicker. A lot. They bicker about the price of the product, the materials of the product, the way the products looks, feels, the way it's marketed and advertised, the way it's packaged and sold even.
Overall, this book was pretty illuminating in the way it delved into all of Apple's personalities and products and organizational structures. It was a fast, simple, if not as completely elegant as one of Steve's products.
Commendable taste buds they were. His web of philosophies, all poking out of a center of zennish Simplicity, guided his every move – though, in the end, it was his gut feeling that really seemed to intuit whether he liked a product or not. Well, duh. CEOs should have gut feelings about things and should usually let their gut feelings dictate those things. Or the gut should, at least, act in an editorial capacity. And I think most of Steve Jobs’ role as Apple CEO could be translated into EAL: editor-at-large – he’d pour over a product, examine it, let his gut grunt its yeas or nays, and either scream his fucking head off or take credit for the idea’s beautiful success.
More than the fact that SJ was a complete asshole, I learned a few things. I learned that life philosophy can drive people in their quests for better products. I learned that customers don't know what they want. Like, graphical user interfaces on computers? Those were not a thing -- not even an intuitive thought, until someone (I forget who) came up with it three decades + ago. I learned that CEOs and company executives and engineers and designers bicker. A lot. They bicker about the price of the product, the materials of the product, the way the products looks, feels, the way it's marketed and advertised, the way it's packaged and sold even.
Overall, this book was pretty illuminating in the way it delved into all of Apple's personalities and products and organizational structures. It was a fast, simple, if not as completely elegant as one of Steve's products.