[freudling]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

The onus isn't on me. You're the one going off about Isaacson doing it for the money, but you haven't demonstrated that. Everyone else on here agrees Mossberg would be a poor fit as a biographer, so it's up to you to present some kind of information that might change our minds.

Your lack of appreciation for being a professional biographer isn't exactly faith-instilling.

It is not the case that EVERYONE on here agrees that Mossberg would be a poor fit. You are the one who advanced that statement. The onus is on you to support that claim.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by freudling 

It is not the case that EVERYONE on here agrees that Mossberg would be a poor fit. You are the one who advanced that statement. The onus is on you to support that claim.

Originally Posted by besson3c 

How is it anything more than your gut feeling?

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

Um, Mossberg is a product reviewer, not a professional biographer. There's no comparison.

The other two people who have weighed in disagree as well. I am not the only one who has "advanced the statement."

[freudling]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

The other two people who have weighed in disagree as well. I am not the only one who has "advanced the statement."

Your logic: because a few people on an Internet forum say X with no real justification, X is therefore true.

Support the statement that Walt Mossberg is not a good candidate to write Jobs' bio.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Your logic: because a few people on an Internet forum say X with no real justification, X is therefore true.

Nope, just pointing out the consensus is against you.

Originally Posted by freudling 

Support the statement that Walt Mossberg is not a good candidate to write Jobs' bio.

For the reasons people already posted in this thread and you ignore.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Nope, just pointing out the consensus is against you.
For the reasons people already posted in this thread and you ignore.

The world has over 6.5 billion people. Consensus "here" is no consensus at all.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by freudling 

The world has over 6.5 billion people. Consensus "here" is no consensus at all.

Unfortunately for you, this thread doesn't contain the thoughts of the other 6.5 billion people out there, so you'll have to deal with those that do choose to participate.

[besson3c]

WTF freudling? It is the job of somebody saying stuff that goes against conventional wisdom to make that case, not the job of others to defend that wisdom.

Otherwise, it would be like the following:

- politician: "we need to declare war on Portugal"

- other politician: "huh? Why should we do that? What would we gain? On what basis do you make such a claim?"

- politician: "why shouldn't we attack Portugal? Tell me THAT!"

[ort888]

You've convinced me. I'm off to attack Portugal right now.

[freudling]

What does reality say? Am I the only one who thinks that the book/Isaacson could have been better? In fact, a lot better?

Reality: Isaacson's bio of Steve Jobs is getting great reviews. Lots of great reviews.

It's also getting a sizeable amount of crap reviews by real readers.

Well stated. There are so many errors of every kind in Isaacson's authorized bio. of Steve Jobs. You sense that Isaacson couldn't wait for the project to be over. How a character like Steve Jobs morphed into this moribund doorstop of a biography is a sad tale.

Perhaps because it was rushed to press after the death of Steve Jobs, this book is in need of a great editor. Every chapter has repetitive themes as though they are being introduced for the first time. You don't need to tell us 50x Steve dropped acid and it changed his life, once will do. The narrative is uninspiring, and you wish a better attempt was made to illustrate the drive and enthusiasm behind the creative mind. There are nuggets of insight, but it is as though they needed development. Steve would have been disappointed with his biography regardless, but he would have been livid that it was rushed and delivered so poorly.

It is ironic that a biography of the man who released highly polished products only when sure of their content would be an obviously rushed to print mess. I haven't read any of his other works but cannot imagine what it was that drew Jobs to him. Had he read any? I would hope that David McCullough or someone of his stature would undertake the project with the patience required to do justice to the subject. Sure he had his bad points but it obviously wasn't all he brought to the table. I would not recommend this sophomoric POS to anyone truly interested in the life of Jobs.

Of course Jobs will be remembered as a pioneer in the field of technology, but this book is so depressing. The author is a mediocre writer at best-adds about as much life to his writing as his subject lived. There is absolutely nothing in the life of Jobs that is worth emulating. I suspect that one day he will be remembered not just as an inventor-actually he did not invent-just market the ideas of others-but as an exambple of how much character declined in our time. He gave up on God because of starving children, yet he had so much and not only did he fail to help the poor odf the world bit went out of his way to torpedo people who worked for him.

I gave the author three decades. Unfortunately this Author had a harsh negative bias about his subject. This bias created a narrative that will make him a hero of the anti-Apple crowd who hate Apple and Steve jobs with a personal intensity that is hard to classify or put ones arms around. The Author is the Fox News Producer of Biographers where inconvenient facts are either left out, blurred , twisted or obfuscated to fit a narrative that was filled with personal animosity.

The worst part is; Steve never saw this book. I can't imagine his family getting a preview of it either. Of course the publisher and the author would have been agreeable to waiting to after Steve died to market this trash. Do not buy this book. If you do , you put money into the author and publisher's pockets that do not belong to them. If both Publisher and Author had one iota of decency they would pledge all their profits to charity.

I feel for his family and the Apple employees who would have followed him anywhere except the horrible slow death he went through.

The book is complete and utter trash.

I've read every book on Apple and Steve Jobs there is. Some of them very good. I've worked with people whom have worked with Steve directly. I've heard all kinds of stories about him, etc. from these people. I've communicated with Steve here and there regarding digital publishing. I've seen every Keynote and every interview he's ever done. I've been part of the Apple community for decades.

To me, after reading 236 pages of this book, I agree, 100%, with these above reviews. I don't mind the reality of Steve. He was an asshole. But he was also caring and warm. The book is so slanted it reads as trash. The interviews Isaacson conducts about Steve are so focused on the negative. And the product reviews... this book is like one large product review.

Two possibly better candidates to do this:

1. Walt Mossberg
2. Possibility (nice guy, very knowledgable and smart) all about Steve Jobs.com

[besson3c]

Dude, it's just a book.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Dude, it's just a book.

Agreed, just responding to the regular posse of people who love to argue. To the point of how absurd it becomes when you have a difference of opinion and that, it's impossible for you to hold a differing opinion when 3 people on an Internet forum think X when you think Y.

[Waragainstsleep]

Reviewer number 4 is a dick. No doubt a Windows fanboy.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Agreed, just responding to the regular posse of people who love to argue. To the point of how absurd it becomes when you have a difference of opinion and that, it's impossible for you to hold a differing opinion when 3 people on an Internet forum think X when you think Y.

If that's what you want to think, whatever floats your boat. The reality is, at least speaking for myself, your having a difference of opinion is not what I was taking issue at at all, it was simply the flimsiness of the argument you were making. I would tend to believe that Jobs researched and contemplating his decision carefully and would have exercised good judgment, but I could be persuaded otherwise with a good argument, which you haven't made yet. That's all.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

If that's what you want to think, whatever floats your boat. The reality is, at least speaking for myself, your having a difference of opinion is not what I was taking issue at at all, it was simply the flimsiness of the argument you were making. I would tend to believe that Jobs researched and contemplating his decision carefully and would have exercised good judgment, but I could be persuaded otherwise with a good argument, which you haven't made yet. That's all.

Here's an "argument" for you then, that'll be impossible to refute. Jobs never read the book, in any form or fashion. And now he's dead. Therefore, he's never said, and will never say, either "the book is great, I was right to hire him", or, "the book sucks, I made a mistake". To think that a human being, including Jobs, could never err is absurd. To make the assumption that Steve Jobs would love this book is also absurd. We'd only know his conclusion if he read it. Which he never did.

Further, based on opinions, not everyone agrees that "this is a great book!". "Perfect!" "Couldn't be better!" There are lots of great reviews and also a ton of bad ones, ones that support exactly what I'm saying. My point is that my opinion IS shared by other people. That's it. I don't care if the whole world loves the book. It doesn't change my opinion.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Here's an "argument" for you then, that'll be impossible to refute. Jobs never read the book, in any form or fashion. And now he's dead. Therefore, he's never said, and will never say, either "the book is great, I was right to hire him", or, "the book sucks, I made a mistake". To think that a human being, including Jobs, could never err is absurd. To make the assumption that Steve Jobs would love this book is also absurd. We'd only know his conclusion if he read it. Which he never did.

So your point is that we can never know if he'd have liked the book, so therefore you must be right that he wouldn't? I'm not sure how this connects...

Further, based on opinions, not everyone agrees that "this is a great book!". "Perfect!" "Couldn't be better!" There are lots of great reviews and also a ton of bad ones, ones that support exactly what I'm saying. My point is that my opinion IS shared by other people. That's it. I don't care if the whole world loves the book. It doesn't change my opinion.

Fair enough. You have an opinion, that's cool.

[Waragainstsleep]

I'm inclined to agree he wouldn't have liked his biography regardless of who wrote it or how.

[Tiresias]

I think it was Churchill who said, "Biographers give a new terror to death."

[freudling]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

So your point is that we can never know if he'd have liked the book, so therefore you must be right that he wouldn't? I'm not sure how... blah blah.

What can be derived from the fact that nobody will ever know whether Steve Jobs would like his bio or think it's horrible us that: nobody will ever know. Never did I say that because of this Jobs would hate it. That's a logical fallacy you just injected. Namely, the statement cannot be derived from these facts.

What I'm saying is that I think the book is more trash than not for the reasons mentioned. And I think Isac was the wrong guy for the job. Turns out I'm not alone. Period. Move on.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Move on.

Indeed, this is going nowhere.

[freudling]

How many people have actually read the book? I couldn't make it past 236 pages, although I skim read the rest.

Some of my favourite books associated with Apple:

West of Eden
Fire in the Valley
Apple Confidential
Return to the Little Kingdom
Appledesign: The Work of the Apple Industrial Design Group (I own this very rare book. Prototypes in colour never before seen)
Looks like a part 2 to the above is coming out end of November: http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Design-F...9857155&sr=1-1

[ort888]

I will agree with fried long (auto correct, but I like it) about one thing. The book is surprisingly negative in tone overall.

The real question is though, is it an honest negative view, or an exaggerated one? I'm inclined to believe its very honest and the bottom line is that Jobs was a borderline insane, crazed man-child... who was as eccentric as they come.

Most of the negative stuff is portrayed very matter of factly. It's hard to spin many of his actions any other way.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by ort888 

I will agree with fried long (auto correct, but I like it) about one thing. The book is surprisingly negative in tone overall.

The real question is though, is it an honest negative view, or an exaggerated one? I'm inclined to believe its very honest and the bottom line is that Jobs was a borderline insane, crazed man-child... who was as eccentric as they come.

Most of the negative stuff is portrayed very matter of factly. It's hard to spin many of his actions any other way.

Ya... Steve was a dick. A lot of people know that. And I don't mind coverage of this. It's just too heavily focused on it. Steve was also caring. Many examples of this. He'd respond directly to customers. Get happy watching little girls opening up iPads out of the box. Asking that women who Emailed him about how hef disabled daughter is learning on the iPad if he could send it to Apple's top people. He cared about education a lot.

He was an asshole and a great person. This book is just too slanted the other way. But hey, it creates a spectacle and they'll sell more copies. The media machine continues.

[freudling]

Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow. Goodbye Steve...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/op...pagewanted=all

[turtle777]

^^^ Membership required = useless link.

-t

[P]

Google the URL, you'll find people who have reposted it. Don't repost it here, copyright and all that, but I do advice you to find it and read it. Oh wow indeed.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow. Goodbye Steve...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/op...pagewanted=all

This URL works for me...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/op...ewanted=1&_r=1

[besson3c]

It was a very touching article, mostly personal family stuff, probably romanticized a little as is typical with family eulogies, but interesting nonetheless...

[Waragainstsleep]

Some great stories here and at least a few that strongly contradict the idea of Steve being a douche-bag.

Steve Jobs: What are some great stories about Steve Jobs? - Quora

[ghporter]

When someon is so "newsworthy," they seem to have everything about them amplified, whether appropriately or not, and it is more likely the bad is exaggerated than the good. Far more likely, because some of us cannot seem to accept that someone who makes tons of money is actually not a jerk (maybe because of so many fine examples to the contrary, such as The Donald...). To me, these sorts of "he was a rotten human being" stories are fallout from the interest in him from people who never thought about Apple before Steve died.

Extra reporting means extra everything, and it seems to be common, if not "human nature" for people to look for more bad than good. The truth is always somewhere in between, and with Steve Jobs, it looks like the truth is much closer to him being a good person with quirky ideas than a lousy person out to do bad things.

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by freudling 

and also a ton of bad ones, ones that support exactly what I'm saying.

Show them to us.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Show them to us.

Now you're trolling.

You just saw, earlier in this thread, me "showing" them to you. In addition, you ignore where this discussion has gone. How it's becoming apparent how negative a slant Walt put on Steve in his book, and how people are coming out saying that he wasn't just a d-bag.

And for the sake of putting this to rest, and not having you troll any longer, here are MORE negative reviews in addition to the ones posted earlier:

I regret to say that had Steve Jobs and his chosen biographer Walter Isaacson followed the lofty advice and naked wisdom dispensed by Steve to Stanford students in the now famous 2005 commencement address, this authorized biography would not be such a colossal disappointment. Isaacson's "Steve Jobs" is thin on examination, integration and the connective juice that should unite its numerous disconnected parts into a credible and fascinating whole. Instead, we have the Peggy Lee of bios in a 600-plus page tome: "Is That All There Is?" Here, we get much regurgitation of hackneyed stories decorated with a stingy smattering of mostly stock photos, some out of focus and grainy as if they had been culled from a newspaper archive before the digital era, or were taken out there in the firmament. Talk about yet another contradiction and irony in the unfinished Steve Jobs story. How such a larger-than-life high tech drama prince could be churned into such a snoozer of a bio is suspect and troubling. Perhaps the best of Steve Jobs biographies is yet to be, after the will has been read and the high drama vaporized -- when perspective returns. Meanwhile, this enigmatic, major figure in Silicon Valley has been buried in breathtakingly dead data in search of a heart.

It's so poorly written as to be unreadable.

I am so sorry I shelled out too much money for this, for the most part, BORING book. If you are interested in the history of every device Apple has made then this is for you. If you wanted to be captivated by the personality and struggles of someone who has achieved so much, well, good luck. I have no idea whether it is true, but Jobs is portrayed as an egotistical, not-all-that likable, pretty unchartitable man. If I had stuck by my "rule" for reading fiction--if I don't care about any of the characters, I bag the book at page 50-- I would have laid this book down and not finished it. As it is, I ended up skimming through a lot of it.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Now you're trolling.

You just saw, earlier in this thread, me "showing" them to you. In addition, you ignore where this discussion has gone. How it's becoming apparent how negative a slant Walt put on Steve in his book, and how people are coming out saying that he wasn't just a d-bag.

And for the sake of putting this to rest, and not having you troll any longer, here are MORE negative reviews in addition to the ones posted earlier:

So, you're using the bad reviews to support your preconceived notion that the biography is bad, based on the person Steve Jobs himself handpicked to write it. Nice.

I'm going to add a bit of perspective here:

Amazon:

Average rating: 4 stars (167 customer reviews)
5 star: 95
4 star: 27
3 star: 15
2 star: 13
1 star: 17

iBookstore:

Average rating: 4.5 stars (3362 ratings)
5 star: 2601 (granted, this *IS* the Apple iBookstore after all)
4 star: 234
3 star: 136
2 star: 150
1 star: 241

Barnes & Noble:

Average rating: 4 stars (302 ratings)
B&N doesn't give a breakdown, but shows 106 reviews with star ratings, so I'll give that breakdown instead
5 star: 73
4 star: 9
3 star: 7
2 star: 5
1 star: 11 (most were complaining about the price)

Books A Million:

Average rating: 3 stars (22 ratings)
They don't give any breakdowns. Also, no customer reviews.

And now, my personal opinion so far: I'm halfway through the book. It's not bad. It's also not the best book I've ever read. It is, however, an interesting read. It glosses over a few things, like the NeXT story is too short and not detailed enough. It's also sad that Jef Raskin (who hated Steve's guts for what he did to the Macintosh project) died of pancreatic cancer in 2005 before he could be interviewed for the book. Would have been interesting. As for Raskin's idea of the Mac, personally I think it stunk and I'm glad the Macintosh became what it did.

Personally I think it's an honest account of Steve's life.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Person Man 

So, you're using the bad reviews to support your preconceived notion that the biography is bad, based on the person Steve Jobs himself handpicked to write it. Nice.

No. Wrong. You have not read this thread. You don't understand the discussion. You're spinning things. The bottom line: there are people out there who think the book is too negative, and not very good.

Period. The end. Please move on.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Period.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by freudling 

The bottom line: there are people out there who think the book is too negative, and not very good.

I think the bottom line is that those people are the minority.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by freudling 

No. Wrong. You have not read this thread. You don't understand the discussion. You're spinning things. The bottom line: there are people out there who think the book is too negative, and not very good.

I don't disagree that there are people out there who think the book is too negative. From my post above, the number of people who rated the book 1 or 2 stars is not zero, and there are people who think the book is too negative.

All I am saying is that you should keep an open mind about it and not allow the negative things revealed by the media or the negative reviews color your own opinion of the book. Your opinion of the author and/or the book itself would carry more weight if you actually read it for yourself instead of just reposting others' opinions here.

I will say this though. Isaacson doesn't pass judgement on Jobs either way. He simply reports what Jobs himself and his interviewees reported on what Jobs did/did not do. Jobs' behavior speaks for itself. The fact is that he could be a major arsehole at times and behaved obnoxiously much of the time. Yes he was visionary and eventually led Apple to new heights and had a great eye for good design. But he was not the god that many people make him out to be. He is, and was a human being, and nobody is perfect.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Person Man 

All I am saying is that you should keep an open mind about it and not allow the negative things revealed by the media or the negative reviews color your own opinion of the book. Your opinion of the author and/or the book itself would carry more weight if you actually read it for yourself instead of just reposting others' opinions here.

This is absurd and you're wasting time. You simply have not read this thread. If you did, you'd know that I own the book and read every page up to page 296, and then skim read the rest. From this, I formed my own opinion, and then wondered if anybody else felt the same way.

That I found the book to be poorly written and too heavily focused on the negative side of Steve. It read like trash. It read like it was slapped together. Rushed to market. It was repetitive... etc. I posted the reviews to show that other there are other people that actually hold the same opinion in response to the overwhelming praise in the media about the book. That you have it backwards: the media is painting the book in a good light, and I'm saying I think it's trash.

It looks like Walt may have sort of played damage control probably in terms of people mad and Emailing him about his negative slant on Jobs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/op...nius.html?_r=1

Originally Posted by Person Man 

I will say this though. Isaacson doesn't pass judgement on Jobs either way. He simply reports what Jobs himself and his interviewees reported on what Jobs did/did not do. Jobs' behavior speaks for itself. The fact is that he could be a major arsehole at times and behaved obnoxiously much of the time. Yes he was visionary and eventually led Apple to new heights and had a great eye for good design. But he was not the god that many people make him out to be. He is, and was a human being, and nobody is perfect.

I don't think Isaacson has done anything here but be a puppet for his publisher. I don't think Walt is horribly bias, but bias in a way that he's a puppet for Simon and Schuster. He's too technologically illiterate to be bias, like, bias against Apple or Google or whatever us geeks are bias about in the tech world... he's almost like an overweight, alcoholic construction worker trying to be a Graphic Designer.

The book was really disappointing, particularly in comparison to other books about Steve and interviews with the man. I'm glad this book exists though, it's good to have more info, particularly never heard inside info on Steve... but the book itself needs a lot of work.

[ort888]

The second half of book jumps around in time like a Tarantino movie... it's a little annoying.

I sort of get why, he's picking a certain topic, and then talking about how it plays out for 3 years... but then he'll jump back to another topic from 5 years early, and talk about how that plays out for 6 years, and then jump back into another topic...

It feels somewhat disjointed. He's also skipping ahead to Jobs on medical leave and being sick without ever introducing it in the book. If you were reading this 20 years from now with little knowledge about Jobs, it would be pretty confusing.

[Waragainstsleep]

Sounds like the whole thing was rushed. Shock horror.

And Freudling its biased in most of the cases where you used it above. You can show bias, then you are biased. Now I have said both bias and biased too many times in my head and its starting to sound weird. But perhaps I'm just biased.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Sounds like the whole thing was rushed. Shock horror.

And Freudling its biased in most of the cases where you used it above. You can show bias, then you are biased. Now I have said both bias and biased too many times in my head and its starting to sound weird. But perhaps I'm just biased.

You are bias/ed.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by ort888 

The second half of book jumps around in time like a Tarantino movie... it's a little annoying.

I sort of get why, he's picking a certain topic, and then talking about how it plays out for 3 years... but then he'll jump back to another topic from 5 years early, and talk about how that plays out for 6 years, and then jump back into another topic...

It feels somewhat disjointed. He's also skipping ahead to Jobs on medical leave and being sick without ever introducing it in the book. If you were reading this 20 years from now with little knowledge about Jobs, it would be pretty confusing.

Yup. I suffered through this in the same way. Too many books end up like this. The author has a set of notes, like hundreds to thousands of pages. He'll wire frame the chapters, copy all the relevant notes into the wire framed chapters, and, loosely string together sentences. Then, Editors come on the scene and edit all the messy points/facts so proper sentences are formed. In the end, many books, including this one, do not read in a fluid manner, because they're not written fluidly. This book is utterly terrible. It's too bad. I'm hoping the next revision is much better.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by freudling 

I own the book and read every page up to page 296, and then skim read the rest. From this, I formed my own opinion, and then wondered if anybody else felt the same way.

That I found the book to be poorly written and too heavily focused on the negative side of Steve. It read like trash. It read like it was slapped together. Rushed to market. It was repetitive... etc. I posted the reviews to show that other there are other people that actually hold the same opinion in response to the overwhelming praise in the media about the book. That you have it backwards: the media is painting the book in a good light, and I'm saying I think it's trash.

I stand corrected. Though to be fair, it took you until the third page of this thread to come out and say you bought and looked at (and at least read part of) the book yourself. And I dropped out of participating until today and I made the (wrong) assumption that you hadn't even looked at the book.

It looks like Walt may have sort of played damage control probably in terms of people mad and Emailing him about his negative slant on Jobs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/op...nius.html?_r=1

I just read this and it doesn't come across to me as "damage control."

The book was really disappointing, particularly in comparison to other books about Steve and interviews with the man. I'm glad this book exists though, it's good to have more info, particularly never heard inside info on Steve... but the book itself needs a lot of work.

It is what it is, and it's the only biography authorized by Steve Jobs himself. And, as others have said, he probably specifically refused the right to read it before it was published because he would have been upset by it regardless of whether the book was poorly written or not. That he did this

Regardless, the fact that this book is the "authorized" biography does not mean it is the last one of its type to ever be published. There will undoubtedly be others.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by freudling 

I'm hoping the next revision is much better.

Do you think it will be revised that heavily? I don't think it will, or else there will be lots of people screaming bloody murder about having to pay again.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Person Man 

Do you think it will be revised that heavily? I don't think it will, or else there will be lots of people screaming bloody murder about having to pay again.

I've spent lots of time in the publishing industry. This book is terrible. The editing is atrocious. It's a hacked, rushed job. I'd never want to put my name on it.

I think they could make a business model out of this: next year, iSteve 2.0. New. Improved. Abridged. Whatever.

[Twilly Spree]

This book was what Steve wanted, it was his biography. Steve Jobs was many things, and douche was most certainly one of them.

That should come as a shock to no one. He was also a great salesman and had some interesting ideas for computers and technology.

Without his talents, he would most likely have been described as a nasty person - but being rich and successful, he was just eccentric.

[Tiresias]

Aside from denying paternity of his daughter, what did he do?

[ort888]

He was excessively cruel to many of the people around him. Openly hostile to those he disagreed with or those who were simply there at the wrong time.

My takeaway from the book was that Steve Jobs was a crazed driven eccentric. Completely wrapped up in his own little world of obsession with good design. It consumed his very being. He could not turn it off.

Stories about how he didn't want to wear a certain oxygen mask because it was ugly (wanting to see some alternative looks), or having his chef make him a dozen smoothies, touching his tongue to each one and rejecting them all... living in unfurnished homes for years and years because he couldn't find furniture that met his high standards... having ridiculously expensive imported stone flown in from Italy for the floor in a retail store... it really paints a picture of an obsessive madman.

I mean, well adjusted people don't decide that they are going to eat nothing but carrots for 3 months. That's not normal.

I used to think that someone else could step in and be like Steve Jobs, but I don't think anyone really can. And that may or may not be a good thing.

[beb]

I used to think that someone else could step in and be like Steve Jobs, but I don't think anyone really can.

Zaphod Beeblebrox... Wait! Oh what? He's a fictional character? Oh Snap! Uh... yeah... Sorry, wrong party.

[euphras]

Originally Posted by ort888 

.... ....
I used to think that someone else could step in and be like Steve Jobs, but I don't think anyone really can. And that may or may not be a good thing.

I´m now nearly through the whole book (skipping the early youth and the Pixar stuff, which i´m not so interested in) and exactly THAT thought came to my mind. I didn´t know that Steve Jobs had this extreme black and white approach when it came to judging things, which now explains a lot to me. Even on the plain level of old hardware i can now understand a tad better why these products turned out exactly THIS way and not somehow different. The redundant mentioning of things in the different chapters makes it easy to skip one and read it later without loosing the theme. I think this book is best read with Owen Wilson´s "Apple Confidential 2.0 im mind or even on the same shelf for comprehensive reading.

[osiris]

Originally Posted by ort888 

He was excessively cruel to many of the people around him. Openly hostile to those he disagreed with or those who were simply there at the wrong time.

My takeaway from the book was that Steve Jobs was a crazed driven eccentric. Completely wrapped up in his own little world of obsession with good design. It consumed his very being. He could not turn it off.

Stories about how he didn't want to wear a certain oxygen mask because it was ugly (wanting to see some alternative looks), or having his chef make him a dozen smoothies, touching his tongue to each one and rejecting them all... living in unfurnished homes for years and years because he couldn't find furniture that met his high standards... having ridiculously expensive imported stone flown in from Italy for the floor in a retail store... it really paints a picture of an obsessive madman.

I mean, well adjusted people don't decide that they are going to eat nothing but carrots for 3 months. That's not normal.

I used to think that someone else could step in and be like Steve Jobs, but I don't think anyone really can. And that may or may not be a good thing.

couldn't agree more. I just finished reading the book, and I admit that Steve was rapidly entering Howard Hughes territory. I admire both people btw, for all the good and bad. But I think leadership like this is rare, yet crucial to driving things forward farther than otherwise imaginable.