“I wanted my kids to know me. I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did. Also, when I got sick, I realized other people would write about me if I died, and they wouldn’t know anything. They’d get it all wrong. So I wanted to make sure someone heard what I had to say.” – Steve Jobs reason for having Walter Isaacson write his biography
I did not intend to read this book.
I did not know Steve Jobs, but I know several people who did, including a few who worked with him. Most described the experience of working with him as 1) priceless, and 2) one that no amount of money could get them to repeat. I have heard many stories of his brilliance and brutality. I have read several books about Apple (the early years and after Jobs returned), and watched an excellent documentary on Pixar. And I don’t usually read biographies.
The fact that I did read the book is testimony to the genius of Steve Jobs (and Jeff Bezos) and the talent of Walter Isaacson. I was in a hotel room one evening having trouble falling asleep, and downloaded the first few chapters of the Kindle edition (for free) to my iPad. No one has approached Jobs’ genius for creating an immediate, exhilarating user experience in the digital age, and it’s hard to imagine he could have chosen a better biographer than Isaacson. Within fifteen minutes, I was hooked.
Isaacson clearly did his research, and the fact that Jobs gave him complete access to his life, and encouraged friends and foes (in Jobs life, many people are both) to speak honestly about their relationships and experiences with Jobs gave him the detail he needed. But his talent allows him to tell a richly textured, deeply affecting story from cover-to-cover (undoubtedly, an antiquated expression for a digital book).
As a father of an adopted son, I was especially moved by the description of an incident when Jobs, at six or seven years old, told a neighborhood girl he was adopted, to which she responded, “So does that mean your real parents didn’t want you?”
“I remember running into the house, crying. And my parents said, ‘No, you have to understand.’ They were very serious and looked me straight in the eye. They said, ‘We specifically picked you out.’ Both of my parents said that and repeated it slowly for me. And they put an emphasis on every word in that sentence.”
Throughout the book, Isaacson reports similar details that give the reader keen insights into the events that shaped Jobs, without injecting amateur psychological suppositions. The result is great reporting delivered in a wonderful narrative. As I read the book, I realized that my image of Jobs, while accurate, was a caricature. By the end of the book, I had a fully formed picture of a brilliant, passionate, and deeply flawed human being.
Steve Jobs never read any part of the biography. He gave Walter Isaacson complete control of the story, although, after seeing the initial design for the book cover, he threatened to kill the project, until he received complete creative control of the cover design. Initially, I was amazed that someone who had guarded his privacy so closely would relinquish control of his life story. But then I realized that he simply followed the process he had used in business.
Jobs did not personally create technology, films, commercials, etc. But he carefully selected incredibly talented people, provided them the resources to create “insanely great” products, and exerted absolute control over product packaging. Steve Jobs, the book, is not insanely great, but is an informative, interesting, and worthy result of his and Walter Isaacson’s creative process.
If you prefer to watch, rather than read, I strongly recommend the 60 Minutes video story and interview with Isaacson.
