Book Review: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Simple Creative Perfectionist:
Though I take an apple a day, I have never touched the Apple in my life, the laptop, I mean. But I have always wondered why owners of any Apple product were so possessive and proud of holding one in their hands ‘for others to see’ in public places. Particularly when Microsoft is dominating the mainstream how Apple made their world unique? Apple’s an 'insanely great' product which 'dented the universe', as Steve Jobs believed it should be, 'a machine that would transform personal computing'.
The electoral noise around may have delayed my reading, but never denied the pleasure of relishing the life story of 'Steve Jobs' by Walter Isaacson. Not only do you get to know the temperamental man who doggedly changed our reality, in contrast to his contemporary Bill Gates, but you also trace the history of computers and other smart gadgets from the Silicon Coast of the USA.
Strongly recommended biography for making you "Think Different".
When I read the story of Steve Jobs I realized how a crazy person can challenge and change the world. While the personal biography of Jobs makes an interesting roller coaster reading of ups and downs due to his temper tantrums, the book also traces parallelly the history of computer making in 70s, 80s and 90s.
Particularly exhilarating is the chapter on
Steve stealing the wind out of the sails of Xerox who were
sitting on the breakthrough development of GUI (Graphical User
Interface) but blissfully unaware of the goldmine under their
buts. How the traditional beaten-track thinking stifles revolutionary
development and underlines the importance of not only seeing
the future but also adroitly creating it against oddsin prevalent
realities. Xerox with an open mind "could have owned
the entire computer industry".
To get to know Jobs, one has to read the mischievous school time pranks of both Steve Jobs and Woz., of taking LSD, joining Hare Rama Hare Krishna group, guided by Neem Karoli Baba of India, adopting strict Vegan diet, dropping out of college. I have given you all in a telegraphic language. After all, what is this enigmatic persona called Steve Jobs is?
In the words of one of his famous Macintosh colleagues...“Steve has a reality distortion field. In his presence, reality is malleable. He can convince anyone of practically anything. It wears off when he’s not around, but it makes it hard to have realistic schedules….It was dangerous to get caught in Steve’s distortion field, but it was what led him to actually be able to change reality”.
At the root of the reality distortion was Job’s belief that the rules didn’t apply to him. He had some evidence for this; in his childhood, he had often been able to bend reality to his desires. Rebelliousness and willfulness well ingrained in his character. He had the sense that he was special, a chosen one, an enlightened one.
What I also love of Jobs is his severe dislike for PowerPoint. It kills. “One of the first things Jobs did during the product review process was ban PowerPoints”. Hear him say this: “I hate the way people use slide presentations instead of thinking”, Jobs later recalled, “People would confront a problem by creating a presentation. I wanted them to engage, to hash things out at the table, rather than show a bunch of slides. People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint”.
In the author Walter Isaacson’s words, “Despite being a denizen of the digital world, or maybe because he knew all too well its isolating potential, Jobs was a strong believer in face-to-face meetings. “There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat. That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say ‘Wow’, and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas”.
If you have been wondering why the personal computer or laptop was an addictive gadget for the 90s kids generation, surprisingly it was designed by an equally or more addictive geeks of Western America who were smoking pot or head deep in LSD and leading hippie lives breaking ALL the existing culture, taking the 'acid' test. The chapter sharing launch story of Mac gives nail biting moments of watching a thriller. The one on the duel between two czars of the computer industry, Jobs and Gates, is also an interesting reading on contrast belies and characteristics.
Not only the making of Mac, iPod, iTunes and iPad stories make interesting reading, but also the tug of war between Disney and Jobs' Pixar in creating mega successes viz., Toy Story, Bug's Life, Finding Nemo and Cars, rivet you in your reading chair. Cut-throat Corporate Ego Wars for crazy personalities, in action. What about his belief on products and customer needs?
“Some people say, ‘Give the customers what they want.’ But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, “If I’d asked customer what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!’. “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page”.
If there is a movie made on a book, I make it a point to view it immediately, just to revel in the pleasure of comparing what my brain-generated-images reading the story and how they come across in the audio-visual format on screen. Earlier examples, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ of Liz and ALL the stories of Harry Potter. So, I followed the movie on Jobs and found it to be a sincere effort to bring to life the book. Though it misses the Disney part and shows only tit bits of his messy personal life, it’s worth seeing, ONLY after reading the book. Else you can’t enjoy it. Will feel disjointed.
The book as well as the movie, end on an emotional note with the brilliant words of Steve Jobs.…. “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They are not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do”.
For one, this biography doesn't portray him as a hero but a soul which brought perfection and beauty in products for modern man's indulgence, striving for sheer excellence. Completing the book, like Jobs does often, I cried. What a person to know! Particularly when in front of your eyes, he changes the reality of the world and leaves a lovely piece in everyone’s hands today to fondle and get hooked onto. A ‘real’ life and NOT an iota of ‘story’ in this biography.
Great reading….after and similar to the tale of the enigmatic Elon Musk. Go on and indulge yourself. After all, here lived a soul in your times who changed the reality!
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