Otis Chandler's Reviews > Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Rate this book
Clear rating

by
1
's review

it was amazing
bookshelves: business, biography, favorites

This is an amazing inside view into the life of one of the great businessmen of our era. A must read.

The thing that struck me most about Steve Jobs was that he was an incredible perfectionist. He was a craftsman, and wanted the computers he built to be beautiful and amazing and useful. He believed that computers were "at the intersection of technology and liberal arts" - a phrase he used a lot - because he realized computers weren't just for geeks. They are for everyone, and needed to be able to be used by everyone.

Steve put design at the top of product pyramid at Apple - above engineering. This means they spent a lot of time trying to fit the hardware into the beautifully designed cases the designers came up with, and the designers and engineers had to work together closely. This can backfire (eg Antennagate), but largely it worked really well. It produced amazing computers that were visually distinct from everything else in the market, and that "just work". If I learned anything from this book, it's that Apple believed that design is paramount, and spending extra time and engineering resources to make a beautiful design work is worth it.

Apple's design philosophy is to "make it simple. Really simple". You still see this today - go to Apple.com - you will see ONE product. Now try Amazon. According to the book, Jobs learned this from Markkula, who taught him that "A great company must be able to impute its values from the first impression it makes".

Steve's ethos was basically that if you are going to do something, do it right. The book is full of examples of Steve doing this. When the iMac first came out it looked like no other computer. It was interesting to hear how difficult it was for the engineers to accommodate a handle on the computer - but it ended up being a defining feature of the computer. I also loved the story of how Steve was obsessed with quality glass, and ordered the highest end stuff he could find for his Apple Stores.

Steve's management tactics got a lot of scrutiny in the book - and many other reviewers use words like "jerk" to describe him. It sounds like Steve could definitely be a jerk to work for. His management style was to push people as hard as he could, and to let people know when they didn't perform. When pushed like that, a person can have one of two reactions: they either resent it, and end up quitting or getting fired (B-players) - or they accept the challenge to do better, and come back the next week with something even better. Win-win for Steve - he filters out the b-players and gets his a-players to produce the best work they can.

But, as was pointed out in the book, if Steve was nothing but a jerk, he wouldn't have built a company full of loyal employees - Apple has one of the lowest turnover rates in the valley. Jobs only hired people who "had a passion for the product". I also liked how he motivated by looking at the bigger picture; such as the story of how he convinced his engineer that saving 10 seconds off the boot time was worth it because across 5 million users that would save 100 lifetimes per year.

The book was full of references to Steve's dynamic personality; his "reality distortion field" is a great descriptor. Steve believed he could do anything - and he was so persuasive that he could convince those around him that they could whatever it was too. I think this is one of the most defining qualities of an entrepreneur - believing something can be done against all odds. Not being afraid to tear down walls or think outside the box.

I loved the description of Steve that "whatever he was touting was the best thing he ever produced." You see him do this in his keynote speeches too. He is always using words like "best", "amazing", etc to describe whatever he's launching.

A big theme that the author made was that especially early on, Steve viewed Apple as "counter-culture" rebels. They were hippies who thought they could change the world. And they did - but not only that - I think they embedded their can-do attitude deep in Silicon Valley, which is probably highly correlated with why it is the center of the technology revolution today. This quote is classic:

"The people who invited the twenty-first century were pot-smoking, sandal-wearing hippies from the West Coast like Steve, because they saw differently. The hierarchical systems of the East Coast, England, Germany, and Japan do not encourage this different thinking. The sixties produced an anarchic mind-set that is great for imagining a world not yet in existence."


One of Steve's great abilities was to focus. When Jobs came back to Apple from his hiatus the biggest innovation he made was to focus the company onto just the few products that were working or had potential.

"What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great."


Steve's belief that computers need to be beautiful and easy to use basically prevented him from ever licensing his software, as then he wouldn't be able to control the user experience. Microsoft didn't have that problem, and that's why Windows dominated. I think it's also the reason that Windows is in trouble today. They have spent a decade making their code work across hundreds of different hardware configurations. Their code is now full of backwards compatibility support that just makes it messy, and bloated. Worse, their focus is on maintaining all that instead of innovating and improving it.

The platform vs integrated approach is being tested again with the iphone vs android. It will be interesting to see if history replays itself, or if Apple's lead and ability to make a superior product because of their full stack control will prevail.

In the end, this was the best quote of the book:

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

97 likes · flag

Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read Steve Jobs.
Sign In »

Quotes Otis Liked

Walter Isaacson
“The people who invented the twenty-first century were pot-smoking, sandal-wearing hippies from the West Coast like Steve, because they saw differently,” he said. "The hierarchical systems of the East Coast, England, Germany, and Japan do not encourage this different thinking. The sixties produced an anarchic mind-set that is great for imagining a world not yet in existence.”
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson
“Picasso had a saying - 'good artists copy, great artists steal' - and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson
“Steve has a reality distortion field.” When Hertzfeld looked puzzled, Tribble elaborated. “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.”
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson
“So that’s our approach. Very simple, and we’re really shooting for Museum of Modern Art quality. The way we’re running the company, the product design, the advertising, it all comes down to this: Let’s make it simple. Really simple.” Apple’s design mantra would remain the one featured on its first brochure: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson
“When it came time to announce the price of the new machine, Jobs did what he would often do in product demonstrations: reel off the features, describe them as being “worth thousands and thousands of dollars,” and get the audience to imagine how expensive it really should be. Then he announced what he hoped would seem like a low price: “We’re going to be charging higher education a single price of $6,500.”
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson
“for Steve, less is always more, simpler is always better. Therefore, if you can build a glass box with fewer elements, it’s better, it’s simpler, and it’s at the forefront of technology. That’s where Steve likes to be, in both his products and his stores.”
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson
“The older I get, the more I see how much motivations matter. The Zune was crappy because the people at Microsoft don’t really love music or art the way we do. We won because we personally love music.”
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson
“Jobs insisted that Apple focus on just two or three priorities at a time. “There is no one better at turning off the noise that is going on around him,” Cook said. “That allows him to focus on a few things and say no to many things. Few people are really good at that.”
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson
“I think the biggest innovations of the twenty-first century will be the intersection of biology and technology. A new era is beginning, just like the digital one was when I was his age.”
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson
“What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.”
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson
“I have my own theory about why decline happens at companies like IBM or Microsoft. The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The company starts valuing the great salesmen, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers. So the salespeople end up running the company.”
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson
“In classic Steve fashion, he would agree to something, but it would never happen,” said Lack. “He would set you up and then pull it off the table. He’s pathological, which can be useful in negotiations. And he’s a genius.”
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson
“reality has an odd habit of catching up with satire.”
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs


Reading Progress

October 6, 2011 – Shelved
October 28, 2011 – Started Reading
October 28, 2011 –
5.0%
October 31, 2011 –
14.0%
November 11, 2011 –
38.0% "No empathy. Hmmm..."
November 14, 2011 –
59.0% "Jobs is amazing - he did a lot of the negotiations with musicians and labels for the itunes store himself. Amazing to hear about how he worked with Bono on marketing partnerships."
November 23, 2011 –
100.0%
December 1, 2011 – Finished Reading
December 7, 2011 – Shelved as: business
December 7, 2011 – Shelved as: biography
May 8, 2014 – Shelved as: favorites

Comments Showing 1-26 of 26 (26 new)

dateDown arrow    newest »

Brian that's funny. in my news feed Last Call's cover and title look a lot like Steve Jobs. weird.


Kyusik Chung Hopefully it looks that way in your hands as well. :P


message 4: by Louise (new)

Louise I'm with Brian. I don't remember this winning our bookclub poll.


Brian otis: more this: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/73..., but Kyusik and Louise seem to get it. Sorry for misleading you.... ;)


message 6: by Michael (new)

Michael Economy I've read anubis gates by that author otis, pretty good!


Kyusik Chung Louise - memory can be a funny and fickle thing. Which book club are you talking about? The one I'm in - we're definitely reading the Steve Jobs bio. ;)


message 8: by Michael (new)

Michael Economy I'd start my own splinter club to read omnivores dilimma with virgilio, but he reads too slow :(


Otis Chandler lol. I read Anubis Gates on your rec Michael - it was really good!


message 10: by Lisa (new) - added it

Lisa Vegan I really want to read this book. I had one of those original iMacs (turquoise) and loved it. It was a brilliant computer for its time.


dina christine Just finished the book. I must say your review nailed it!


message 12: by David (new)

David McNair Great review I thought this book was well written and was very balanced and a great insight into the late Steve Jobs


message 13: by Ram (new) - added it

Ram Kumar Nice review, Otis.


Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate "This quote is classic:

"The people who invited the twenty-first century were pot-smoking, sandal-wearing hippies from the West Coast like Steve..."

Also classic is the Freudian slip (!?) of invited instead of the correct 'invented'. The meaning is quite subtly different. :-)


message 15: by Asaju (new) - added it

Asaju Toye This review is an eye opener and it is inspiring


Milhouse Van Houten cool


message 18: by kannu (new) - added it

kannu R Ji


Mirkat Otis are you still here (GR)? Feels very much like a semi-abandonment has happened. Don't think SJ would do that!


message 20: by Lisa (new) - added it

Lisa Vegan Mirkat wrote: "Otis are you still here (GR)? Feels very much like a semi-abandonment has happened. Don't think SJ would do that!"

According to his profile page, last active this month, so he's around.


Mirkat Aha, thanks for your reply! (I'm a vegan, too. :) )


message 22: by Lisa (new) - added it

Lisa Vegan Mirkat wrote: "Aha, thanks for your reply! (I'm a vegan, too. :) )"

Wonderful! There are many of us on Goodreads. Love meeting vegans. Yes, let's hijack the discussion thread. ;-)


Mirkat You might enjoy my SJ review... I have a bit of a rant in there on Isaacson's anti-vegan attitude in the book. :)


message 24: by Lisa (new) - added it

Lisa Vegan Mirkat wrote: "You might enjoy my SJ review... I have a bit of a rant in there on Isaacson's anti-vegan attitude in the book. :)"

Ok. Off to read it.


Nikttaki7777 (also as Jancio Al or Jancio09) Hi Otis, i don't know how much time you spended to write this quote.
But anyways i don't ask you what kindle model you have because, you know...
I can't download it so i don't know anything about The Amazing Bill Gates.
And one more thing about the quote: You forgot to say Bill Gates introduce Macintosh in 1994, next in the 2001 he introduce iPod and in the 2007 he indroduce iPhone (now known as iPhone 2G). He also introduce iPad as well but i forget the year of introduce but it doesn't matter.
These four things: Macintosh(now Mac),iPod,iPhone and iPad.
These Apple "kids" dominated (but not all) the world.
How much time they projected Apple projected them in the company? Who knows, that's just an very old story...
But see how Apple "kids" look now, and there's an another Apple "kid" who's name is Apple Watch.
How they evolve from first models?
I don't know, just explore Wikipedia Library(search) for iPhone,iPod,iPad or Mac.
And who knows, maybe an old Apple employees still remembers that times?
And that's why (maybe) Bill Gates was borned. To create a new technology. Technology of today.

If you have any questions, type on my Goodreads Message (i don't know what it is)


Nikttaki7777 (also as Jancio Al or Jancio09) When I said The Amazing Bill Gates, I mean The Amazing Steve Jobs

(Sorry for that incipient)


back to top