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Jane's Reviews > Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
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I'm still not entirely sure what to think. I keep flipflopping between annoyed/disgusted and inspired.
I applaud Isaacson for putting a masterful bio together without succumbing to the Reality Distortion Field and vomiting out a piece of Jobs-worship like some Apple/Steve-related books out there. I also really appreciate all these little anecdotes, some that I have seen before and others that are new and all the more enjoyable, that people that knew and interacted with Steve shared in one way or another.
On the other hand, I like my personal heroes to have a smidgen of friendly and positive virtues like courtesy and generosity. This book blows away many times over any idea I had that Steve might have been a nice guy at heart with occasional and sometimes very public extremism. The stories related to his daughters and many other women in his personal life nauseated me. I'm frustrated that what I already knew to be his horrifying but effective work attitude also crossed over to his personal life. I appreciate his work and his efforts and he is singlehandedly responsible for me being what I am today, but I despise myself at the moment for having thought this dickless asshole as an awesome role model when I was younger. I wasn't expecting perfection in this regard since we are all human after all, but it was eye opening to see the whole picture in a single book.
But that is what I signed up for when I decided to read a no holds barred official bio of Steve, I suppose. Good and bad and worse, all packaged together in a book that is no less beautiful than the products Apple puts out.
Tomorrow, I will probably feel bad about this review and feel more inspired by the positive aspects of this bio to push myself harder to work better and to do what is right, like Steve would have done. Then the next day I will be frustrated that he didn't have surgery sooner and think about the what ifs. Rinse, repeat.
edit: Tomorrow is today... and Mona's eulogy for her brother is in the NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opi...). I think that wonderful eulogy brought more tears to my eyes than this bio or even his death did. Short, simple but beautiful, and more importantly, shows me another side of Steve that is more like the person I thought he was before I read the bio. The side that cared about his family but was hindered by the cancer, spreading and getting worse. Thanks for restoring my faith, Mona.
I applaud Isaacson for putting a masterful bio together without succumbing to the Reality Distortion Field and vomiting out a piece of Jobs-worship like some Apple/Steve-related books out there. I also really appreciate all these little anecdotes, some that I have seen before and others that are new and all the more enjoyable, that people that knew and interacted with Steve shared in one way or another.
On the other hand, I like my personal heroes to have a smidgen of friendly and positive virtues like courtesy and generosity. This book blows away many times over any idea I had that Steve might have been a nice guy at heart with occasional and sometimes very public extremism. The stories related to his daughters and many other women in his personal life nauseated me. I'm frustrated that what I already knew to be his horrifying but effective work attitude also crossed over to his personal life. I appreciate his work and his efforts and he is singlehandedly responsible for me being what I am today, but I despise myself at the moment for having thought this dickless asshole as an awesome role model when I was younger. I wasn't expecting perfection in this regard since we are all human after all, but it was eye opening to see the whole picture in a single book.
But that is what I signed up for when I decided to read a no holds barred official bio of Steve, I suppose. Good and bad and worse, all packaged together in a book that is no less beautiful than the products Apple puts out.
Tomorrow, I will probably feel bad about this review and feel more inspired by the positive aspects of this bio to push myself harder to work better and to do what is right, like Steve would have done. Then the next day I will be frustrated that he didn't have surgery sooner and think about the what ifs. Rinse, repeat.
edit: Tomorrow is today... and Mona's eulogy for her brother is in the NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opi...). I think that wonderful eulogy brought more tears to my eyes than this bio or even his death did. Short, simple but beautiful, and more importantly, shows me another side of Steve that is more like the person I thought he was before I read the bio. The side that cared about his family but was hindered by the cancer, spreading and getting worse. Thanks for restoring my faith, Mona.
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Reading Progress
October 7, 2011
– Shelved
October 23, 2011
–
Started Reading
October 27, 2011
–
Finished Reading
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...I'm not really expecting much about the personality to like."Basically, I've been an Apple fangirl for many years now (can I start measuring in decades now?) and grew up on Macs, learned to program on them and more. I always knew this not-so-great side of his personality existed and I've read other stories about Apple and Steve that portray this well, but this bio took it to an extreme and showed all sides of his personality from multiple aspects.
To many, I expect that it's a first real glance at Asshole Steve, and they will be shocked. To those that knew of it already, I think they will also be surprised by the depth. I know some people that are having trouble reading the book because they cannot get past his behavior. Others are a bit disappointed. Yet more are just inspired by the story in general and could care less about the emotional and personal rollercoaster ride. You won't see nothing but the good here, but it's really up to the reader to figure out what they want to see in the bio.
Jane - awesome review. I'm only about 120 pages in but I just keep thinking what an ass this guy was! He really treated people like shit. I appreciate his intelligence and accomplishments but no excuse for his treatment of others. I keep hoping he gets better as I read on?
Shannon wrote: "I keep hoping he gets better as I read on?"He doesn't. On the other hand, the eulogy was beautiful and portrayed a different side of Steve I think goes well with this bio to balance things out. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest doing so :)
Really, to an extent, the way he treated others wasn't necessarily pure evil because it amused him, but rather a very strict and often rude way to get people to do better or else. I don't know that Apple would be Apple as it is today if it wasn't for that.
You can't blame him for
But yeah, Mona's eulogy was powerful.