Book Review
Steve Jobs
By Walter Isaacson
New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011, 630 pages
ISBN# 978-1-4516-4853-9, U.S. $35.00
Reviewed by Michael W. Popejoy
Steve Jobs was an unparalleled icon in an era that both rapidly and radically changed how we
live, work, and think. The impression he left on the age of the computer and all that that particular phenomenon ushered in was, for all of us, a game changer. Can any of us say that computers
have not changed everything in our lives as a result of the advances that that technology has afforded us? Jobs walked us to the boundaries of such world changing new ideas and applications.
Walter Isaacson has written the first biography on Jobs but, as with most famous personalities, I
doubt it will be the last one. Indeed, for many famous historical figures, a new biography seems
to come out every decade or so (Kennedy, FDR, Wilson, Jefferson just to name a few). I am,
however, certain that Isaacsons’ biography will remain one of the best. In part this is because he
had Jobs’ permission and cooperation and access to him while he was still alive, a rare and unexpected circumstance. Another reason is that he is not a profession hagiographer. He treats his
subjects (Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, for example) with realism and objectivity, allowing readers to understand both the character and the times of those he writes about. Reading
about Jobs in this book is much like reading about a history of the computer age, for it is probably impossible to separate the two.
This biography makes clear that Steve Jobs was not easy to understand; nor was it easy to write
about him in such a way as to help us understand him, let alone like him very much. Although he
contributed great ideas, ideas that were virtually unthinkable prior to his time, he was not a
pleasant person; he was not a warm person even to his family. Even so, many of the people
whom he most abused admitted that he made them better by making them believe in his vision.
When they believed it could not be done he insisted—demanded—that they do it, that they do
the impossible. He treated family, friends, and his workers equally badly. It makes us pause to
wonder why great men have such quirky personalities. This seems to be a truly common feature
among geniuses. Maybe the truly powerfully creative mind crowds out other less important considerations—such as humane and empathetic feelings for others, even those who are especially
close. These are just some of the challenges faced by Isaacson in crafting an accurate biography
of a brilliant but terribly mercurial personality. If you wanted to work for Jobs, you had better be
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an A+ person bringing your A+ game to the table. He would not tolerate anything less. And, it
was his yardstick by which he measured performance. You could easily be dismissed from Apple, not for doing bad work; but, for not doing brilliant work in Jobs’ understanding of “brilliant
work.”
Undoubtedly a genius and artistic visionary, Jobs required the engineering and technical expertise that Steve Wozniak, his first colleague, brought to their joint endeavor. Jobs had the vision;
Wozniak somehow made it work. An incredible team; but, they were very different people in
virtually every way possible. Jobs was mean spirited and apparently had no ability to filter the
mean, insulting, and hurtful things that he said to his friends, family, and co-workers. Wozniak
was just the opposite. How they remained friends throughout the years is somewhat amazing,
perhaps inexplicable, and certainly more to the credit of Wozniak than to Jobs. Still, people admired Jobs and, once they came to believe in his vision, they followed him loyally and accomplished things they never thought possible. By the end of the book, Isaacson seemed to conclude
that Jobs’ difficult personality was not meanness per se; rather it was his absolute demand for
perfection in every product Apple delivered to the consumer. He had the ability to see the big
picture while simultaneously fussing furiously over the minutest of details. Often, too, it was a
problem in the smallest of details that would set him off on a raging tantrum.
Steve Jobs was a polymath in the sense that he absorbed apparently unrelated disciplines and
could visualize an interconnectedness that others missed. Trained in Zen Buddhism, he was an
ascetic; he did drugs, he was a committed vegan and, at times, a fruitarian; he often went barefoot and did not take baths for weeks. He stank, spoke profanely, and insulted everyone he was
around. He was a demanding perfectionist who considered those with lesser abilities to be just
stupid. He fired people at the slightest provocation. As long as the company thrived, he was an
effective corporate CEO. When times were lean, however, he could not maintain the corporate
direction or momentum, especially as he was never willing to cut corners. If doing a design right
meant it cost more, that was the direction he would take, never mind the naysayers. More important even than his role as CEO, was his brilliance as a visionary innovator who demanded
products that seemed impossible to produce on the timelines that he demanded. He refused to
accept marketing positions designed to appeal to customers’ desires because he was convinced
that customers did not know what they wanted until he showed it to them. One aspect of his innovative mind was his ability to blend art with technology. His products, his workplaces and factories, and even his homes, had to be artful things of simple beauty and user friendly functionality. He even changed how offices themselves would look, as he designed work spaces that allowed for the free flow of interaction among departments, thus enhancing serendipitous collaborations.
He brought his love for calligraphy into the technology of computing by demanding that his machines have multiple typefaces and fonts while the competition was often limited to a single
typeface. He demanded a physical manifestation of the artistic vision of the capabilities he had in
his mind. Consumers were able to choose what they wanted the printed page to look like because
he gave them devices with capabilities not provided by other manufacturers. Indeed, it was this
love of combining art and technology that led him to involvement with and eventual ownership
of Pixar, the animated film company. This intense interest in Pixar is emblematic of his wideranging interests and yet another indication that there was no normal linear path for his interests.
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Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
This makes his biography a bit hard to follow; his trail is long and winding with no clear path to
his destiny. He remained for his entire lifetime, unpredictable. Maybe such is the way of creative
geniuses. After having read two previous biographies by Walter Isaacson, I picked up this book
on Jobs with high expectations and was not disappointed. I am curious what Isaacson is working
on now. Isaacson and Ron Chernow are, in my opinion, the best biographers today, closely followed by Robert Dalleck. These writers carefully and meticulously research and document their
subjects and then write a clear, cohesive, and readable account of their lives without crossing the
line into hagiography. Jobs commented that he did not want to read the book before it was published because he would probably be very angry with many aspects of the book; and I would
have to agree; but, Isaacson wrote faithfully what he saw, heard, read, and interpreted in everything he had immersed himself in regarding Jobs and his life and work without regard to Jobs’
approval. It is a stunning achievement.
Michael W. Popejoy, M.B.A., Ph.D., M.P.H., M.S., FRSPH, teaches courses in public administration, public safety, health policy, and clinical research at Florida Atlantic University and
Central Michigan University—Global Campus.
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