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Steve Jobs

By Walter Isaacson

(232)

| Hardcover | 9781451648539

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Book Description

From the author of the bestselling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, this is the exclusive biography of Steve Jobs.

Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years--as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, compet Continue

From the author of the bestselling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, this is the exclusive biography of Steve Jobs.

Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years--as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues--Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple's hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

Critics

  • Steve Jobs As Tech’s Gordon Ramsay

    The Reality-Distortion Field Walter Isaacson’s biography of the late Steve Jobs appears comfortably large and long. In between its covers lies an incredible life fully lived and thoroughly examined. But even at over 580 pages (plus notes and bibliogr ... (read full critics)

    popmatters published on Sat, 17 Dec 2011

  • Steve Jobs

    Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson's lively authorized biography, is the story of a man who was not changed by wealth. Jobs was scarcely twenty when he started Apple Computer with his friend Steve Wozniak, in the garage of his parents' house. At twenty-five ... (read full critics)

    barnesandnoble published on Wed, 9 Nov 2011

21 Reviews

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  • 8 people find this helpful

    Awesome Job(s)

    (review of the English language edition)

    If you are into one of the following subjects: design, creativity, industrial production, history of industry, software, hardware, eating disorders, adoption issues, or music.... then this book is highly recommended to you.
    If you are a professional in ICT, ... (continue)

    (review of the English language edition)

    If you are into one of the following subjects: design, creativity, industrial production, history of industry, software, hardware, eating disorders, adoption issues, or music.... then this book is highly recommended to you.
    If you are a professional in ICT, I think this could be a compelling must-read. I do not love biographies, I was not particularly infatuated with Steve Jobs when he was alive, yet I finished the book during a long weekend.
    And my conclusion was: Oh, wow... awesome job - awesome Jobs!

    Steve Jobs summoned the author in 2004, when he knew he had to undergo cancer operation. Isaacson first refused, but in 2009 he started a series of 40 interviews to Jobs and other 100 to his friends, adversaries and colleagues, summing up to a monumental and detailed (semi-encyclopaedic) biography.

    It is not a eulogy although it is clear that Isaacson sympathizes with Jobs and rates him as one of the geniuses of our era.

    The basic concept at Apple is no mystery: start from the User Experience rather the other way (i.e. pack first class technology into "something").
    This concept is in a certain sense profoundly ethical but it's coupled to another Jobs dogma / vision: hardware and software go well if designed together. This is the exact opposite of Bill Gates' vision of a universal operating system, whatever the "crappy" (as Jobs would call it) hardware.
    This integrated / seamless usage approach creates also a war with shareware/freeware champions, since Steve Jobs has created a waterproof, end-user universe (try to open an iPhone...): this is exactly opposed to the Android / Linux / opensource universe.

    Jobs the human being: "insight" is probably the best word attacheable to his creativity process, "tantrum" is probably the best word attachable to his management style. Jobs was an accomplished genius, but a most difficult human being.
    A human being, though: laughing and crying, like anyone else.
    He made people suffer, he suffered, he made some mistakes, he accomplished something great.

    Great man with flaws, great book with flaws (some stuff is sort of repeated; as an upside, this is very good for absentminder readers).

    Is this helpful?

    Plucino☮ said on Nov 2, 2011 | Add your feedback

  • 2 people find this helpful

    Un libro da leggere

    Possono essere tanti i giudizi sul personaggio Jobs, ma questo libro è da leggere come pezzo di una storia fantastica.

    Is this helpful?

    Dario Ujetto said on Dec 11, 2011 | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    Steve Jobs is a biography, but it might as well be a chronicle of consumer electronics of the past 30 years. In fact, Steve Jobs was so pervasive in the digital industry that you'd be hard-pressed to find an aspect without his name on it. From computing to music, from movies to phones, he l ... (continue)

    Steve Jobs is a biography, but it might as well be a chronicle of consumer electronics of the past 30 years. In fact, Steve Jobs was so pervasive in the digital industry that you'd be hard-pressed to find an aspect without his name on it. From computing to music, from movies to phones, he left his creative signature everywhere. I don't admire his personality, but I truly salute his amazing contributions to the digital age. No one else comes close.

    Perhaps due to Jobs's colourful life and countless contributions, it doesn't take much for his biography to be an engrossing read. The book is not written particularly well, but the fascinating things that Jobs has done outshines the ordinary prose. It's a thrill to read about how Jobs's genius ultimately prevailed in almost every new product he unveiled. I now understand why he is worshipped as a god. He really has this uncanny supernatural ability to command the masses.

    Which leads me to this prediction: now that Jobs is gone, I don't think Apple will be able to sustain the magic. I'd give it two or three years, then it will become just another tech company. The Apple Era has ended.

    Is this helpful?

    Holmes said on Jan 30, 2012 about the eBook edition | Add your feedback

  • stupendo

    da leggere per conoscere la vita di u uomo eccezionale che ha cambiato il nostro modo di accedere e elaborare le informazioni, l'arte e la conoscenza, molto più di quanto crediamo

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    Linasini said on Feb 22, 2012 | Add your feedback

  • J'avais peur, en entamant cette biographie "officielle", de tomber sur une histoire à l'américaine remplie de superlatifs en tout genre. C'est un peu le cas mais, bien que cet ouvrage ait été commandé par Jobs lui-même, la vraie star du livre, à mes yeux, est la société Apple. L'histoire de cette so ... (continue)

    J'avais peur, en entamant cette biographie "officielle", de tomber sur une histoire à l'américaine remplie de superlatifs en tout genre. C'est un peu le cas mais, bien que cet ouvrage ait été commandé par Jobs lui-même, la vraie star du livre, à mes yeux, est la société Apple. L'histoire de cette société montée par deux jeunes Steve rebelles avec 1300 dollars dans le fameux garage pour devenir la plus grosse capitalisation boursière est passionnante. Toute personne qui s'intéresse à l'entreprenariat ou au management doit lire ce livre. La personnalité de Jobs est évidemment clé dans cette réussite. Cela pose la question du management par des tyrans (comme l'était le PDG d'Apple) pour obtenir le meilleur: est-ce la seule voie ? J'ose espérer que non.

    Is this helpful?

    Guillaume Toublanc said on Jan 30, 2012 about the eBook edition | Add your feedback

  • Non ho mai posseduto un dispositivo Apple e non sono fan dei sistemi chiusi ma, devo dire, di aver trovato questo libro interessantissimo.
    Lo consiglio?
    Sì, lo consiglio a chi ha una o più delle seguenti caratteristiche:
    - ami i dipositivi Apple
    - ami le biografie
    - ami la storia del business
    - ami ... (continue)

    Non ho mai posseduto un dispositivo Apple e non sono fan dei sistemi chiusi ma, devo dire, di aver trovato questo libro interessantissimo.
    Lo consiglio?
    Sì, lo consiglio a chi ha una o più delle seguenti caratteristiche:
    - ami i dipositivi Apple
    - ami le biografie
    - ami la storia del business
    - ami la storia dei grandi innovatori
    - ami le storie vere che superano la fantasia!

    Is this helpful?

    S_h1roS said on Jan 25, 2012 about the eBook edition | Add your feedback

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