I first heard of this book through Apple blogger John Gruber’s blog post. Considering that he did not enjoy the sanctioned Steve Jobs biography by his appointed biographer Walter Isaacson, I thought the high praise was worth my money. I got the Audible version and power-listened through the whole 16-hour volume in a week. It is a quick read that feels like a long Fortune business article in contrast to the Isaacson book which read to me like a Wikipedia article. There is little stylistic flair unlike the recent Jony Ive article from the New Yorker.

I finished the book several weeks ago. I thought that while it is an excellent book for those starting from zero, most of the great revelations have been reported in the popular media - that Tim Cook offered his liver to Steve Jobs, etc. I did find a few things particularly interesting - especially Ed Catmull’s work, the guy who ran Pixar - who is highly praised in the article.

“Patience and Focus”

If summarized into a single key theme, I would say that the book espouses “patience”. The book makes it clear in the beginning arc of Steve Jobs life that he ran his business and life affairs with rash impatience. Like many young people (including myself) there was a lack of patience and focus. Jobs’ talents of unifying and motivating a team of people was counterbalanced by the fact he seemed to get bored easily. Rather than focusing on delivering an excellent successor to Apple’s blockbuster computer the Apple II (later to be called the Apple III), he stole talent to start work on the Macintosh. The Mac was a great technology triumph but he seems to admit later in the book that he shouldn’t have done that to the Apple III.

This scene reminded me of a line from the New York Times’ article on Google Glass, which talked about a similar trait of Sergey Brin’s:

Second, [Brin] had a reputation at Google for having what has been widely quoted as “project attention deficit disorder,” becoming obsessed with one project and then sauntering off to the next.

In both article and book, the lack of patience and focus eventually led to a product disaster. Most people talk about the Macintosh as being some sort of step forward in User Interface. Sure it was, but the book makes it clear (though somewhat in passing) that the computer did not have enough memory and capability to be an actual good product.

Mercifully the book moves through Jobs’ ejection from Apple relatively quickly. Don’t need to read about that again. The book spends a lot of time instead on the years that Jobs spent at NeXT, which was the computer company that Jobs founded afterwards. It is a great section and one that the Isaacson book does not really go into. He really does characterize it as the “wild years” in where Jobs indulged - and suffered from - his greatest personality failings. I enjoyed the way the book talked about the NeXT computers’ shortcomings especially when competing against Microsoft’s offerings. There is a mix of technical and business talk that I appreciated. Not too much to confuse but enough to be clear.

Jobs’ time with Pixar was really interesting to me. The book discusses more of the effects of Pixar rather than what actually happened. I assume that this can be found in Catmull’s book - Creativity Inc. There is a lot of credit left at Catmull’s feet in this book so I look forward to reading it next and learning about actually what these management tactics might be (beyond what has already been reported in the media).

By the time NeXT was bought by Apple, I felt impatient myself. I was ready to see Jobs in action! The book goes into some detail about how the iPod, iMac and the iPhone were created. The authors emphasize that Jobs did not become impatient and unfocused like he did in his years, in a way overcoming his inner demons.

The iPhone chapter was especially interesting. The way the authors weave together the disparate parts of the phone - which have already been in development throughout the company. Reading segments that individually talk about a big touchscreen working on a projector in a big room or a sort of new UI that designers have been working on are such a tease. You know what is coming but right now they are just nonsensical parts. It is like some sort of heist movie (Ocean’s 11!) in where they are putting together the team members. But the great point of that chapter was watching Jobs slowly put together those pieces, not killing any of them when they did not work out technically but pushing them forward. Jobs never had anything in his head as he watched these projects sprout. He just kept feeding and growing until they naturally snapped together. I enjoyed that chapter and it reinforced the authors’ overall point.

Other Thoughts

• The beginning anecdote in where a 24-year old Jobs talks down to a bunch of people older than him is stunning. I love that the first chapter opens with it.
• The book mentions that the author - a journalist who knew Steve Jobs for 24 years - would see his green iChat bubble late at night, meaning that Steve was working. How cool would it have been to see Steve Jobs on your iChat buddy list?!? Wonder if he had Away Messages or inspirational quotes in his profile (haha).
• The book has been said to be “sponsored” by Apple. The company seems to be working hard to bring it publicity with some readings and events at Apple Stores. However the actual access the author got to current employees seemed to have been rather limited. Not as much as I would have expected coming in.
• Great foreshadowing with the first line, in where they talk about the last thing Jobs ever said to the author: “I’m sorry.” Near its final chapters, the book goes over the author’s final interaction with Steve Jobs. It is a heartbreakingly sad story and would have made for a fantastic ending that sticks with you forever.