Its both easy and tough to write a book on Steve Jobs. Easy because its a story that everyone loves, a college drop-out who gets kicked out of his own company, only to make a spectacular comeback and change the way we consume our technology (Howard Roark anyone?). Having said that, its tough to keep a reader engaged given that almost everyone is familiar with the broad outline of the Jobs story especially after his death. It is this ability to keep the reader engaged that sets Walter Isaacson apart.
The book is gripping right from the beginning especially given that it was Jobs who was chasing Isaacson to write his biography and gave Isaacson complete independence to publish whatever he wanted. This is akin to Oliver Cromwell asking his painter, Sir Peter Lely to paint him 'with warts and all'. This book shows Job as a flawed genius, a person who put his interests ahead of others including his family. Here was a man who had stupendous success in various fields but at the same time very vulnerable, temperamental and very willful (Jobs had delayed his cancer treatment for months and trying out various 'alternative' therapies).
I would not delve into this book further (and diminish the pleasure of reading it) but it would suffice to say the book paints a complete picture of Jobs, as his wife wanted it, 'with warts and all'.
3 comments:
I can't wait to pick it up!
Did you finish reading the 500+ pages already? Am only half-way through...and wondering do non-insane people like me ever achieve fantastic things in life like flawed geniuses do. Would you want to be a flawed genius or not a genius at all
I finished this book in November itself. The answer to your question sid, it depends - Hewlett, Packard and Gates are less insane geniuses who changed the world.
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