Steve Jobs Kindle Edition

With the exception of one laptop and 2 non-smart cell phones, in my personal and professional life since 2004 I've had nothing but Apple products - computers (both desktop and laptop), iPads, iPods, and my crown jewel: my iPhone. None has ever disappointed me. I say this not to put forth a review of the Apple products but to explain that I am part of Steve Jobs's choir: I value, respect and rely on the products that he created. I'm sold, so to speak. And so it seemed only logical that I would eventually read this book to gain insight both in the genesis and evolution of Apple and in the person of Steve Jobs. The book did not disappoint in either.

What I found out about the early years and the development of the personal computer was fascinating. I do remember a lot of the news articles from those years - I was living in San Francisco at the time and a good friend of mine worked for Apple - but I would not consider myself previously knowledgeable about Apple in any comprehensive way. I learned so much of the nuts and bolts of Apple Computer, Inc., from this book. The chapters about the creation of the iPod, iPhone and iPad were very interesting to someone who has used these products for years and years and feels she has some proficiency using what they offer me.

But the insight I gained from the book on Steve Jobs the man left me very sad. While I consider him to have been a true genius with an almost other-worldly imagination, I can't imagine that I would have liked him very much or respected him outside of his professional arena. As the founder and developer of Apple Computer, he was spectacular. He had an intense imagination, vision, and belief in things that had yet to be discovered. He was fortunate enough to find those people who had the same precise work ethic that he did. To find those people and to hone the abilities of the ones who stayed, he had no reservations about crushing their substandard efforts or their feelings. The ones who lasted were the ones who believed in his vision and their Jobs-given opportunity to indulge and demonstrate their own creativity. The ones who lasted were the best and brightest the tech and artistic world had to offer. The ones who lasted were the ones who took his ideas and made them into our reality. I am profoundly grateful to them and to him for the advances they made in technology and artistry. And I guess the one cannot exist without the other. Without his exact personality would the tech world have been turned on its ear and eventually controlled by Apple? I don't know. Actually I doubt it.

In terms of his family, it seemed as if his attention to them was given only when it was not required or demanded elsewhere. His children were discussed very little; the same is true about Laurene Powell, his wife. But it is clear that in his wife he found the one person who was his equal in intelligence and commitment. Their marriage is portrayed as strong but him as absent.

The sections on his cancer and eventual death were moving but not enough to make me feel for him as a person. I am sorry he died but my sorrow has to do with the loss of him professionally and what he might have accomplished and achieved had he lived but not with the loss of him as a man. And yet I can recognize his genius and I'm glad I read the book.

I bought this book, not because it was about Jobs, but because I'm a big fan of Isaacson. This work, much like his other works, was unsurprisingly of the highest caliber, but what did surprise me was that the subject matter, Jobs, was much more intriguing than I could have imagined. I was an early Apple computer owner in the 70s which had a huge impact on my life and career as a computer programmer, but I was always a Wozniak fan, and never thought anything of whoever this Jobs person was. Oh how wrong I was, and I think that's a big part about why Isaacson agreed to do this biography. Jobs turns out to be the driving force behind so many huge and successful companies that he built including Apple, Mac, Pixar, iTunes, and others. Not to take anything away from the hardware genius of the Woz, but Jobs was the smartest and most talented of them all. Having not read this book yet, I took for granted nearly all of what he accomplished. What Isaacson has done more than anything, is make us understand how all of these great accomplishments came about despite so many difficulties and obstacles, and yet once he illustrates for us who Jobs really was, his incredible success seems inevitable. Isaacson brings to light the deep artistic passion of Jobs using equally artistic prose which makes the book hard to put down at any hour.

Not knowing what to expect, I halfway expected this to be a biography of an ego maniac, and I avoided reading this until a colleague recommended it. WOW! Was I surprised. Extremely well written and exposed the dichotomy of good and bad qualities in Jobs personality.

I remember the 1984 unveiling of the Mac and was one of the first in line when it came out. I recognized the revolutionary nature of it and had to have one. I've been in and out of the Mac culture over the years but followed Apple from afar. The Sculley years were less than inspiring after Jobs left and it was very interesting to have a behind the scenes view of the Apple history. Well done!

I thought this movie would be a hatchet job on Steve Jobs, who I idolize. I didn't expect to like it. It is flat-out brilliant., Michael Fassbender stunningly projects Jobs' intensity (and less savory characteristics) in a fierce, running circus of confrontation and nearly inhumane turmoil Loved Kate Winslet as his long-suffering right hand. Seth Rogen as Woz. Wow! So, too, the actresses who play Jobs' out-of-wedlock child and her mother. I'm not a binge watcher or even a movie watcher and I've watched it four times in three weeks. crying every time.

Jobs was a force of nature, a never-to-be-seen again phenomenon. Thank you, Michael Fassbender, Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin, for memorializing his white-hot intensity to succeed and overcome.

Although I have awarded this book four stars, I confess that I was unable to finish it. Jobs is certainly not an attractive subject for a biography. Human relations were not his strong point. He was rude, mercurial, arrogant,brash and condescending among other things. On the other hand he was brilliant, had enormous vision, was able to choose the right people to accomplish his goals and he rocked the technical world to its foundations.For me his unattractiveness outweighed the time needed to complete Isaacson's lengthy biography which is probably the best that will ever be written about Jobs. His writing style is very dense; each page is filled with information, observations and a myriad of other details. I found it trying and wearied of Job's bad behavior, arguments unsuccessful romances and what have you., Let others tread where I could not.