Winter Break Literature Analysis: Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson

Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson

TOPICS/EVENTS

1. The biography is about Steve Jobs, a counterculture visionary who started Apple, which is now the most valuable brand in the world.
2. Isaacson wrote this story to be “a book of innovation”. Although he first relented to write, Issacson knew that Steve Jobs had a very unique and interesting life.
3. I chose this book because I love the design principles of Apple, and how the company came to be. I wanted to know how Jobs was able to manipulate hundreds, both in good and bad ways, to create revolutionary products such as the iPhone and Apple II. The book appealed to me because I wanted to know more about how one man was able to forever change six industries. I decided to finish the book when I read the first couple of pages, because his life seemed very interesting from the start .For example, his character was described to be much different than I previously thought, and this made me want to know more about him.
4. I find some parts of the biography realistic, and other parts unreal, even though it is portrayed as fact. I made a connection with the Jobs himself, in that I share the same belief in how a product should be. I believe, just as Jobs did, that a company shouldn’t make products to just maximize products, but rather create something “great” that will be engraved to the consumer market.

PEOPLE

1. Issacson did a good job to minimalize his personal observations with Steve Jobs. His choices tell me that it can be hard to describe Jobs, because he was the type of person who would either categorize you as “trash” or “brilliant”. Issacson repeatedly noted that Jobs could be very charmful, and at times very cruel and cold. Isaacson chose to write about Jobs after he was personally asked to do so by Jobs. He first declined, but Jobs was persistent to make Isaacson write his life story. The author’s tone frequently changes between 2 sides of the same coin. Steve Jobs had two main personalities, one being a brutal dictator, and the other being an awe-inspiring man with never ending energy.
1. Stephen “Woz” Wozniak is a relatively large man with a friendly, childish appearance. He has the classic geeky look, and can act awkward at times. He isn’t a showman, and prefers to be in the “middle”, quietly working on his passion. He was brutally honest and avoided as much problems as possible. I would write Woz through indirect characterization. HIs passion for computers in itself shows a lot of his character, so using direct characterization is unnecessary.
2. Steven Paul Jobs is a slim man, who wore round glasses on his sharp nose. He had a mesmerizing stare that created his reality-distortion field (a term to describe how Jobs manipulated people around him). He is famous for wearing plain jeans and simple tops to keynote speeches. He often walked barefoot. Overall, he was a hippie who embraced the 1960s counterculture era. Jobs acted in very unpredictable ways. At one moment, he could be infuriated with someone, and the next moment be awed and moved by that same person. He would define a product to be either “sh*t” or “great” and rarely defined anything to be in the middle. His eagle eyes could differentiate, say a painting on the wall, that its corners are at 89.9 degrees and not perfectly 90 degrees. He was a man of perfection. Jobs had very bad manners, such as rudely cutting off people and downright insulting someone. He often called his Apple employees to be “shi*t” and fired many without mercy. Yet, he had the power to charm people and achieve the impossible. I would write Jobs as a king who built his own kingdom, bring about near self destruction, and eventually start a revolution.that would forever change the lives of the common citizens. This is because he started Apple, was kicked out, then Apple started to do bad, and was asked to come back as CEO. He then created the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad which we all know how successful they are.  
3. What I find very interesting is Jobs’ unique character. He was a counterculture hippie, buddhist, and a billionaire who lived in a austere home. He often contradicted himself, such as believing that material greed destroys a person, yet the products he created made people love material things like iPhones. Perhaps the most interesting thing is the meeting of Jobs and Woz on their neighborhood street. It was the result of a visionary and a hardcore electronics geek that started Apple in a parent garage. They had very different personalities, but liked being with each other, sharing their passion.

STYLE

1. The author used a journalistic style, heavily relying on interviews and facts. He often quoted employees who worked on the first mac, such as Andy Hertzfeld and Joanna Hoffman.
2. Isaacson focuses much more on action and dialogue. He used quotes from more than a 100 people to describe Jobs from different perspectives. He avoided scene setting or giving too much detail to places and people other than Jobs.
3. Sales history and product launches from Apple are used to create the tone and mood.
4. I think Issacson viewed Jobs as the symbol of “the intersection between humanities and technology”.  He was admired by Jobs and how he came to be famous.
5. Issacson offers the names of more than a 100 people who knew Jobs. He also offers a bibliography of other works about Jobs, from his parent’s garage to HP to Pixar to Apple.

ENDURING MEMORY

One idea that is engraved into my head is to have true passion for something you like to do. To make or do something valuable for society, you have to start with a burning passion and have the natural drive to make it happen. Making profit and becoming famous is a by-product. To make excellent products, it has to be “intuitively easy to use”, as evident in the iPhone. In all Apple products, you won’t find a thick manual telling you how to use it, because it was carefully designed for it be easy to use. You can figure out how to do almost everything right out of the box, whether you are techie, or a non-techie. As Steve Jobs said, “less is more” and “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”. In conclusion, it’s important that you create or do something you can be proud of, and valuable to society rather than aim for profit and fame. For Steve Jobs, following this idealism led to the revolution of six industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, cell phones, tablets, and digital publishing.

Edition 2011, p. 488

“We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple and not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allows us to innovate in a way that others cannot. And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change. And I think, regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well.”