Steve Jobs Review

Steve Jobs cover art

Walter Isaacson set out on a mission to compile a biography of a man who is known for being extremely private, having furious fits of rage, and refusing to acknowledge anything that might upset him. It may sound crazy, but with Isaacson’s previous works including the award winning biographies of Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Henry Kissinger, the CEO of the richest company in the US fit his bill perfectly. Many were shocked when Isaacson broke the news that he’d be doing an authorized biography of Jobs, because up until that point he’d operated his company under a cloak of secrecy and extended a similar tactic towards his personal life. If people could have seen behind that cloak into his home they would have been able to see that he struggled to have a relationship with his children, which is the reason why he granted Isaacson complete access to himself, his friends, and his family. "I wasn't always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did," Jobs said. Many Mac heads feel lucky that he didn’t have a strong relationship with his children, because it gave way to a look in to Job’s life like the world had never seen before.

For those reading that started to lose interest at the word biography, fear not, as the seemingly withdrawn CEO was far more complex than his legendary product announcements gave on. Though the head of multibillion dollar company, Jobs had the tact of a ten year old. His perfectionism made him describe every product he saw as either “great” or “shit.” For those he didn’t like he would eventually come back and expand on what he liked and what he didn’t, and often would bring back an idea an employee had given him a week before and present it as his own.  Long time employees learned that it was better not to point this out to him as it might send him off in to one of his rants. Though hard to work with he was a genius, having an intuition to know what people would want years before they want them. He explained it himself by saying, “You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.”

Walter Isaacson

As was mentioned before, there was a reason Jobs approached Isaacson to write this book. He’s one of the best in his field and his writing shines tremendously throughout the story. But biography writing is a different kind of talent that requires more than just good writing skills. To create an interesting story you need the shocking quotes from former business partners, heartfelt stories from former friends, and most importantly the ability to get those people to tell you their stories. Isaacson is one of the best at this, and part of what makes this story so hard to put down is the anticipation of the next quote you almost can’t believe.

Though I’ve been practically raving about the book so far, there were definitely some things you want to be aware of before you jump in to this close to 600 page book. Though extremely true for some, this book might not be quite as “hard to put down” for those not interested in a lot of the business side of Jobs’ life. The beginning of the book is very interesting when you get to see what his younger days were like and how starting Apple all came about. But towards the middle you get bombarded with a plethora of names and business deals thrown at you that may bore some. The chapters towards the end of the book are what interest a lot of people the most, as it covers the time period that Apple really launched to the front of the technology world. I found myself wanting to skip chapters just to get up to the iPod, iPad, and iPhone days. This is circumvented by an extensive index in the back of the book, letting you choose what you want to read about and skip the parts you don’t.

Though his perfectionism would tend to disagree with me, he’s even said about that his company and him, “we’re not perfect. We know that.” This book isn’t perfect, but it’s good enough to get my 7.5/10 star rating. As a straight read through, yes, it can drag a little. But used as a reference book or read by someone who really enjoys learning about Apple and Jobs it’s a great biography. Overall I say if you like Jobs then give this book a read. If it starts to drag then you can do what those who don’t have a particular interest in Jobs can do, check out the iPod/iPad/iPhone or his early days chapters and if you like it, then you can continue on.    

Top 5

The Shining Trailer

When Steve met Walt

Steve Jobs would probably be included in many people’s list of their own personal hero’s. People admire him because of his drive, the quality of his products, and his perfectionist attitude towards anything he creates. Someone who probably wouldn’t make many people’s personal hero’s list is Walter White, from the TV show Breaking Bad. On one hand, you have a washed up high school chemistry teacher who has recently been diagnosed with cancer and, worried about his family’s financial security when he dies, starts using his knowledge to cook and sell meth. On the other hand you have a world famous icon worth millions of dollars who has worked hard to build a successful company.

On the surface you might not identify these people with each other, but looking closer you’ll see how much in common they really have. Both Walt and Jobs are incredibly driven. Walt realizes the precious little time he has left to live and decides that there’s no reason not to constantly work and make money for his family. Jobs is as equally driven, though not for money, as is evident in his tendency to get in to moods where he focuses on one thing and one thing only, devoting all his attention to it. He has done this with specific family members, products, and companies. Both of them also strive to create incredible products. Walt’s “blue meth” is the best the area has ever seen, it’s so popular that it’s shipped out of state. Job’s products are equally as successful with the iPod and iPad literally redefining the way we work and play. But their overwhelming similarity is both of their focus on being perfect. Walt refuses to let his cohort cook his recipe, saying he doesn’t know how to do it and will insult the product. When Jobs returned to Apple he as well terminated contracts with outside companies that were creating Mac “clones”, saying that if he couldn’t oversee the entire operation that someone would screw something up.

Truth in Memoirs

In my mind a book has to be at least 95%-97% true to be considered a memoir or non-fiction. The way I see it, if someone is going to market a book as true, or non-fiction, then there’s no reason it shouldn’t be as true as they can make it. I can understand that in some situations you might have to omit a few details or add a couple of things for the story to really make sense to the reader, but changing anything more than the absolute essentials makes it no longer true. I think that “half-truths” are totally acceptable, as long as they’re marketed as such. Frey and Mortenson marketed their books as the complete truth, with no exaggerations or unnecessary lies included. In both of their cases it obviously turned out that they had fabricated a good half of their stories, and at that point they should no longer have marketed them as memoirs. I think having lines between genres is a difficult subject. On one hand, why should the author or publisher have to make that decision? There as some books that could certainly fit in many categories and some that could be hard to place all together. On the other hand, strictly defining genres and then placing that book in the genre is a binding contract. If you market that book as a memoir then the audience expects everything they read to be true, and it’s just plain lying if it isn’t. I think that if an author wants to publish a book without specifying the genre, leaving it up to the reader to decide where it fits in, that they should be able to do that. In the end it’s not too hard of a decision, you either have to commit to a genre and make sure the book lives up to that, or go the route of letting the readers decide for themselves, that way nobody gets upset.

Literary Fiction Vs. Genre Fiction

I don’t think that genre fiction is worth less time to us than literary fiction. There are many reasons why you should read a variety of books, not just stick to one genre or the other. Without reading literary fiction you may never understand the many references that come from these stories in everyday situations. On the other hand, it can be just plain boring reading only deep literature. It’s a good idea to intersperse genre fiction along with other genres of books just so reading can keep your interest. Also, just because a book is popular doesn’t mean it can’t be a “great” book at the same time. There are definitely some popular books that would get laughed at from someone who only enjoys literary fiction, but there are some extremely popular books that have been considered great. Besides all that, many people won’t see the need to read boring literary fiction books. The whole thing that makes them “works of art” is their ability to get a message across without explicitly stating the message. A lot of people won’t care for that, and will enjoy and get much more out of an interesting plot where the message isn’t quite so hidden.

I don’t feel that we should continue to teach so much literary fiction. One of the main factors that turn kids away from reading these days is the blandness of the stories we’re forced to read. Mixing in popular novels might get a kid hooked on reading, which although may not help them enjoy Shakespeare, could lead them on the path to more reading in general in their futures. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d rather read something as old and bland like Of Mice and Men over Twilight, but that’s just because Twilight isn’t considered to be a very well written piece. I think it would be more productive to let kids pick from a variety of books than just giving them one option. It only takes one book to get a kid hooked, and giving them the option to choose a book they like would increase that chance by 1000%.

Adapting The Shining

The Shining by Stephen King was actually already made into a movie in 1980, three years after the book was written. It was directed by Stanley Kubrick and the three main characters were played by Jack Nicholson, as Jack, Shelley Duvall, as Wendy, and Danny Lloyd, as Danny. I’m only halfway through the book but I have definitely already noticed some scenes that need to make it in to the movie and some that don’t.

Scenes that need to make it in to the movie

·         One of the seemingly most important scenes so far is when we see Danny hallucinate for the first time. He’s sitting outside on the sidewalk and he drifts into a deep state of “shining”, where he is moving in his head but in reality he appears to have fainted or gone in to shock. This is important because it’s the first hint we get that anything is special about Danny.

·         Another scene that needs to be included is when Danny meets Mr. Hallorann. Hallorann confides in Danny that he knows what happens when Danny goes in to these trances, and that he does it too. He explains to him that if he ever see’s something scary or dangerous in the Hotel, that it can’t hurt him, and that all he has to do to make it go away is shut his eyes. This is important because it helps Danny better understand what his special gift is.

·         The latest scene I’ve read that needs to be included is Danny going in to room 217 along with Jack waking up thinking he might have hurt Danny in his sleep. When Wendy wakes up to Jack having broken a clock in his sleep and then discovers what happened to Danny, she assumes Jack’s done it, no matter how much he claims he didn’t. This is important because it drastically changes Wendy’s feelings towards Jack, going back to how she felt when he was drinking all the time.

Scenes that can be cut from the movie

·         One scene that’s unnecessary is the background given on Jack’s dad being an alcoholic and beating him when he was young. It’s a nice piece of information to see where he’s coming from but for the sake of time it can but cut and not missed. An audience shouldn’t question why he was an alcoholic as it’s a fairly common thing.

·         Another scene that can be cut is a majority of the Jack going crazy scene. All you would really need to show from that is the moving hedges to get the idea across that he’s going crazy. All of his dialogue to himself isn’t necessary and would likely only confuse the audience.

·         One fairly lengthy flashback/scene that could be cut is when Jack and Al hit a bike in the middle of the road. I think the point of this information in the book was to show just how irresponsible or crazy Jack and Al would get together, giving Wendy a good reason to dislike him. Again, while a nice addition in the book to really get Jack’s irresponsibility across to the reader, it would be portrayed adequately by Jack’s on screen emotion.