Steve Jobs
by Walter Isaacson
The authorized biography, based on forty interviews with Jobs and hundreds with others: the adoption, Reed, India, Apple's founding, the ouster, NeXT and Pixar, the return, the iPod, iPhone and iPad, the illness. Isaacson does not hide the cruelty or the reality distortion field. It is a study in the costs and gifts of obsession with product.
Read it if…
you want to understand product obsession, focus and the human cost of both.
Skip it if…
you want a leadership model; Jobs is a warning as often as an example.
Three things you will actually use
- Focus means saying no to good ideas.
- Taste and simplicity are disciplines.
- Brilliance does not excuse cruelty; the book shows the bill.
Do this first
Read the chapter on his return to Apple and the product grid; cut your own list to four things.
Our verdict
Thorough, candid and compelling.
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