Steve Jobs
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by Walter Isaacson
Little Brown
Hardback £25
BEFORE he was finally persuaded to write the life story of the Apple icon, Isaacson had already penned biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.
The author admits his first half-joking thought was to wonder whether Jobs, a man not unaware of his own impact and significance, perhaps regarded himself as the next logical subject in a sequence of stories about geniuses.
It was Jobs himself who approached the writer with the idea as far back as 2004. He had, explains the author, been “scattershot friendly” with him down the years with “occasional bursts of intensity, especially when he was launching a new product that he wanted on the cover of Time or featured on CNN”.
From the first paragraph of Isaacson’s introduction, it becomes reassuringly clear that this is not going to be the hagiography many feared it might be. It's likely to appear in many a Christmas stocking this year. The good news is that it's a rivetting read. The bad news? You're going to need a pretty big stocking...
Jobs’ death following a long battle with cancer sparked a quite remarkable outpouring of emotion across the world. Candles were burned, tears were shed, shrines were built. It seemed as though the man already held the status of a saint for millions who had neither met him nor knew that much about what made him tick.
That’s perhaps understandable in our world on instant communication and short attention spans. His achievements as head of one of the most successful brand names on the planet are not lost on a generation which has grown up with iPods, iPads and iPhones - or those for whom Apple computers were a case of love at first sight (this reviewer included!)
The picture which emerges from Isaacson’s wonderfully comprehensive biography (more than 600 pages of it, distilled from 40 exclusive interviews over the space of two years with the man himself and no-holds-barred access to those who knew him best) is far more complex and interesting than the default mode of reverential awe held by hard core fans of his products.
Ironically Isaacson had initially poured cold water on the project, suggesting it might be more appropriate a decade or two down the line. He didn’t know at that point, of course, that Jobs was about to be operated on for cancer.
Interestingly, while Jobs cooperated with the book, he also gave full Isaacson full access to friend and foe alike. It seems even he didn’t want a whitewash or an air-brushed portrayal. The image of Jobs as a control freak who would not suffer fools gladly had been established before his untimely death. However Isaacson wrote in Time that he watched Jobs battle his disease “with an awesome intensity combined with an astonishing emotional romanticism, I came to find him deeply compelling, and I realised how deeply his personality was ingrained in the products he created”.
The back story is fascinating, right from the moment when Jobs was given up for adoption. His biological mother had made only one stipulation, which was that his adoptive parents should have college degrees. That wasn’t how it turned out, though ironically that fact did nothing to deter the seemingly fated upward trajectory of a precocious youngster. Jobs would bristle at the description of Paul and Clara as his “adoptive” parents, insisting they were “my parents 1000 per cent”.
Paul was to be a huge influence on his son, letting him tag along as he built things with his own hands in his workshop and fixed up cars. Jobs would turn out to be more interested in electronics than mechanics, but his dad’s sense of perfectionism was passed on. In one poignant section he recalls how his father would insist that even that section of a fence that would be hidden from view should still be created with a craftsman’s attention to detail. Fifty years on, the fence in question still stands strong.
Isaacson’s account of the upbringing and early development of young Steve is compelling. Jobs, the abandoned, would go on to effectively abandon his own daughter for years, after walking out on the girlfriend he got pregnant at a young age. It’s these flaws that help us understand that this god of technology was, in fact, just a human like the rest of us.
He has a great story to tell, of course: not just the triumphs of world-changing designs but also the ups and downs of a man who could be ruthless in pursuit of what he wanted. When Jobs took over the company he helped to create for the second time, it was weeks from bankruptcy. It’s now often quoted as the most successful brand name in the world.
The author starts the book with a three-page cast of characters we’ll meet along the way. It’s a helpful and rather entertaining point of reference, each individual described in a single sentence or two. Bill Gates is, quite simply, “the other computer wunderkind born in 1955”. Rod Holt is “the chain-smoking Marxist hired by Jobs in 1976 to be the electrical engineer on the Apple II.” (The description immediately makes you want to know more!)
“The people who are crazy enough to change the world are the ones who do,” went the ‘Think Different’ Apple commercial from 1997. Jobs certainly fitted the description with his well-documented fascination with the intersection between art and technology. It was this that would lead to the development of some of the most sought-after and widely used products of the current century, and the final few years of the last one.
He concludes that Jobs was, in fact, a fitting successor to Franklin and Einstein. Each had “an intuitive genius, a creative imagination, an ability to think differently and the type of magical mind hat it takes to be an innovator”. They weren’t just smart, writes Isaacson, they were imaginative and creative: qualities he believes are essential ingredients of success in the 21 century.”
The book is liberally sprinkled with great anecdotes and quotes. Jobs himself, always interested in Buddhism, described himself as being “about 50/50 on believing in God”. Like many, he concluded that there had to be a greater meaning to life. He also admitted the possibility that life could just be over like the click of a switch. He goes on, “Maybe that’s why I never liked to put on-off switches in Apple devices.”
With such extensive access to his subject, Isaacson has been able to present the man not just through the eyes of others but in his own words. That makes his book a great read for those who enjoy biographies about fascinating people and also for students of a creative genius.
Hector Mackenzie
