Anyone reading the Jobs bio?

[geetechfever]

I would read it. I think it might be a good way to read Steve's mind and know a little more how he thinks. But I still would hold my view about how much the true story is our there. Probably I'm too skeptical, am I?

 

[kyler13]

In the spirit of Jobs' delusions, I plan to steal a copy.

 

[A.Nonymous]

In the spirit of Jobs' delusions, I plan to steal a copy.

Will you be re-writing it to make it better?

 

[Drhyde]

In the spirit of Jobs' delusions, I plan to steal a copy.

I already have. I can tell you this. I haven't ran through the whole thing, mostly the later years to see his outlook on Google, cancer, etc, but I can tell you that he was nothing more than a deluded, megalomaniac, egotist who I'm pretty sure had bi-polar disorder. He may have even had some bad paranoia issues as evidenced by his Us Vs. Them mentality.

An example: Antennagate. He worked with designer Jony Ive to build the iPhone 4. Ive is just about as bad as Jobs when it came to designing products in that he wanted absolute perfection often at the expense of function. When he came up with the design for the iPhone 4 with the steel banding on the outside, the engineers told him (Ive) to put some sort of clear coating around the steel to prevent signal degradation. Ive wouldn't have it, believing it would diminish the overall look. The engineers would later present this to Jobs to which he basically told them they were full of shit and to make it work.

Lo and behold, iPhone 4 is released and is shown to have a major issue. Jobs is told by his PR people that there is a problem and throws a temper tantrum and blames it on Google and Motorola for making mischief (for ****ing real, hardcore delusions here). He flat out denies there is a problem until data from AT&T comes back and when he realizes that there is something wrong, he slumps into a depression and has to be pulled out it by Tim Cook.

Then, of course, comes the infamous bashing of every Android phone (via videos on Apple's site) until they hit that little roadblock with the Droid X. Long story short, most people kept the IP4 and got bumpers and Jobs managed to do some amazing corporate bullshit spin ("We're not perfect. Phones aren't perfect." etc) on his disaster of a product that he could have avoided had he just listened.

 

[mrspeedmaster]

I read it.

There are some interesting insights. He is clearly not perfect. Everyone has issues. I believe both Gates and Jobs have awkward social skills and egos that make them successful.
He clearly is a genius with some/major imperfections in his personality. People with the type of "bet-the-farm" mentality are very intriguing to me.

The thing that is really stands out is his drive for perfection.

The book does go into details such as the Xerox "theft" and clears up a lot of things and in the end, I now give Jobs more credit for the advancement of the GUI than anyone else.
He may have not invented it but the way he perfected it, we all should give gratitude.
Heck, even the top-fellows and top Xerox scientists ended up working for Apple such as Alan Kays because they were so impressed by what he did and how he took the idea and ran with it.
I did not know the Xerox original mouse was $300 that had 2 balls that only allow up-n-down. Jobs pushed a mfgr to make it $15 and have it go diagonal anywhere with just one ball.
Then there is the fact the Xerox GUI had not over-lapping windows nor did it have intuitive drag-n-drop. Job's contribution to the GUI is just as important or moreso significant that the Xerox's developers such as Kays.
There are also the relevance of tyopgraphy/fonts in the GUI. The rounded window boxes. Intuitive Drag-n-drop w/out commands (as in the Xerox). All combined, the original macintosh was truly revolutionary. I've seen many haters trivalize it and they should just read this book to get an incredible insight on what it was like back in the 80s.

Even Bill Gates showers accolades on Job's impact. It was funny to read Gates and Co were scrambling back-n-forth all night in memos regarding the iTunes Music Store.

Steve Jobs

 

[damewolf13]

I may read it someday, but I'm in no hurry.
From the little bit I have read, Jobs was quite good at taking other people's inventions and marketing them in a way that appealed to the general public.
He was, no doubt, a marketing genius, while quite inept at personal relationships.