Steve jobs believed that people do judge a book by its cover. So it is not surprising that the cover of job's biography,aptly titled steve jobs,has a black and white picture of him,looking at you intendly, and unblinking.
Great men inspire great biographies,steve jobs, the man who founded apple computers and agonized over his products in a maddening way,never left anything unattended.Jobs was a man of control.Ask bill gates,then ask apple lovers.whether it is design detail or having his version of the world,Jobs planned and demanded the best.In walter Isaacson,former chairman of the CNN and managing editor of Time Magazine,jobs found the right man to put together his story.But be warned , this is hardly a paid job.
Unlike many of us Jobs knew a lot of things.such as that he was nearing death and had to rush through whatever he wanted to do in the extra time he had been given.Result is the biography,Steve Job's world view was often,may,almost black and white.In colour,too,he preffered Black and White as the cover of the biography testifies.The pictures included in the book ,all, again in Black and White,convey the colourful nature of Job's personality.He yielded against his will rarely,as when U2's Bono asked for a special ipod edition in Black.
Unlike many of us Jobs did not know many things.Such as who is father was. Jobs had an amazing life, a life that would have been almost impossible in india.He was put for adoption by his biological parentsand jobs did not know for many years who was his father.The sense of abandonment shaped his life to a certain extent.As much as iMac,iPod,iPhone and i Pad were American ,Jobs too was truly American.Circumstances did not deter him and he had the ability to push the envelore allthe time.In this,the reality distortion field ,did the trick.Only jobs could have been demanding to a frustrating extent and get what he wanted from his people.
Jobs founded apple in 1976.He was 21.at 19,jobs spent seven months in india in search of a guru.What have you been doing when you were 19 and 21??
I'm not a digital citizen,nor am i an iPhone or iPad user.But to read hoe jobs built the Apple and pushed boundaries in his guest for innovation is an exciting and enlightening experience.
Jobs was a difficult man to work with and live with.Both the dessembling and trhe truth telling were simply different aspects of his Nietzschean attitude that ordinary rules did not apply to him,notes biographer Isaacson who was also authored the biographies of Albert Einstine and Benjamin franklin.
To many of us ,Apple represented the acme of consumerism.then you read Jobs telling his girl friend Egan Jennifer that it is important to avoid attachment to material objects."Our consumer desires are unhealthy,he told her ,and to attain enlightenment you need to develop a life of nonattachment and non materialism.Wasn't he defying that phylosophy,Egan asked ,by
making computers and other products that people coveted??
Isaacson writes : "Throughout his career, Jobs liked to see himself as an enlightened rebel pitted against evil empires,a Jedi warrior or Buddist samwari fighting the forces of darkness.."
with the publication of the biography,many things such as job's refusal to take treatment for his cancer and his obsession with his fruity diet are quit well known now.One thing ,however,you should not miss is Jobs reflection on his legecy,in his own words.In it jobs says : "Peope don't know what they want until you show it to them.That's why I never rely on market research.Our task is to read that are not on the page.."
That's something that you can chew on..
Title :Steve Jobs
Author : Walter Isaacson
Publisher : Little,brown,(in India) hachette,India
Price :799/-
