Book 2: Steve Jobs, Completed!

My eMac from college. Still hangs out on my dresser but rarely turned on.
After reading this book I think I'll be hanging around even longer.

WOW. That pretty much sums up the book. Not only did I get a huge history lesson on the development of technology and design but I also got to view a visionary at work.

Walter Isaacson did an EXCELLENT job writing this book. There was honesty, truth and emotion on every page (Nook screen). It was a book that was hard to put down and not think about or talk about when I wasn't reading it. I know I thoroughly annoyed my husband with all my geeky technology talk and how my love for Jobs was growing at every chapter. I can see why the following of Apple users are so strong, they have a company that is there supporting them and providing them with quality tools. I started the book thinking how could a ass like this push his way to be so successful and loved? By the end of the book, my heart ached with each medical leave and I cried when Jobs finally resigned for good as Apple's CEO. Half way through you just see Jobs for who he is and why he's doing what he's doing.

So my thoughts? What did I learn?

Well the biggest thing I learned was Jobs' involvement with Pixar. I had no clue. NONE! What was especially endearing is my 2 year old, Connor, has taken interest in Toy Story in the last month and now carries his Buzz and Woody around with him where ever we go. He also has a Buzz stuffed animal that he sleeps with at night. Reading about the process and beginning life stages that Toy Story had and how it was almost shelved made my heart flutter. As a kid I loved that movie and now my son was enjoying it too. Then I started imagining the world without Pixar films. I mean... could we live without the movie Finding Nemo? Uh... NO! I also didn't realize how bad off Disney was in their animation department at the time. I grew up with Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Lion King. At that point, I was out growing the animated films and didn't notice their 10 year stint of uncreative movies. Pixar brought Disney back to life.

When Jobs' decided to pull the floppy drive off the Mac and put in a disc drive only, I loved when he voiced that you have to keep looking forward. He said that you can't move forward if you keep looking back at what has already been done. Sure enough.... the floppy drives are gone! Technology is such a fast paced moving world that you do have to keep looking forward.

Another thing I learned was Jobs' and Wozniak's involvement with Atari. Together, they designed the first one-player game for Atari. My knowledge of Atari was that my parent's had a system in our house while I was growing up, but that's about it. I could picture myself as a kid playing pong while Job's was already working on the Mac!

Who would have thought a computer company would have put a dent in the history of the music world? Jobs did! Who would have though a compute company would have put a dent in the mobile device world? Jobs did! Jobs was dreaming about a computer the size of your hand in 1982.. we now have the iPad.

I could go on and on about everything he thought and helped produce and the legacy he left behind. BUT that is what this book is about. Read it! It's fascinating and entrancing.

Jobs' was Zen but feisty, simple but full of visions, and he pushed us forward in so many levels it's unreal. He was always looking for and thinking about what we would want next. He pushed his engineers to think forward and creatively and brought design to the forefront. Obsessed and crazed over perfection and simplicity scream from this book. This book reminds us to love what we do and to work hard at it. He was definitely sent here to get the job done and he did. He had a knowing about that too. Like I said in my last post, he mentioned to Sculley that he felt like he had little time on this earth. It was also mentioned several other times to several other people in the book.

We have his legacy that was left behind and I'm sure I will find myself more interested in how Apple will continue to grown and produce. Hopefully they can continue to focus on the total user experience.


"Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That's had a big impact on my work" - Steve Jobs