Candid portrait of a genius

Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson
Hachette
Edition: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781408703748
Pages: 630
Price: Rs 799

Ever since Steve Jobs died aged 56 last October, the media across the globe eulogised him as a visionary who changed the daily habits of millions of computer users worldwide, shrines popped up all over cyberspace, personal tributes filled social media and his quotable quotes passed from one mailbox to another.

No wonder tributes flowed in from friends, family and foes on the death of Apple co-founder Jobs after he failed in his long battle with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. The outpourings were quite unprecedented.
 

Was Jobs simply a visionary? Or was he a genius or an icon of ultimate inventiveness and applied imagination? Walter Isaacson, who authored this 630-page voluminous biography published shortly after Jobs’ death, brings out the persona and rollercoaster life of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionised six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing and digital publishing.
 

Unlike many other books on Jobs that have hit the stands at regular intervals for several years now and will continue to do so, this one is an authorised biography. The reason why Isaacson’s biography stands out distinctly from others is that the author got Jobs to speak candidly and brutally about the people he worked with and competed against. In equal measure, his friends, rivals and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, demons, perfectionism, desires, artistry, devilry and obsession for control that shaped his business and innovative products.
 

Though a control freak all his life, Jobs, the author claims, gave him (who had to his credit biographies of Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger) full freedom. Jobs did not even insist on reading the manuscript before it was published.
 

“I have done a lot of things I am not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that,” Jobs told his biographer, and quickly added, “But I don’t have any skeletons in the closet that can’t be allowed out.”
 

The monumental book is replete with instances of how Jobs often felt abandoned by his family, friends and colleagues. At the same time, he drove those around him to fury and despair.
 

Abandoned by Joanne Simpson and her Syrian boyfriend Abdufattah John Jandali, Jobs was given up for adoption.    Similarly, Jobs too abandoned Lisa, a child of his own from his girlfriend Chrisann Brennan. Andy Hertzfield, who was in the original Mac team, attributed Jobs being reflexively cruel and harmful to some people to the ‘theme of abandonment’... He never made any amends with his biological father or improved relations with his daughter.
 

Further down in the book what comes as funny about the man who was obsessed with perfection of products and design is, he threw fits in the hospital when he was recovering from liver transplant and pneumonia. “At one point the pulmonologist tried to put a mask over his face when he is deeply sedated.

Jobs ripped it off and mumbled that he hates the design and refuses to wear it,” the author records, adding that doctors attending on him looked at his wife Laurene Powell, puzzled.
 

Isaacson goes on to chronicle several dozens of such incidents that etch out a vivid portrayal of Jobs’ personality.

Besides given to bullying, the angry outbursts, Jobs also behaved like a crybaby when he was pushed out of Apple in 1985, the company he founded, and the board declined to back him instead of CEO John Sculley who was recruited by none other than Jobs.  Similarly, Jobs burst into tears when Time magazine did not feature him as Man of the Year on their cover as 1982 came to a close. Instead, the magazine chose computers as the topic of the year-end issue and called it “Machine of the Year”.
 

At times, the author seems to be completely floored by Jobs. Isaacson asks, “Was he smart? Isaacson, then answers, “No, Not exceptionally. Instead he was a genius...”

Isaacson shuffles Jobs next to Edison and Ford on history’s stage. “More than anyone else of his time, he made products that were completely innovative, combining the beauty of poetry and the power of processors. With a ferocity that could make working with him as unsettling as it was inspiring, he also built what became... the world’s most valuable company. And he was able to infuse into its genetic code the design sensibilities, perfectionism and imagination that make it likely to be, even decades from now, the company that thrives best at the intersection of artistry and technology.”

Nevertheless, the book is brutally honest about its subject at a time when biographies are often brand-building exercises. It is a must-read because technology and design are shaping our lives, societies, culture and economy towards a complete digital era.