Steve Jobs Bio Tackles Reality Distortion!
The long-awaited Steve Jobs biography hit stores on Monday, and tech journalists, analysts, and fans alike quickly tore it apart looking for sound bites, quirky anecdotes, and classic Jobs meltdowns.
The nearly 600-page book chronicles Jobs’s life from early childhood, charting the rise of Apple, his subsequent ousting, and triumphant return, mixed in with a few personal stories and interviews with friends and enemies. Author Walter Isaacson sat down for at least 40 interviews with Jobs, where the Apple co-founder often discussed his life and philosophies during long walks in his unassuming Palo Alto neighborhood.
As he told 60 Minutes on Sunday, Isaacson held nothing back, and Jobs gave him carte blanche to explore his life, warts and all. "I have no skeletons in my closet that can't be let out," Jobs told Isaacson.
"He's not warm and fuzzy," Isaacson told correspondent Steve Kroft, and acknowledged that Jobs was probably "one of the world's worst managers” because "he was always upending things and throwing things into turmoil."
Ultimately, he was an ideas man, and those ideas have helped Apple become one of the most successful companies in the country over the past decade, and helped Jobs achieve icon status.
The bio was originally scheduled to debut on November 21, but Jobs’s death earlier this month prompted publisher Simon & Schuster to push up the release date to October 24. When it finally hit shelves, there was no shortage of commentary on Twitter, from those admiring his style to joking about his erratic and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Hit the slideshow for more and also check out PCMag's look back at Jobs's life.
By Chloe Albanesius
