Steve Jobs — Walter Isaacson

Summary in 15 minutes. An adopted boy, a friend with a gift for circuits, and a founder pushed out of his own company at thirty. In 1997 Jobs came back to an Apple close to collapse. The next fourteen years brought the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Isaacson did not hide Jobs’s cruelty, mistakes or illness. To learn from him, you have to see the whole man. You have read the story. Now borrow his best habits and steer clear of his worst.

Key ideas of "Steve Jobs"

Becoming Steve Jobs

An adopted boy, a friend with a gift for circuits, and a founder pushed out of his own company at thirty.

1. The Adopted Son: Make the back of the fence beautiful too
2. The Two Steves: From a friend’s garage to Apple
3. Bending Reality: The Macintosh and believing the impossible
4. Exile and New Beginnings: Fired, then NeXT and Pixar

The Return

In 1997 Jobs came back to an Apple close to collapse. The next fourteen years brought the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad.

1. Focus Means Saying No: A sinking Apple, 1997
2. Designing Simplicity: Jony Ive, the iMac and the Apple Store
3. The Next Leap: The iPod, the iPhone and outdoing yourself

Light and Shadow

Isaacson did not hide Jobs’s cruelty, mistakes or illness. To learn from him, you have to see the whole man.

1. A Hard Man: High standards and needless cruelty
2. Counting the Time: Illness, Stanford and the last years
3. What Jobs Teaches: Where the arts meet technology

Put It to Work

You have read the story. Now borrow his best habits and steer clear of his worst.

1. Your 7-Day Plan: One task a day. Tick it off when done.
2. One-Page Cheat Sheet: The whole book at a glance. Save it.
3. Final Word: The Whole Man: Genius and its price

From the free first chapter

In 2004 Steve Jobs asked Walter Isaacson to write his biography. Isaacson had already written about Benjamin Franklin and was finishing a book on Einstein. He said no at first, then began in earnest in 2009, when Jobs’s illness turned serious.

Over two years he interviewed Jobs more than forty times, and over a hundred relatives, friends, colleagues and rivals. Jobs asked for no control over the text and did not ask to read it in advance. The book came out on October 24, 2011, less than three weeks after his death.

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