Yesterday I finally finished Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, and the book has left me with mixed feelings.
I certainly leaned some new pieces of information, although much of it was already available in books and movies, and it was a fairly enjoyable read. There were a number of inaccuracies that have been detailed in more depth than I could ever achieve ( http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/42 ), and whilst inexcusable in such an important book, I didn’t feel they detracted from the enjoyment of the book overall. There were some major omissions: why is the period of time at NeXT so poorly covered, with little or no analysis of why things didn’t go as planned (save for a few cursory mentions of Jobs indulging his perfectionism too much). But my main complaint is that for such a successful and influential figure, why is there so little analysis of Steve Jobs, why he was the way he was, what lessons can be learned from his success and failures. The book concentrates on the personalities, the arguements, the emotions, and at times reads like a Mills & Boon novel. Why so little analysis of Apple’s strategy, what worked well, what didn’t, how the company works? We learned a little, mainly about how Jonathan Ive operates with Steve Jobs, but what about the hardware and software processes? I realise Apple were never going to reveal their product development process, but the author had unprecedented access. I’m left feeling somewhat disappointed – it didn’t live-up to my expectations given the access Walter Isaacson had. It was a lost opportunity, and one that will never occur again.Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
