Steve Jobs

Executive Summary: Despite my generally negative opinion of Jobs and my disagreement with his views of technology, I found this book excellent.

Audiobook: Dylan Baker's voice was instantly recognizable to me, even if I didn't know his name. Better known as an actor than an audiobook narrator, he nevertheless does a good job here. I'm not sure what to hope for with a non-fiction narrated apart from clear speech, good volume and inflection. You get all of that here. I tend to prefer to consume non-fiction in audio, and this is definitely a good option for this book.

Full Review
If you ask people their opinion of Steve Jobs, you may get a wide variety of answers. To many he was this brilliant innovator and designer, with a cult-like following. To me though, he's largely been an overpraised Asshole who got more credit than he deserved.

This book has changed my opinions somewhat. 1) He's a larger asshole than even I thought. 2) He does deserves more of the credit that I was was willing to give him for several key impacts to technology and culture.

I earn my living as a Software Engineer. My love of computers came at an early age. My first computer: An Apple IIgs. I came to learn this was basically a souped up version of the original Apple II with improvements borrowed from the Macintosh after that failed to be a success and Steve Jobs was maneuvered out of power at Apple.

While to most people that will never be a device of significance, it changed my life. I still have it. I still love it. It's also the only Apple product I've ever owned, and I wasn't the one who bought it, my parents were.

I've always had a hate/love relationship with Apple. I can appreciate the innovations of many Apple products: The Mac, The iPod, iPhone and iPad. But I've never wanted to own one. I find the closed nature of their products and lack of customization frustrating and a deal breaker. Steve Wozniak is my favorite Apple Steve, not Mr. Jobs.

Without Steve Jobs, some of these products may never have come to be, and certainly not as early. And they certainly wouldn't have been Apple products.

He didn't really design or innovate much though. What he did was push his talented engineers to innovate and accomplish things even they didn't think possible. He largely did this by being an asshole. Constantly. Calling people's ideas shit one week then taking credit for them as his own the next. Oh and that doesn't get into all the issues he had as a father or friend.

I could never have worked for Apple or Jobs. I probably wouldn't have been up to his standards anyways. As a huge computer/technology fan though, this is a must read book. Like him or hate him you can't disregard his impact on not only technology but culture.

My Windows PC (or Linux PC for that matter) wouldn't be the same without the Mac (although I think far too many people are unaware of the innovations of Xerox PARC engineers). My Android phone wouldn't be nearly as good without the iPhone.

My favorite quote from this book came from Bill Gates who said something to the effect that a closed system can work, but only with Jobs at the helm. I think Apple without Steve Jobs isn't nearly as good. I don't think that's because Tim Cook isn't an asshole though. It's because what Steve Jobs had was vision, and good taste for design. Not to mention amazing showmanship. I just don't like his products. But Apple fans are legion, and for good reason.

The Open vs. Closed debate rages on. Both sides have their merits. First it was Apple and Microsoft, now Apple and Google. I'm firmly on the open side, but understand why the closed side is so popular/successful.

Now it feels like innovation has largely stalled as companies are trying to push several technologies (I'm looking at you Smart Watches) that no one seems to really want or care about, and releasing only minor upgrades in hardware and software every year, rather than doing anything groundbreaking. I just hope Apple can start innovating again soon, because we can use the competition again.

Steve Jobs was a complicated person. I'm thankful for his contributions to technology. I'm also thankful I never knew him.