Steve Jobs

By: Walter Isaacson

Narrated by: Dylan Baker

Length: 25 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Featuring a new epilogue read by the author.

From the author of the best-selling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, this is the exclusive biography of Steve Jobs.

Based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years - as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues - Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the 21st century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple's hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

©2011 Walter Isaacson (P)2011 Simon & Schuster

A Perspective Changing Content !!

The content is very fluid and detail (too much sometimes) and gives you a great inside into Steve Job's live, either if you are a Fan of Job's or a Historian looking for the development of the personal computer arena, this book will fulfill your expectations.

Jobs, Apple, Dylan, the Beatles-- my era

What did you love best about Steve Jobs?

The Macintosh, for sure. I bought the 128k machine within a couple of months of its release. I still have it in a plastic bag in my attic. This weekend, I am going to take it out of its longstanding resting place and bring it down to my son's room, who is majoring in computer science, and we are going to say a little, what, prayer or incantation to Steve, plug that piece of history into the wall, and see if "Hello" comes up!

Who was your favorite character and why?

There was only one character throughout the book, but of the minor characters, I did like Wozniac, and Andy Hertzfeld (nice spelling of that name for a computer guy). Jobs was hard to love in this book. I am certain that had I worked for him, he would've berated me to death!

Have you listened to any of Dylan Baker’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Great job!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Naw! I love the long process of listening to a book of nearly 25 hours!

Any additional comments?

If you like technology, and the history of computing, this book is a must. Jobs was both amazing and difficult. I hope Apple can live up to the standards of its founder. I doubt it will be able to-- Jobs was Apple, but maybe his spirit was somehow inculcated into the bricks of that company. We'll see.

Great book, Issacson does it again

If you could sum up Steve Jobs in three words, what would they be?

Brilliant, concise, and balanced

What did you like best about this story?

Having read the Woz bio and now the Jobs bio I can see the two different sides of the coin, and how the dark days of Apple came about, a long with the revival. The best part of the book is that the author neither focused on the negative or the positive, delivered a balanced portrayal of Steve Jobs, on Steve's scale, this book would rate brilliant.

Steve Jobs Technology Artist Visionary

Wow just got done listening to Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs Audible book. The book is a brilliant journey from beginning to end about a man who thought differently. A very long Audible book that just grips you to an emotional end.

Awesome

Had no idea if I wanted tonlisten to this book but shit glad I didn't jobs was way out there very different, 99.9% of people I wouldn't want him as my dad but wool want him as a CEO. I this book brought tears to my eyes

The journey from apple orchard to wall street

What did you love best about Steve Jobs?

His obsession to quality and detail. He had the ability to vision the finish product in his mind. The ability to recognize talent and draw the best from that individual.

What did you like best about this story?

The details about the individual and the company he fostered. It described his personal life as well as the corporate life and how he balanced them into his objective.

What about Dylan Baker’s performance did you like?

With emotion as if you were in Steve Jobs back pocket all the time.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes but to much to absorb in one sitting.

Any additional comments?

Very good book highly recommend for young people starting in the work force.

Story is awesome, writter+narrator is..eh.

If you could sum up Steve Jobs in three words, what would they be?

Interesting, inspiring, imaginative. all starts with i's

Who was your favorite character and why?

Steve jobs, he's an ass, but his bitchyness gave us the technology we have today. I love his passion for perfection. even to the point where he refused to wear an ugly oxygen mask.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Performance of writer: It was not well revised, i just think it's missing something i can't put a finger on. good story though.

performance of narrator: good at some parts, but dude, get the names right. he pronounced lion os x

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The adventure of a crazy man.

Any additional comments?

I love steve jobs, his story, his ideas. so this is a good book for me.

Brings Jobs to Life

What made the experience of listening to Steve Jobs the most enjoyable?

The author seems to pierce the veil of Jobs as myth and reveal Jobs as a very real, very irritating, but very talented human being.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Steve Jobs?

Jobs is at his best when he is taking risks to make "one more thing". His savant talent is his ability to pre visualize, demand the best people have to offer, then strip their best until only the best of the best is left for the final product. One example is the way he drove the original Macintosh team.

Any additional comments?

Dylan Baker has some strange pronunciations that bothered me after awhile, such as the way he says the possessive form of Jobs... Jobs'es.

Captivating

Good book. Good performance. It tells the story of a real jerk who changed the world for the better.

Amazing.. highly recommended

Would you listen to Steve Jobs again? Why?

I loved and enjoyed every bit of this audiobook.. excellent and well researched writing by Walter Isaacson and superb narration by Dylan Baker... highly recommended for every one... And one last thing...Steve, you were a genius and human race will miss you!!!