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The Second Coming of Steve Jobs  By  cover art

The Second Coming of Steve Jobs

By: Alan Deutschman
Narrated by: Charles Stransky
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Publisher's summary

From the acclaimed Vanity Fair and GQ journalist–an unprecedented, in-depth portrait of the man whose return to Apple precipitated one of the biggest turnarounds in business history. With a new epilogue on Apple’s future survival in today’s roller-coaster economy, here is the revealing biography that blew away the critics and stirred controversy within industry and media circles around the country.

©2000 by Alan Deutschman
(P)2000 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A fascinating portrait of the Apple Computer founder…A mesmerizing, outstanding read, this book crackles with energy. Some of the passages will make your mouth drop open."--Dallas Morning News

"Deutschman illuminates the attributes that have made Jobs not only a success but also an influential innovator in two major industries. THE SECOND COMING…includes fascinating details about Jobs…anyone interested in the culture of Silicon Valley should find it well worth a read."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Alan Deutschman’s delicious Steve Jobs biography is a psychological profile with a fruit-flavored iMac punch line. The book is a pleasure to read, but not surprisingly, Jobs wishes you wouldn’t."--Chicago Sun

What listeners say about The Second Coming of Steve Jobs

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The Magic and Mayhem Behind the Icon

This audio selection kept me interested the entire drive from Baltimore to Pittsburgh... and back! Well narrated, this book tells of the visionary genius and social peculiarities of one of Silicon Valley's biggest personalities. Much of what I learned surprised me, and shed light on events and people that I had no idea were connected.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Think Different

An interesting account of the later career of Apple's co-founder. It is not hagiography; it strives to give a coherent account of a very eccentric personality, and some of the traits and incidents described are fairly disquieting. You catch a glimpse, I think, of how compelling a presence the man must be.

He once double-dated with Bill Gates!

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting but technologically ignorant

This book was quite a good read and provided a lot of interesting background information about Steve Jobs, but the author's total ignorance of the technology on which Jobs' entire career is based makes you wonder about the accuracy of everything else. For example, he clearly doesn't know what a computer operating system is, nor is he aware of the difference between an operating system and an application program. He seems to think that you build a computer and then put some "software with icons" into it as a kind of afterthought. He is embarrassingly unaware of both the details and the broader view of the software and hardware technology in the development of both Apple and Steve Jobs' career. Nor does he understand anything about the impact that the technology has had on society. It's worse than getting things wrong, he just doesn't see it at all. It's an article about a high-technology story by a gossip columnist who barely understands that there is a difference between a computer and a typewriter.

This makes one wonder how accurate the rest of the book is. It makes for entertaining reading, but as another reviewer has pointed out, it is very, very fluffy. It is more a society piece than any kind of portrait of the phenomenon that is Steve Jobs.

If even a fraction of the stories about Steve Jobs reported in the book are true he is one of the most obnoxious and unsavory characters in the computer industry -- a narcissistic, immature and emotionally violent tyrant with delusions of grandeur and spirituality that are belied daily by his vicious and unfeeling behavior. But at the same time, the author comes across as an equally unsavory gossip columnist with an ax to grind -- at one point he slips in briefly that he felt badly snubbed by Jobs -- so all the reports should probably be tempered with a couple of pinches of salt. If Jobs is really the way he is described here no intelligent or creative person would ever work for him.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome background on Apple, NeXT, and Pixar.

If you have any interest in the computer industry at all, you will love this audio book. I was fascinated by the details that were given throughout the book. I was especially fascinated by the history it gave about Pixar, and the early years of computer animation. And if you have even the slightest interest in Steve Jobs or Apple, you will love it.

Some reviewers said the book was mean spirited, but I didn't get that at all. It seemed blatantly honest. Sometimes that was a good thing, sometimes not, And the use of profanity was few and far between, and was only when it applied to the story. Some people need to loosen up a little.

All in all, it was hands down my best audible purchase yet. I couldn't stand to have to pause my iPod when I got to work, and couldn't wait to pick up with the story when I left.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Jobs isn't a saint but...

Deutschman writes with the objectivity of a bitter teenager that couldn't date the cheerleader in high school. He portrays Jobs in the worst light possible regardless of the situation. I recommend this book if you're willing to read between the lines and not accept every line this author writes as absolute truth.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

a good read

This book paints a good portrait of a man who, when all is said and done, comes across as mean spirited, egomaniac and a control freak. Jobs also comes off as a brat.
But it never shy's away from the truth.
I enjoyed it and recommend it to any Apple fan. You may come away less of a fan of Jobs as a person but more impressed as to what one man has done in the tech world.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Please Read This Book!

I am so fed up with the "experts" on TV who think they know everything about Steve Jobs and what he has done for Apple. This book gives specifics regarding the steps Jobs took to get Apple back on its feet. This is a real businessman who knows what he is doing and knows how to run a company. Not just for the Apple enthusiast, this book will give you a real look at business today and how to get it right.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Most listenable!

The combination of the writer's style, the subject matter, and the great narrator all add up to the best of all the audiobooks I've listened to. I noticed a theme common to many of these reviews--the addictive nature of this audiobook. It's great listening, and hard to turn off. If every audiobook was like this one, the the print book would be an endangered species!

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A Must Have Audiobook, even for non-Apple fans

Reading the other customer reviews of this title, you might think that you have to be a fan of Apple Computer or its Macintosh computers to appreciate it. That is so not the case here. "Second Coming.." is a fascinating portrait of one of the key players in the technology revolution that has changed all of our lives. The author's profile of Steve Jobs plays out like a good fiction title, so that this is an audiobook that you will find hard to turn off until it is finished. Every great man deserves a great book about him, and whether or not you end up thinking that Jobs is such a man, you will likely enjoy this listen.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastically Addictive Story

You don't have to be a Macintosh fan or a lover of computers to love this audio book, the account of Jobs' triumphant return to save Apple in 97' and his brilliant decision to buy Pixar from George Lucas when the scrappy techno story tellers where nobodies demonstates Jobs' true genius. Forget the fact the author doesn't really like Steve Jobs, if you look past that you can draw your own conclusion based on the amazing and whirlwind-speed variables in Jobs' life.

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5 people found this helpful