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

Great story

Great story of a great man, he changed the world as only a visionary like him could do.

Amazing work

This is not just a biography, but motivation to think bigger and do better. Amazing work by Walter Isaacson.

Captivating

One of the first books I have listened entirely. Steve jobs had a fascinating life altho the end tragic. I recommend it.

Incredible

Absolutely amazing book, captures the true essence of who Jobs was and what he achieved!

Masterpiece!

Truly amazing story of Steve and his genius, it’s a book that portrays Steve as genius and human most of all, something that you won’t find in other depictions of Steve.

One that had to be written

Such an important story in the history of American high technology. The book did a great job showing the multifaceted personality who did so much in the industry and frankly changed how we use technology. Definitely an honest caricature.

Loved it!!!

I just adored this book! So inspirational! Well written. The content is amazing and the narrative fantastic. Another side of the non politically correct but genius Steve Jobs.

Great Jobs! Great job!

I am amazed at how good this biography actually is! Steve Jobs was a brilliant man with a sometimes appalling personality. I now understand why he was fired from Apple-- I would have voted to let him go as well-why his car had no license plate, why the mac computer is so great and why only he could have created iPad and iPhone.Well done Walter Isaacson! And the reader is perfect too.

Steve Jobs, A Life Worth Examining

I am still not sure what to think of Steve Jobs. He was not particularly kind or warm to those around him. I cannot tell if he served as an inspiration, or if it was just his micro management and high demands that made those who worked for him perform so brilliantly. Luck and neuroses cannot be the only things that lead to his enormous success. In my opinion, you cannot deny his genius despite these character flaws.

While it is possible that fate and chance initially brought him and Woz together, leading to the birth of Apple, his continued success and “re-birth” were all Job’s doing. It was a result of persistence, and was accomplished with his full will and effort behind it. His ideas can sometimes be thought of as more design than substance, but I disagree. Apple design is a huge part of what makes Apple products so “substantial.” Without Job’s being so obsessively focused on the details, they would never be what they are today.

Learning about his life, one can try to guess what experiences influenced Steve Jobs the most. It seems to me that his success was a combination his innate talent, and the place and time he was born into. A California boy who becomes a part of the counter culture of the 60’s and 70’s combined with the unique world of the Silicon Valley. There will never be another Steve Jobs.

GETTING TO KNOW STEVE JOBS

As a big consumer of Apple products owning the most current versions of all their products from MacBooks, to iPad 2, to iPhone 4S I wanted to get to know this man who was so secretive in life. I found this to be a story of hard driven, ruthless ambition, Steve told the author not to pull any punches and he didn't. Enjoyed this as it was not a tribute to Jobs, conversely showing him to be a very difficult man to work with and work under. I am not usually a fan of nonhistorical biographies but this one was a winner!