Finished (E-Reader) - "Steve Jobs" - Walter Isaacson

I really liked the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson.  I certainly knew of Jobs and Wozniak starting Apple in the garage story, but didn't realize to any depth the rise and fall and rise of Apple over time.  I knew Woz was the engineer brain behind Apple at the start, and always had an impression that Jobs milked Woz and took credit.  There certainly might have been an element of that at the start, but Jobs return to a failing Apple later in his career cemented his place as a visionary leader.

That being said, I was certainly surprised how awful he would have been to work for - very hot and cold, even to his closest confidants, public tirades were not unusual, and I would have had lots of trouble dealing with the hypocrisy of somebody publicly calling me an idiot, then coming back with my same ideas from their mouth as works of genius.

I was also surprised at the scope of Jobs' "reality distortion field" - he was able to get people to go to great lengths, far beyond what they deemed possible, just by ignoring the realities of engineering, planning etc. and setting goals and timelines on a more esoteric plane.  To some degree, I've seen that before, but his inability to handle social situations (including becoming a father) because they didn't match his self-image, shows that the distortion goes to a core of Jobs, it's not an artifact of his management style.  In fact, as a younger man, it was told repeatedly in stories from the time, that he was convinced that his healthy diet didn't allow his body to be malodorous, thus, he didn't need to shower very often (not true, according to the nostrils of others), which actually led him to be assigned to night shifts at Atari, and may have caused Apple to not be a product of Commodore (a big player at the time) as Jobs bare feet and odour caused him to be kicked out of a meeting at Commodore where he was presenting the Apple.

When it comes to design and form factor, Jobs shines.  It's difficult to imagine a non-iPod world, it's become such a standard piece of equipment, with the iPad and iPhone making similar world-altering impacts on hand-held phones and tabled devices.

I really like his product design concept - make something the world will want when they see it, not build to current ideas and standards.  The iPod was a significant step beyond what was available on the market - not an incremental market-research designed improvement to pick up a few market share points.  Even the price-points on Apple devices show the added value only Jobs could forsee - how can a several hundred dollar device (iPod) trounce the much cheaper alternatives in the marketplace already, which sold for less than half? and didn't require specialized software? and didn't care about piracy? and didn't force you to use the company store??  It certainly supports the idea that Jobs really had a revolutionary outlook.

I think it pays dividends to look at even the advertising, Apple Store design, and other aspects that might be somewhat of an afterthought for many businesses - here Jobs input shines.

The "Think Different" campaign perhaps summarizes Jobs outlook, and perhaps his image of himself.

Here is the campaign text from the original posters of the campaign (as found on Google Answers.com) :

Here's to the Crazy Ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing that you can't do, is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or, sit in silence and hear a song that hasn't been written?
Or, gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world,
are the ones who do.