Steve Jobs: Hero or Zero?
I can’t decide. It’s been weeks since I finished reading the Steve Jobs biography. Was Steve an arrogant bore (parking in disabled parking spots, treating others cruelly for example), or did his contributions to contemporary life make him a hero? What I am sure of is that Isaacson’s 600+ page book is absorbing and well written. He manages to create a story out of Jobs’ life and influence on Apple.
I gained a better understanding of Jobs’ contribution to Apple’s designs. While reading the book on my Kindle I started wishing I’d bought it on my iPad. The Kindle is not as intuitively designed, nor as much fun as the iPad. I now appreciate how much Jobs was responsible for that.
Jobs was a seven years younger than me, but because he was so precocious, we did a lot of the same things when we were young (for example, going to India). He didn’t finish his studies at Reed and he suffered from the gaps in knowledge that cripple the self-taught. But he was too arrogant to recognize it. ‘You don’t know what you don’t know’ is the best argument for staying in a good school. Jobs might well be alive today if he’d gained a bit of humility earlier in life.
Despite a lot of negative things written about Jobs, he had many devoted family members and friends at the end of his life. Perhaps that tips the balance in his favor. Regardless, Isaacson has written an entertaining and well-balanced account of a complex man.
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It's been a over a year since I read the book, but now I'm thinking about it from a different perspective. Steve's genius is undeniable, but judgements about his personality may be off-base. He was a difficult and complex person, certainly neither a hero or villian. Rather than arrogance I believe he was driven by a laser focus on the craftsmanship of works of art, and would achieve it by any means. He was aiming for the greater good, not "humanitarian of the year award". A lack of empathy does not equal arrogance. Go back to his presentations and you'll see a man striving for perfection. I'm forever thankful that he stepped up.
Bon wrote: "It's been a over a year since I read the book, but now I'm thinking about it from a different perspective. Steve's genius is undeniable, but judgements about his personality may be off-base. He was..."I think he was too arrogant for his own good, but I agree he was complex and very gifted. Being an artist requires judgement, being a grown up means knowing when to be non-judgemental. About humanitarianism: On my blog a cousin who works for Seva, supplied links about Jobs and Seva--a very worthwhille organization that Steve helped get started.
