Beth Oppenlander's Reviews > Steve Jobs

I am not one who rereads books, but this will be one I revisit, perhaps with some measure of regularity. It isn't because I worship Steve Jobs; a man who's complexity and shortcomings make him what many Shakespearean scholars coin as a "Tragic Hero". There is no denying that the heart of his genius, and the central theme of Isaacson's book, was Jobs relentless ability to see the intersection of the arts and technology and further to imagine how that intersection could revolutionize and inspire the creativity in others. I admire Steve's passion, his vision, his quest for simplicity and his eye for beauty. But he was far from perfect. I could see a strong case made as he was a modern anti-hero, especially as a business case study. As with any tragic hero who is studied with compassion and an open mind, there is beauty, joy and love embedded in the journey that at various points in time is fraught with hubris, denial and resentment. This is the paradox of the beauty of the truth of Jobs; his individual brokenness and the collective genius he inspired. The reason I will ultimately revisit this book is it is an unvarnished telling of a shared humanity which serves both a cautionary tale and one of inspiration to hope and dream about the possibilities.