Fei Fei 's Reviews > Steve Jobs

Disappointing.

Isaacson received the exclusive chance of interviewing Jobs and the dozens of people closest to him. But at the end of the 600-some pages, offers up little analysis or depth into the real Steve Jobs. What made him tick? What gave him the razor sharp business acumen to predict consumer trends? Why WAS he so mean and pathological? Isaacson dances around main issues plenty of times and certainly offers some juicy anecdotal tales and guesses from friends and colleagues, but in the end, he himself never forms a composite answer. This biography reads like an never-ending interview as the interviewer moves from one quote to another and one source to another. That may have been fine as an interview piece for TIME (for which he used to write) but it's hardly enough for a lasting memoir.

What upsets me the most is the fact that Jobs allowed Isaacson this rare chance into his personal circle so that he can understand Jobs like nobody can ever before. All this in order for Isaacson to write a biography that JOBS' CHILDREN CAN READ AND GET TO KNOW THEIR FATHER. Jobs himself admits that he's hardly the model father, more often than not neglecting their care for his companies, Pixar and Apple. This biography was suppose to be a chance for Jobs to show his children why he did the things he did and share his passion for his work. But Isaacson understands neither business nor Apple enough to fully capture this. Although the second half of the book is mostly about the growth of Apple in the last decade - relegating Jobs, the person, to a minute role in the book - Isaacson lacks the business capacity to fully analyze the full cause and effects of Apple's decisions, products and actions. So what you are left with is a hap hash mix of personal anecdotes on Jobs and rough dissections on Apple - not enough biography nor enough business case study. Even worse, what Isaacson wrote on the personality of Jobs is NOT a flattering one in the least. Even the most ardent Jobs/Apple fanatic will find it hard to like him after the picture Isaacson paints in his book. If the average reader is left wanting after reading this, I can only wonder what his children will think when they have a chance to read it.