Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Simplicity. Perfectionism. Control.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson gives a detailed account of the man’s personal and professional life. He is certainly a fascinating individual who has had a profound impact upon the world.

Jobs was clearly a man of dichotomies: brilliant ideas but obsessive about detail; everything was either perfect or terrible; emotional swings from one direction to the other; working for $1 but also wanting large stock options.

Key points:

• Hackers reversed the perception that computers were part of ‘control’ and instead turned them into creative outlets
  • Though Apple then went for full integration of the whole product, which prevents customisation, and goes against hacker mentality
• The boxes and packaging for all Apple items should set the tone for the experience of the products
  • Huge emphasis on simplification throughout every step of the process/experience
    • E.g. Consumer & Pro for Desktop & Laptop
  • Simplicity is not reached through ignoring complexities but by understanding and reducing them
• Many admit that Jobs could have motivated his team without also being rude, but he certainly instilled a desire to create the most beautiful products possible – by encouraging the designers to think of themselves as artists
• “…customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them.”
  • Similar to Ford saying that people would have asked for a “faster horse”
• He believed in the mantra of holding the highest standards throughout everything you do
  • E.g. keep every shelf clean as well as keeping machines running perfectly
• Jobs had a significant period of learning between his ousting from Apple before his return; Isaacson says that without those failures he would not have been as successful
• There is a theme of identifying things aren’t quite perfect, and insisting on stopping/correcting the problem, not just ignoring it and saying they’ll fix it later
• Do not be afraid to create a new product that beats your own previous product (as someone else will make something that beats your original, anyway)
• He mentioned the importance of remembering his own mortality for prioritisation of decisions
• Jobs went on a special holiday with each of his children by themselves
• His main management tips were: focus (on a few areas/products) and be ruthless about ending up with “B-players” on the company

Whilst I found parts of this book a bit overly mystical at times, the general principles on how to produce creative work were deeply insightful.

More books like this:

• M. K. Ghandi an autobiography

Useful links:

• Here are one, two, and three further summaries/reflections on this book for comparison