Steve Jobs-Co Founder Of Apple Computer

 This is a gripping journey into the life of an amazing individual. Despite its girth of nearly 600 pages, the book zips along at a torrid pace.

The interviews with Jobs are fascinating and revealing. We get a real sense for what it must have been like to be Steve, or to work with him. That earns the book five stars despite its flaws, in that it's definitely a must-read if you have any interest at all in the subject.

But there are places in the book where I have to say, "Huh?"

The book is written essentially as a series of stories about Steve. The book continuously held my interest, but some of the dramas of his life seem muted. For instance, he came close to going bust when both Next and Pixar were flailing. There was only the slightest hint that anything dramatic happened in those years. In one paragraph, Pixar is shown as nearly running him out of money. A few brief paragraphs later, Toy Story gets released and Jobs' finances are saved for good.

We hear a lot about Tony Fadell's role in the development of iPhone. Tony led the iPod group and was clearly a major source for the book. You may know from a recent Businessweek article that Tony was basically driven out of the company shortly after the final introduction of iPhone, due to personality conflicts between him and Scott Forestall, the person now in charge of iOS development. But the book doesn't say a word about it. Tony simply disappears from the rest of the book with no explanation, and Forestall is barely mentioned.

Another strange incident was the Jackling house, the house he spent a large part of his life in. A case could be made that the house is historic simply because Steve spent many of his formative years living in it. Preservationists were battling with him to save the house. Only a couple of months before his death, when he must have known he was not going to actually build a house to replace it, he had the house torn down. I would have loved to learn this story. Why did he buy it? Why did he destroy it through neglect? Why did he acquire such a blind loathing for it that he worked hard to get it torn down?

And why did Jobs keep almost all the Pixar options to himself? He doesn't seem to have needed the money, or even really wanted it that much. He could have cut his friends John Lasseter et al into their own huge fortunes. Lasseter only got about $25 million from Pixar, which seems like a shockingly low amount in view of his contributions. Now, it's not like they will starve or anything, and I think John can buy pretty much anything he wants, but it still seems surprising Jobs is so ungenerous.

There were a lot of things like this, incidents casually tossed away in a brief paragraph that should have merited an entire chapter.

I think this will always be the best account of the emotional aspects of Steve's life, which are fully covered. The chapters about his illness moved me to tears. But as an account of what really happened at Apple and how Steve fixed the company, it's insufficient. I guess that will have to await more distance from the subject.

Of course what's truly remarkable about Jobs is that he lived a life so full of incident that perhaps no biography has the space to cover the broad sweep of his life. He accomplished as much as 10 ordinarily famous men. Maybe the upshot is that you just can't fit a man like this in a book, even if that book's nearly 600 pages.


This is the story of the founder of Apple computers written by Walter Isaacson. This review is of the book - and NOT ruminations of Jobs, devices or pomes. I am unfamiliar with Walter Isaacson's other works but given his prose and the web he weaves I plan on reading his other biographies (think Tracy Kidder).
I am disappointed that Amazon couldn't ship the books (hard copies) to be delivered today. Downloaded it onto the kindle for the same price as the hardcopy - quite a premium but still worth it! I might even keep the preordered hard copy when it gets here.
Isaacson's work is a window into the life (and mind) of an intensely private man and despite his bouts of callousness - a sensitive man. The description of Silicon valley by Jobs, harks back to an era before outsourcing - a time of true American exceptionalism. In many ways looking back, Jobs and Isaacson do a masterful job of connecting the dots. The brief musings about iTVs and textbooks may form the bedrock for Apples future market cap and Jony Ives' genius. This is a book about more than Steve though - it reflects a time in America when we actually made things - great things were happening and there was an innocence about how even the very wealthy operated. Imagine being able to cold call the CEO of HP (get his home # from the phonebook) and have him actually talk to you for 20 minutes.

Let's begin with the cover - Steve Jobs saw the cover art proposed by Simon & Schuster and disliked it so much and asked the author to be allowed input in the design. The end result - a cover, testament to his impeccable sense of design - sans serif Helvetica. The cover picture is the one used by apple announcing his death taken by Albert Watson. The back has him cradling the Mac in a lotus position.
The story starts at the very beginning, as a very personal narrative - told by Steve and his childhood friends, through Isaacson's remarkable narrative - the schooling, upbringing - who his parents were - the sperm donors and the real ones are ok but the fascinating stuff - are the relationships that were so formative for Steve and all of computing really! Atari's CEO and his tutelage "Pretend to be completely in control and people will assume that you are." The honesty of Woz and how all those years ago he felt Steve had been less than honest with him. Ever wonder how the cover of Popular Mechanics 1975 could possibly be part of this story?

The End Of Illness By David Agus, MD

I got an advanced copy of this sweet, sweet book on steroids, and let me inform you of something: Mr. Auger is a gosh-darned genius when it comes to getting us all to understand the whole concept of health and illness in a totally revolutionary way. In this manner, his breathtaking and wonderfully written tome sort of touches on the Buddhist and mindfulness philosophy of looking at things really as they are...just in the moment, as opposed to how we selfishly project what we desire onto what we think health and illness should be (read: health and illness are just two, totally invented terms that the evil HMOs made up to make more profit).

According to the great Mr. Auger, and I completely agree with him based on his convincing argument, the way we should look at the human body is in the context of Obamacare. In other words, the End of Illness that he argues for in the book comes by way of Obama's brilliant, job-creating and premium-lowering landmark legislation that he signed into law in 2010!!

Mr. Auger makes the persuasive case that all Americans are lucky as hell to right now live in the End of Illness Era as he calls it. In other words, this is America after Obamacare was signed into law by our great, mulatto leader, Barry Obama.

This is true when, as Mr. Auger meticulously points out in his book, you examine everything that has happened in the two years since Obama signed Obamacare into law. Healthcare premiums across the board have been lowered, therefore saving Americans more money than ever before. More and more employers are actually choosing NOT to--I repeat, NOT to--drop any employees whom they had previously been providing healthcare coverage to, just like Obama promised before signing the massive, big-government blessing that Obamacare is into law! Also, because of how effective Obamacare has been, not one single entity--especially not any of the unions who helped to push for Obamacare aggressively--has been granted even one waiver on Obamacare. That's because this healthcare approach really works, as Mr. Auger so passionately points out, and I do believe him. I do!

Finally, the most touching part of the book had to be when Mr. Auger lovingly--almost like a doting parent coaxing his little toddler to finally shut up and go the f *** to sleep--documented all the miraculous stories of Americans all over the U.S. getting their health back suddenly after Obamacare was passed. For instance, there's the tale of the old woman (a crone, really) in Maine who got her eyesight back, again, miraculously, in the days after the signing into law of Obamacare! Further, there's also the truthfully documented account of the young man who was miraculously and suddenly cured of his erectile dysfunction and, thus, could start promiscuously fornicating with any woman he chose...all because of the grace of Obamacare!
By David Agus, MD
I think Mr. Auger needs to be given a national recognition for documenting that the End of Illness is actually here already, my friends. It is called Obamacare...and it is real and loves you.

Forget trying to overhaul your diet. Lose the idea that you’re suddenly going to start training for your city’s marathon this year. And while you’re at it, ditch the promise to yourself that you’ll finally get out of debt, quit smoking, and drink less. How can a doctor like me actually be telling you this? Although those are all lofty and incredibly good goals to have (all of which top the list for most popular resolutions), the truth is that millions of Americans resolve to change their habits and behaviors overnight between December 31^st of the old year and the first of the new year. And it doesn’t happen. Or it doesn’t stick for long. Barely a fraction of people succeed in the long haul.
So I’ve got an idea. I’m going to make a suggestion that’s pretty simple, doable, and small. Yes, even you can take this itty-bitty step. It’s something that will make your life much better and can actually help you to achieve the bigger, more ambitious goals but which won’t cause a lot of heartache, effort, and self-sacrifice. What exactly am I referring to? The relatively painless act of keeping a regular schedule. That’s right: just try to maintain a predictable schedule on a daily basis. This entails the following:

• Going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, weekends included.
• Eating at roughly the same times throughout the day, snacks included.
• Taking any prescribed medications at the same time every day.
• Exercising (if you do) at roughly the same time every day.

How can this be so unbelievably powerful? The body loves predictability. One of the best ways of reducing stress on the body and keeping its preferred, balanced state of being—homeostasis—is to maintain a consistent routine every single day, especially with regard to the body’s natural rhythms as dictated by sleep-wake cycles, eating patterns, medication use, and physical activity. You’ll feel the difference in more energy, an enhanced sense of wellbeing, and my bet is you’ll effortlessly find the motivation to attack all those other goals on your list. As a doctor, of course I’d love for you to change your habits for the better and reduce your risks for illness. We all know the benefits of exercise and the bane of smoking. We all know that eating fast food won’t fix the fat around our waistlines. But I’m also a realist, which is why I suggest you work your way to a new you just by making a single initial goal of keeping a regular schedule. Simple as that. Watch—and feel—what happens.