“Yesterday, the authors of Becoming Steve Jobs, Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, had a little sit-down at the Soho Apple Store — with surprise guest host John Gruber,” Ken Segall writes for Observatory. “Kudos to Gruber for asking some probing questions and making the event run smoothly.”
“The truth is, any book about Steve Jobs will have a polarizing effect similar to the one generated by Steve himself. So now we have the battle of the biographies. It’s Becoming Steve Jobs (Schlender and Tetzeli) vs. Steve Jobs (Isaacson),” Segall writes. “Few will remember at this point, but the original title for Isaacson’s book as announced was iSteve. What a horribly cute title that would have been for a life so important. While the author gets credit for changing course (at Steve’s request, we understand), he gets more demerits for considering it in the first place. It says something about the man’s sensibilities.”
“My interest in the new book was heightened when I saw this headline linking to a Fast Company article: ‘The Steve Jobs you didn’t know: kind, patient, and human.’ For me, it echoed what is often the first question I get from people: ‘What was it really like to work with Steve?'” Segall writes. ” My answer has always been ‘Not nearly as toxic as the Isaacson biography makes him out to be.’ …[Apple executives] like many — didn’t feel like Isaacson captured the real Steve, and that the new book is a better portrait of Steve as a complete human being. I agree.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: That’s right, Walter: You’re a hack.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jeff.L” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Why Apple feels the need to defend Steve Jobs – March 27, 2015
Tim Bajarin: ‘Becoming Steve Jobs’ the most accurate portrayal written to date – March 27, 2015
Apple execs, including Tim Cook, praise new Steve Jobs biography, and criticize an old one – March 23, 2015
Disney CEO Bob Iger kept Steve Jobs’s cancer a secret for three years – March 20, 2015
The evolution of Steve Jobs: It’s time to revisit — and correct — the myth – March 20, 2015
Apple CEO Cook blasts Isaacson’s ‘Steve Jobs’ bio as a ‘just a rehash; a tremendous disservice’ – March 17, 2015
Steve Jobs: ‘I just don’t like television. Apple will never make a TV again’ – March 13, 2015
Tim Cook reportedly offered Steve Jobs his liver, but Jobs refused – March 12, 2015
Gruber: ‘Becoming Steve Jobs’ is a remarkable new book – March 3, 2015
I guess Gruber was able to take the train to New York and not risk popping his eyeball in an airplane.
MDN: How many times are you going to post stuff about the Steve Jobs book. It’s insane already. We get it.
What I love about the new book is the way it covers his whole life in chronological order and doing a pretty good job of explaining the evolution of Steve’s personality and ever changing leadership style. 😍
Many people here seem to think that Steve Jobs Would have never approved a product like the Apple Watch. After reading this book, I totally disagree; the Watch perfectly follows the in the tradition of the Mac, iPod and iPhone. Steve probably would have been proud.