Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs follows Apple, NeXT, Pixar, product obsession, design control, and the contradictions behind Jobs’s creative force.

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Published

October 24, 2011

Publisher

Simon & Schuster

Pages

672

ISBN-13

9781982176860

What this book opens

Steve Jobs is Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of the Apple cofounder, based on extensive interviews with Jobs and more than 100 family members, colleagues, competitors, and friends.

The book follows Jobs across Apple, NeXT, Pixar, and his return to Apple, with emphasis on creativity, perfectionism, product taste, control, and the intersection of technology and the humanities.

About the author

About The Author

Related reading

The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs — https://hbr.org/2012/04/the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs
Isaacson’s own distillation of Jobs’s leadership lessons.
How Steve Jobs’ Love of Simplicity Fueled a Design Revolution — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-steve-jobs-love-of-simplicity-fueled-a-design-revolution-23868877/
Isaacson on Jobs’s obsession with simplicity and design.
Stay hungry, stay foolish — https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2005/06/steve-jobs-2005-graduates-stay-hungry-stay-foolish
Official text of Jobs’s Stanford commencement speech.
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish — https://stevejobsarchive.com/stories/stay-hungry-stay-foolish
Archive context for the Stanford speech.
Objects of Our Life — https://stevejobsarchive.com/stories/objects-of-our-life
Jobs’s early thinking about computers as cultural objects.
On the origin of make something wonderful — https://stevejobsarchive.com/stories/on-the-origin-of-make-something-wonderful
Explores Jobs’s product-making philosophy.
Steve Jobs: Make Something Wonderful — https://book.stevejobsarchive.com/
Archive of Jobs’s speeches, emails, interviews, and photographs.
Steve Jobs: From Garage to World’s Most Valuable Company — https://computerhistory.org/blog/steve-jobs/
Historical context for Jobs’s technology influence.
Steve Jobs: The Authorized Biography with Walter Isaacson — https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/300000152/
Isaacson discusses the biography at the Computer History Museum.
Insanely Great — https://computerhistory.org/events/insanely-great/
Context for the Macintosh launch story.
The Real Genius of Steve Jobs — https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/11/14/the-tweaker
Essay on Jobs as refiner and product thinker.
Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson – review — https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/oct/30/steve-jobs-exclusive-biography-review
Review of the biography’s portrait of Jobs.
Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson — https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/25/steve-jobs-biography-walter-isaacson-review
Critical review of the book and Jobs myth.
Why It Matters Who Steve Jobs Really Was — https://time.com/3757765/steve-jobs-biography/
Compares portrayals of Jobs and why character matters.
Would Steve Jobs Have Liked the New Biography? I Don’t Think So — https://www.wired.com/2015/04/would-steve-jobs-have-liked-the-new-biography-i-dont-think-so
Counterpoint in the debate around Isaacson’s portrait.
Homage to Steve Jobs: A Pioneer of Function and Form — https://www.wipo.int/en/web/wipo-magazine/articles/homage-to-steve-jobs-a-pioneer-of-function-and-form-37952
Focuses on design, patents, and innovation.
Smithsonian Oral History Interview with Steve Jobs — https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/sj1.html
Direct Jobs interview from the NeXT era.
Pixar: The Early Days — https://stevejobsarchive.com/stories/pixar-early-days
Covers Jobs’s Pixar chapter.
The Toy Story Story — https://www.wired.com/1995/12/toy-story
Context for Pixar’s breakthrough with Toy Story.
Steve Jobs Bio: Its 6 Most Surprising Reveals — https://www.wired.com/2011/10/5-things-steve-jobs-bio
Covers major revelations from Isaacson’s book.

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