Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson (Summary)

​Notes:
– His adoption and why he though he was special being more clever than parents and getting upgraded more than one class ahead.

“Religion was at its best when it emphasised spiritual experiences rather than received dogma.”

– Getting into electronics from Hewlett, to meeting Wozniak, how they clicked, their pranks and the blue box that made it all happen.

– His few long term obsessions – spirituality, vegetarian and extreme diets, dropping acid and music especially rock and Bob Dylan.

– Admiring idols and emulating them, then later thinking they were shams.

– Jobs refusing to leave Atari until he got hired. Soul searching through eastern spirituality. Coming up with the apple name.

– His observation about how Indians used intuition more than intellect was pretty fascinating.

– While him and Woz were on the same path and best friends they were still like chalk and cheese in many ways. Jobs was more manipulative and money minded while Woz was an electronic engineering savant. Woz created while Jobs found ways to make money. Selling things for 3 times more (Story of price 6666 in the numbers then realising it’s meaning).

– Jobs wanting not to add fans in power supply.

– Both being scruffy hippies. Jobs going barefoot and only bathing once a week because he felt his fruitarian diet didn’t give him bad smell even though others thought he didn’t smell right.

– Jobs not wanting to be the father and trying to make the mother look like a floozy.

– The Reality distortion field – where it seems like Steve is lying but he’s so fixed in his own reality that it’s like he’s lying to himself. Lots of stories of him stealing others ideas or acting like it was his and saying that a lot of ideas were shit, which was his way of saying ‘tell me whats good about it’. He even drove around without plate numbers and parked in handicapped zones. Because of the reality distortion field Jobs could persuade anyone but only while he was there, the field would fade away when he wasn’t there.

– Lots of stories about how he pioneered or was at the forefront of all the inventions. The infamous Xerox heist for graphics. Creating a better mouse. Meetings about design, experience and even the unseen. As much of an a-hole Jobs was, he pushed the best to be the best and they loved him for it.

– Job used to ask the students if they were still virgins or how many times they dropped acid, they used to go for skinny-dipping, he really thought of himself as a rebel even saying ‘be a pirate, don’t join the Navy’. Even though he did sell-out with the charging for computers instead of giving free stuff to hackers and stuff like that, he managed to convince everyone he was still on their team by lying to himself and everyone else with their anti Orwellian advert. Most of the staff loved that advert but the board members hated it but they still played it on the Super Bowl at the perfect time saying why 1984 will not be like 1984.

Apple – 1984

– The Jobs and Gates friendship and partnership when it came to Excel and later the rivalry after Gates decided to go release Windows. Lot of resignations and stories of Job’s obnoxiousness. He even told one of the team members who contributed the most to the computer that everything wrong with the computer was his fault. Trying to punish Woz when he resigned. Jobs being outvoted on many things. Trying hard to get back on top. Internal politics.

– Ups and downs at Pixar, dramas with Bill Gates getting into another relationship which didn’t work with Bob Dylan’s ex.

– Hiring detectives and finding his adopted parents and sister and a mutual indifference with him and his Syrian dad. The dad had actually served Jobs at some point.

– Jobs really believed minimalism and asceticism heightened experiences which is why he had extreme diets and practices.

– Goes into his relationships and relationship with daughter after reconnecting and how she would stop talking to him if he refused to give her mom money for weird ass things like ‘spiritual advisors’ which the mom got after getting the daughter to transfer the house to her name when Jobs put the house in the daughters name.

– Jobs view was that customers don’t know what they want until it is shown to them which is why he would not compromise on his designs or ideas.

– The Pixar story and dramas with Disney who helped a lot and owned/bought the characters. Whose movie was it really? The success afterwards and Jobs going back to Apple. The original Toy Story characters were mean and Woody was not a very nice person.

– Jobs had a way of making you feel like you were his best friend on the whole planet.

– Jobs always wanted to get back to Apple and be on the board but when he got his opportunity and people asked him, He only joined as advisory role in the start and did not even take the position of chairperson in the board. Later on he would make everyone resign from the board when he didn’t even have the power to do so and most of them were relieved because Apple was a mess and only jobs would be able to help it. They did ask him to keep one person on the board which he agreed.

– Later Apple would team up with Microsoft and the diehard followers would not be happy with this. Jobs and Gates still had dramas though.

Apple – Here’s to the Crazy Ones (1997)

– Jobs did not like the Newton 2 because it was under the person who ousted him in the first place and also because he did not like a stylus when he felt that we have 10 of our own God-given stylus. He hated PowerPoint presentations and preferred creativity by doing presentations there and then.

– He was later made iCEO while they look for a CEO but they didn’t find anyone and stop looking so jobs stayed.

Steve Jobs introduces Original iPod – Apple Special Event (2001)

– Jobs did not sign any contract but he was in charge and what he said would be final. The previous guy wanted more products while Steve Jobs decided on making less products. He drew 4 quadrants and they were to just stick to those four quadrants.

– He met another mentor by the name of Ive, they got along fabulously even finding flaws in a knife because they could see a very little bit of glue. Later they would even patent packaging. Later there was friction because Jobs would steal ideas and make it look like they were his.

– Jobs concentration was so intense and focused which is why he was very good and successful as he has been but is also why he could make people feel like they were the only ones in his reality but once is focused changed they would feel like they did not even exist.

Skate where the puck’s going, not where it’s been. Wayne Gretzky

– The iMac’s lovely new design with the handle on top, even though people wouldn’t use it regularly, would make even the dummies feel like they can use it. The inside can be seen through lovely colours which they researched by going to jellybean factories.

– Meeting Tim Cook.

– Inception, evolution and conception of Apple stores and the Genius Bar to make the Apple experience a personal experience. Apple turning into the all in one while other companies would integrate with each other IBM for the graphics, Nero for the software etc. Then they brought in all that iProducts, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand. Job so the future in this. Designing the iPod so you could do anything you wanted within three clicks. And finally revolutionising the music download industry while Sony, EMI and AOL were racing. Apple created the perfect iTunes Store it was only a matter of convincing music companies, music artists and the competition to join. Even Dr. Dre said ‘finally somebody got it right’.

– Steve Jobs claimed that acid was one of the two greatest things we has done in his life and if you hadn’t done acid you wouldn’t understand him.

– His relationship with music and revolutionising how music is downloaded. He managed to get a deal on iTunes for 773 songs by Bob Dylan for $199 or somewhere there. He managed to get a deal with Beetles even though there were in a bad marriage with EMI. He had a great relationship with Bono even when they were brutally honest with each other. He did mention that Eminem was growing on him but also felt Em’s values were totally opposite to Dylan’s.

– Jobs was never into philanthropy but he did get into something with Bono and nearly even agreed to a black iPod but changed his mind as he was known to do.

– The movie war between Disney’s Ants and Prince of Egypt vs Pixar’s A Bugs Life where Pixar demolished Disneys two movies and would continue to do so with future movies.

– Designing the atrium so that different departments would bump into each other and talk about different projects that is how Steve Jobs creativity and solutions and innovation would be found. Even making sure there only two toilets, one for each gender, where a pregnant woman complained that she should not have to walk 10 minutes to get to the toilet.

– Even though Disney acquired Pixar it was more just the name change because Pixar staff would still be running things.

– New designs, breaking off from Motorola and their chips. Designing with intel chips and the new Mac to look like a sunflower reaching for the skies.

– Issues with jobs getting options and shares, selling them, backdating them. Investigations with Al Gore as one of the investigators and even though Jobs kept trying to look like he was not in it for the money his actions spoke otherwise.

– When jobs got cancer he went back to his extreme diets of carrot salad with lemon and getting psychics because he did not want anyone opening up his body to remove the tumour.

– Jobs without consulting Tim Cook named him CEO.

– Waking up to cancer made jobs a little less humiliating to people when he didn’t like their ideas but he was still abusive.

– To make the iPhone, Apple originally teamed up with Motorola to release something called ROKR. Jobs hated having to rely on people couldn’t give him what he wanted and he really did not want to stylus so they worked on something called multitouch and suddenly acquired a company called FingerWorks that was already working on a lot of things to do with multitouch. Later they would look for a glass that was the best material for the screen because Jobs do not want any other material and they finally came across gorilla glass.

Steve Jobs – iPhone Introduction in 2007 (Paras note: Still gives me chills even though I’ve moved away from Apple)

– Jobs even wanted separate screws so people could not open in modify or make their own repairs. (Look for a company called iFixit, that helps you fix macs and also my videos on the same.)

– Cancer returns and is kept on the hush not letting companies know writing misleading emails or open letters and hiding a lot. The later had to replace his liver and the procedure was complex enough to give him pneumonia so he was very weak. Even when he was heavily sedated he would complain about the design of the oxygen mask and ask the nurse to bring him five different designs so he can choose better ones. When he got back people thought he would be a little more amiable but still he was very fussy about his smoothies even at the hospital, telling you people you wanted seven different choices any would pick the best one.

– Releasing the iPad with their own A4 chippy instead of Intel’s chip. Choosing easy to pick up design of rounded rectangles which they had patented ages ago. Getting terrible reviews from people who have not used it and then retracted terrible reviews to awesome reviews from people who used it and could not do without it afterwards. The designers called it the Jesus tablet because it would be the most important tablet since the bible.

– Releasing the iPad was very controversial as the experts said it was bound to be doomed but Jobs always knew what would be in demand in the future. By the ninth month they had billions of app downloads.

Steve Jobs introduces Original iPad – Apple Special Event (2010)

– Later they wanted to take over the book industries like amazon and politics around pricing of music and books. Why one would be the same price for every song while books would be different. Jobs tried to get Time magazine and others onboard with his pricing but they declined. Later he teamed with Rupert Murdoch even though he was very vocal against Fox and how negative they were.

– Next war: Android vs. Apple. Jobs had never been so livid. Schmidt was on the board of Apple before he was with Android and they stole over 20 patents from Apple. Paras note: I find it very strange because Jobs was proud of stealing but when other stole his stuff then it was intellectual property.

– Jobs taking shots at Adobe Flash. Antenna issues of turning the case into faraday cage which wasn’t a good thing. The court case with The Beetles and their Applecore name. Restricting controversial apps and porn made Jobs look like the big brother he was pretending to be against.

– Health issues, random stories and MobileMe … the disastrous start of iCloud.

Steve Jobs introduces iCloud & iOS 5 – WWDC (2011)

– Architecture designs for the new Apple building called the Spaceship.

– His relationship with his kids and family. Sweet stories.

– Jobs met with Obama and didn’t hold back on schools, opening businesses, etc. Jobs set up a meeting with the biggest CEOs to address the issues.

– Even though his health was getting worse and having complications he was still messing around with intense diets and going into fasting induced euphoria.

– Making up with his daughter Lisa, with Google, with Gates etc.

– Convincing his health people do use Apple’s Keynote app instead of PowerPoint to give him a presentation about his health. It’s so weird how stocks can drop just by looking at the owners health.

– Handing over his seat to Tim Cook.

– Talking to the author about this book and letting him know that he is not going to read the book for at least another year and that he has a suspicion that he was not going to like it.

– Authors final words about jobs. In the final word from Jobs also. The point I really loved was when he said that he wants to give the people what they are going to want.

Contents
Characters
Introduction: How This Book Came to Be

1 – Childhood: Abandoned and Chosen
2 – Odd Couple: The Two Steves
3 – The Dropout: Turn On, Tune In . . .
4 – Atari and India: Zen and the Art of Game Design
5 – The Apple I: Turn On, Boot Up, Jack In . . .
6 – The Apple II: Dawn of a New Age
7 – Chrisann and Lisa: He Who Is Abandoned . . .
8 – Xerox and Lisa: Graphical User Interfaces
9 – Going Public: A Man of Wealth and Fame
10 – The Mac Is Born: You Say You Want a Revolution
11 – The Reality Distortion Field: Playing by His Own Set of Rules
12 – The Design: Real Artists Simplify
13 – Building the Mac: The Journey Is the Reward
14 – Enter Sculley: The Pepsi Challenge
15 – The Launch: A Dent in the Universe
16 – Gates and Jobs: When Orbits Intersect
17 – Icarus: What Goes Up . . .
18 – NeXT: Prometheus Unbound
19 – Pixar: Technology Meets Art
20 – A Regular Guy: Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word
21 – Family Man: At Home with the Jobs Clan
22 – Toy Story: Buzz and Woody to the Rescue
23 – The Second Coming: What Rough Beast, Its Hour Come Round at Last . . .
24 – The Restoration: The Loser Now Will Be Later to Win
25 – Think Different: Jobs as iCEO
26 – Design Principles: The Studio of Jobs and Ive
27 – The iMac: Hello (Again)
28 – CEO: Still Crazy after All These Years
29 – Apple Stores: Genius Bars and Siena Sandstone
30 – The Digital Hub: From iTunes to the iPod
31 – The iTunes Store: I’m the Pied Piper
32 – Music Man: The Sound Track of His Life
33 – Pixar’s Friends: . . . and Foes
34 – Twenty-first-century Macs: Setting Apple Apart
35 – Round One: Memento Mori
36 – The iPhone: Three Revolutionary Products in One
37 – Round Two: The Cancer Recurs
38 – The iPad: Into the Post-PC Era
39 – New Battles: And Echoes of Old Ones
40 – To Infinity: The Cloud, the Spaceship, and Beyond
41 – Round Three: The Twilight Struggle
42 – Legacy: The Brightest Heaven of Invention

Acknowledgments
Sources
Notes
Index
Illustration Credits
Photos

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