John Siracusa tells us what is wrong with the Steve Jobs biography
Embedded above is a slightly re-edited version of John Siracusa’s devastating review of Steve Jobs one and only authorised biography.
To summarise his criticism: Walter Isaacson did a poor job because he simply didn’t care enough. While for us the work of Jobs has influenced our lives in so many ways, for him it was just another book to publish. He doesn’t have the technological understanding to ask the right questions, neither does he try to learn it. At one point Siracusa basically says every graduate with a fascination for Apple could have written a better biography than Walter Isaacson.
That for me, was the key point which you could apply to everything you do. Enthusiasm, commitment and passion are of such importance for your job that you should’t work without it. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
For the detailed analysis, listen to the almost 2 ½ hours long podcast edit or go to the source files at 5by5.tv.
The only thing I did was to merge the two pieces together, cut out other topics and put the feedback part to the end.
Addendum
Somehow this piece about Elon Musk’s independent reasoning does a better job at explaining the “magic” of people like Steve Jobs than the countless historic summaries (named biographies).
This article was first published on November 21, 2011.
