I truly enjoyed reading Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs. Jobs needs no introduction, and Isaacson is among the best biographers, but I had not managed to read this book since its publication in 2011. Incidentally, my father, who is an avid reader, had purchased it in December 2011, and it was sitting in my parents' home in Bangalore. I was rummaging through the books during my recent visit, and this tome caught my attention.
I have been a fan of so many things Jobs did, his
personality, and the iconic impact he has had on the world. I have loved using
the iPad, but for many reasons, I had not bought into the cult of Apple. I do
not like the closed-loop system of Apple devices, for instance, and I had only
heard about the sort of mercurial person Jobs was. I had seen the not-so-great
movie about Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher. I had consumed the many videos of
Jobs talking about marketing and product design on the internet. I had watched,
many times, the iPhone launch event in 2007. And of course, I had heard and
read about the many things said about Jobs by the people who worked with him.
More recently, I had read Sir Johnny Ive's article
remembering Jobs on his 10th death anniversary in 2021. Jobs and Ive's
obsession with design was something I loved and thought highly of.
Ive writes beautifully about Steve's curiosity and the
insight he brought to any situation:
"...but now, above all else, I miss his singular and beautiful clarity. Beyond his ideas and vision, I miss his insight that brought order to chaos.
It has nothing to do with his legendary ability to communicate but everything to do with his obsession with simplicity, truth, and purity."
What Ive said about Jobs' curious mind was what had primed
me to pick up this book and read it straight in six days. I was wondering, as I
read, what it was that made it possible for Steve to have this insight and
curiosity. One was certainly his unique genius, but Isaacson offers another
note from the Zeitgeist:
"The 60s created an anarchic mindset that helped imagine a world that did not yet exist."
Walter Isaacson does a great job of telling us the story of
Steve Jobs—his professional and personal journey—and what you realize is that,
for Steve, there was no barrier between the two. The two were the same. He
lived one life and brought his intense personality to every facet of his life.
I will mention briefly below a few points that resonated
with me from this masterful biography.
Reality Distortion Field
Much has been said in the book and outside about Jobs'
famous reality distortion field.
How he could get people—and himself—to get things done
despite seemingly insurmountable odds.
Believing and obsessing about getting something done is an important skillset,
and Jobs seemed to have it inbuilt in him. Manifesting on steroids. One version
of this reality distortion field is about how someone is perceived. Nolan
Bushnell, the CEO of Atari, tells a young Steve Jobs that
"Pretend to be in complete control, and people will assume you are," and Steve does this most of his life.
It is different from "fake it till you make it,"
but in the same vein. Different because this is not about faking it at all.
The reality distortion field is all about really believing
that something is real, despite all evidence against it, and willing it into
reality.
Teacher Arrives When the Student Is Ready and Willing
I have often found that one is only able to appreciate
something when one is ready for it.
It might be learning about something or just even
appreciating a piece of art—there is a certain openness needed for the mind to
form connections and reveal insight. Early in Steve's life, when he is in
search of a Japanese Zen master and is thinking about traveling to Japan to
visit one, he finds a spiritual master right down the road. His spiritual
advisor urges him to stay, and Steve says,
"He said there is nothing over there that isn’t here, and he was right. I learned the truth of the Zen saying that if you are willing to travel around the world to meet a teacher, one will appear next door."
Often, we underestimate the power of what we already know in
helping us become better.
Intersection of Technology and Humanities
We often read about the industrial revolution and
technological revolution and assume it is about growth in those domains.
But what this book illustrates is it is actually the
intersection of those domains with the humanities and arts that really creates
progress. Jobs' unique insight that made Apple, Pixar, and NeXT—all of his
creations—such amazing innovators is that they put technology in service of art
and not the other way around. The growth in domains happens naturally, but it
is when tech advancements are put in service of art that true progress happens.
Many technology leaders, like Xerox and others, had the technology, but it
needed Jobs to obsess about the graphical user interface and make it about an
elegant user experience that made the progress in the field possible. Jobs'
reality distortion field made that possible.
Form may follow function for the masses, but for real
progress to happen, function and form need to be equally important and elevated
into an art form.
I highly recommend this book because it puts you in a
reality distortion field.
By describing Jobs and his characteristics and without
really offering any judgment on it, Isaacson masterfully invites us into
believing.
Finally, on a personal note, something which amused me
because it resonated with me but was also a cautionary note: Jobs was a strict
vegan for most of his life, as I am as well. What I also found revealed in his
mindset, which I also very strongly share, is the concept of pleasure from
restraint. Lisa, his estranged daughter, observes the following about his
strict diets and fasting: "Even at a young age Lisa began to realize his
diet obsessions reflected a life philosophy, one in which asceticism and minimalism
could heighten subsequent sensations.”
“He believed that great harvests came from arid sources, pleasure from restraint,’ she noted. ‘He knew the equations that most people didn’t know: Things led to their opposites.”
The cautionary note in this is that despite these healthy practices, it was probably his intense obsessions that led to his health challenges.
Steve Jobs' worldview was the opposite of moderation, but sometimes, while intensity blazes bright and illuminates the path for others, it can burn out fast as well. The genius of Jobs is that he might have passed away early, but what he managed to create in the short time was so bright that it is illuminating worlds long after he has gone.
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