My slow ascension to Apple Nirvana is a common tale for many a modern Mac user, one that began with the second generation, original iPod and finds itself with the present adoption of the entire suite of Apple products. Back then, almost a decade ago now for me, when that bulky, monochromatic iPod still had moving parts, and many an internet meme bathed in making fun of a "wheel to replace a keyboard," I was not an Apple fan.
In truth, I wasn't always the avid music apprecianado I am today. In fact, it wasn't until the iPod Nano that I really began to like Apple products, or at least appreciate how, in many ways, they were better than the competition. For me, the Nano was the first electronic product I integrated into my life fully, a device I could not leave home without. It was, in short, one that allowed me to have music to live my life by, something iPods have always done, but the smaller form factor just did better.
Over the years I had two Nanos, replacing the first generation with a third generation and then repairing the third twice due to hundreds of miles of runs I'd taken the device on. The Nano had traveled with me more than any other family member or friend, and it became something I depended on. It had experienced the world just as I had, and was an essential part of who I was.
As that Nano reached a final point of no return, I never replaced it. Though it still functioned, an iPhone 5 quickly found its way into my pocket, leaving my last Nano to slowly drain it's final bit of charge, finding its eventual resting place in my desk drawer, where it still is today. Thus it took a truly great device to fill that gap, and I've discovered could only be delivered by Apple products, which are better (for me and a great many others) than any piece of hardware on the market.
Now, while I've probably gone and upset any possibility of non-bias, I'll also qualify that last statement with, for many years, even with such great utility out of my iPod Nano, I refused to buy Apple products. Their cost both in real dollars and smug, seemed far too much to bare. But somehow, Apple products, that enjoyed the guiding hand of Steve Jobs, were some of the best, if not the best, consumer-focused products ever produced.
But why?
Most people, including Jobs himself, settle on the fact that Apple devices just work. At least, that's a big part of it. The often maligned closed system, with a controlled end-to-end user experience, takes the thinking part out of devices, so that users don't have to worry about technology, and instead can focus on what they are good at - writing books, designing interfaces, being accountants… whatever it is you do that likely isn't configuring your computer to work optimally. Instead Apple, Steve Jobs, and an amazing team of "A-listers" at Apple, already have done that for you.
In reality though, there is more to what made, and I do use the past tense of the term there conspicuously, Apple products great. From a leader that intersected science and the humanities, to a culture cultivated on incredible demands and high rewards to those that could successfully challenge even the most enigmatic of human beings, Apple as a company seemed more like a once-in-a-lifetime combination that our generation may not see again. Perhaps that's overstatement, I've lost my pragmatic nature, and simply been caught in the reality distortion field that is broadcast well beyond Jobs' final days on earth. I hope that is certainly the case, or we might be, as Jobs often foretold, heading for the electronic dark ages. I suggest you listen (or read) Walter Isaacson's, Steve Jobs… which it just so happens I recently finished.
Review: So, how was the book?
Steve Jobs the audio book, by Walter Isaacson, and narrate by Dylan Baker, was my very first audio book. I purchased it through Audible, and listened to it using the corresponding Audible "app" on my iPhone 5. Most of my listening was during my runs, about three times a week, where I would spend an hour with Jobs, charismatically represented by Dylan Baker.
The first run I took with Dylan and Isaacson, and in many ways Jobs and the rest of the characters in this biography, I was really impressed by the crispness of the audio. For a time, I wondered why the Isaacson hadn't narrated the book, but I soon realized that in many ways, the narrator was Jobs, Isaacson was "merely" the historian. At times, I questioned Bakers delivery, even laughing a little at the end when he pronounced kludge as "Kluj," rather than the accepted "Klooj." Though, it was a rare slip in an omnibus of Jobs' life, and a mistake I could forgive. Overall he did well, but having no previous comparison I can't really comment beyond that. I could see it being better, but it never distracted from the overall quality of what was being presented.
While narration can likely make or break an audio book, the content is equally important. In this regard I felt Isaacson does a great job of telling the difficult story of an even more difficult man, one with extraordinary abilities, most notably his intuition for "making things better." While Jobs was respected among his peers, is hard to say he was liked in the same regard. I imagine this makes it hard to peel back animosity and jaded retellings of history, from the facts. Still, Isaacson rarely paints Jobs as a good man, and this seems realistic and accurate. Judging purely by the facts presented, Jobs made a lot of mistakes, and though you see him grow over the years of his life, mostly in the very late years when he was faced with his own mortality, you have to form your own opinion as to whether Jobs truly realized where he had gotten some things wrong.
The length of the book, and having it presented orally, seemed to have an interesting effect, one I think might have been slightly muted if I had read it myself. That is, even in the last few pages, I often saw a lot of myself in Jobs. This was also common in many of the central people in Jobs' life, sometimes friends, but more often sycophants turned enemies. Though they were always eventually attracted, like moths to a flame, suffering generally the same fate.
While Jobs routinely demonstrated the characteristics of an erratic tornado of emotions, crying one moment and then displaying hateful, sardonic behavior the next, I found myself in the camp that viewed him, at least in general, not as a pompous megalomaniac, but more as simply an unfiltered version of myself. Firm reasoning why Jobs saw great success in his life, creating the most successful business the world had ever seen, and I, instead, am writing this review.
In many ways, the business is as much the story, carrying a near parallel to Jobs' life. Because of this, you will find much of the book isn't just about Jobs, it's about Apple, a personified example of yin and yang. For everything that was vile and contemptible about Jobs, Apple succeeded in the opposite direction. Arrogant and condescending of people that didn't create perfection, at least in Jobs' eyes, was matched with the intuitiveness and artful design of products that found happiness in their simplicity. I felt all of this was caught wonderfully by Isaacson.
There were times, especially towards the end of the book, mainly with the discussion on iCloud, I caught myself wondering how accurate other elements were. Though iCloud was described as a born-again version of Apple Me, it clearly wasn't the first mover, and world-shaker in the way the iPod, iPhone, iPad or even the Apple Store, were. Painted as hugely revolutionary, I started to wonder whether or not the distortion field was reaching into the book, vicariously through Isaacson.
However, even if some items of success were over, or even misstated, the body of Jobs' work and career can't be argued. He helped create, grow, and rehabilitate two incredible companies (Pixar and Apple). The world is better for this. Even with his failures, he left something the rest of us can appreciate. He challenged an industry, he was the underdog that unseated titans, and he manifested success by pure willpower to do what others would say couldn't be done.
I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in Apple, Pixar, or even modern business practices and diplomacy. I'd also recommend it to anyone interested in social disorders like OCD and bipolarism, as Jobs seemed to regularly exhibit examples of these disorders in their extremes. It's a must read for anyone in the Tech industry, because it chronicles the history of tech from beginning on through to what we see and interact with today. While, I'd shy away from a five-star review, as I tend to reserve those for the best works of literature, this is an excellent four-star biography, on an interesting man and his approach to life, one few of us would take. The audio is delivered well, and never detracted from the experience, though, there did seem to be a jump downward in quality right towards the end - maybe Baker had a bad day, or hey never expected anyone to finish it straight through.
Oh, and one more thing... if you noticed the question in the beginning, be sure to hold out through the end, as it's one final view you'll get into the logic of Steve Jobs' final days, one that really brings the man's whole life into focus. The world traveler, the drug user, the music lover, the abandoned, the abandoner, and everything in between, shapes to humanize Jobs and expose both him and his brilliance, all at once.
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