阅读本书评论(book review)的标题——我相信你的脸上一定带着讽刺的笑容。为什么一个关于Windows的博客会为Windows 用户(Windows user)审查一本关于史蒂夫乔布斯(Steve Jobs)的书？因为无论史蒂夫·乔布斯如何谴责(Steve Jobs)微软和 Windows(Microsoft and Windows)，他对科技界都产生了巨大的影响，并为我们今天所处的令人兴奋和特权的环境做出了贡献。Windows 用户(Windows user)（或粉丝）应该阅读Walter Isaacson撰写的(Walter Isaacson)Steve Jobs的传记吗？请仔细阅读，找出答案。
为什么这本书是“狗屎”
在阅读这本书时，我发现它是多么的不完美以及史蒂夫乔布斯(Steve Jobs)不得不将它标记为“狗屎”的原因有多少，如果他会读它的话：
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重复(Repetition)——有些想法会一遍又一遍地重复。在第三次阅读它们之后，它们开始惹恼你。以下是此类想法的一些示例：“史蒂夫和苹果哲学的核心是硬件和软件的端到端紧密集成”，史蒂夫的黑白观点认为人、公司或产品要么是天才/完美，要么是笨蛋/糟了，史蒂夫有激光般的注意力，专注于优先事项等。
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奉承(Flattery)- 有时这本书倾向于夸大史蒂夫的优点，让他听起来比他原来的样子更多，尤其是在书的结尾。虽然我可以理解 Walter Isaacson 欠史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）的责任，因为他被要求写这本书以及随之而来的所有好东西，但最好在整本书（包括其结尾）中保持接地气。阅读诸如“他聪明吗？不，不是特别聪明。相反，他是个天才”之类的陈述。或者史蒂夫如何“创建了一个挤满了 A 玩家的公司”。有点太多了。我并不是说史蒂夫没有他的天才时刻，但书中表达这一点的方式有时有点“华而不实”。此外，关于苹果，它已成为一家公司这一简单事实意味着它不会挤满 A 玩家。这是一个巨大的夸大其词，为了证明它是错误的，有很多苹果失败产品的例子，包括最近的 Mobile.Me 或 iTunes 软件本身，它是有史以来最臃肿的软件产品之一。
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误导性陈述(Misleading statements)——夸大史蒂夫乔布斯和苹果的优点。史蒂夫乔布斯可能真的很喜欢阅读它们。然而，它们创造了一种虚假的光环，特别是对于那些对技术不那么感兴趣并且意识到其真正演变的人。其中一些陈述是：
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“iPhone 将手机变成了音乐、摄影、视频、电子邮件和网络设备。” 作者应该在 iPhone 推出之前提到手机就是这样的设备。iPhone 并不是第一款智能手机。它的真正成就在于它使智能手机流行起来，这是每个人都想购买的那种设备。它使这个利基市场比以往任何时候都更具竞争力，并推动了巨大的创新。
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“iPad 推出平板电脑”。这种说法又是非常具有误导性的。平板电脑在 iPad 之前就已经存在。在 iPad 推出之前，它并不流行，被认为是计算的“未来”。就像 iPhone 一样，iPad 的优点是让这个利基市场变得流行、具有竞争力并推动了真正的创新。
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“iCloud 将计算机从管理我们内容的核心角色中降级，让我们所有的设备无缝同步。” 这个声明听起来像是 iCloud 是第一个扮演这个角色的产品。这是错误的。iCloud 只是 Apple 针对其他公司首先开发的概念的解决方案。此外，iCloud 是为 Apple 客户设计的，而不是一般的计算机。其他公司的优点是率先为消费者提供云计算解决方案。iCloud 于 2011 年 10 月推出，而其他公司更早地提供了解决方案。举几个著名的例子：Dropbox 始于 2008 年，Box.net 始于 2005 年，而微软于 2008 年开始使用 Windows Live Mesh。
史蒂夫乔布斯 - 有缺陷的书
不要误会我的意思，这本书读起来很有趣。只是按照史蒂夫(Steve)成功的产品发布的传统，几乎没有时间花在打磨和圆润上。通过阅读本书，您肯定会更好地了解史蒂夫(Steve)作为一个人的身份以及他的真实生活故事(life story)。就像史蒂夫(Steve)的生活一样，有很多起起落落。当这本书开始变得非常令人兴奋时，你就会有一些让事情变慢的段落，只是为了让故事稍后变得忙碌。我喜欢阅读关于史蒂夫(Steve)的背景和他寻找亲生母亲的追求、他陷入困境的青春和(youth and adventures)极端饮食习惯的冒险、他对精神生活的追寻(enlightenment and passion)对LSD 和酸的(LSD and acid)启蒙和热情。我对他的恶作剧笑了起来，并且很高兴了解他和沃兹尼亚克(Wozniak)如何开始冒险，后来成为苹果公司(Apple)- 世界上最有价值的科技公司之一。我真的很不喜欢他如何处理第一次当父亲的消息，拒绝为女儿承担责任。我也为他多么愚蠢地忽视他的癌症以及他花了多少时间承认他需要手术来挽救自己的生命而感到难过。大多数时候，这本书都能激起人们的感情和了解更多的欲望。这真的很好。然而，有几件事我很想了解更多，比如关于他妻子的更多细节、她的个性和她的工作。史蒂夫(Steve)以前 的 关系得到 了 相当 多 的 关注 ,但 没有 足够 深入 地 报道 那个 一生 大部分 时间 都 在史蒂夫(Steve)身边 的 女人 ——劳伦鲍威尔(Laurene Powell)。如果能获得更多关于史蒂夫(Steve)是如何被养父母抚养长大的细节，而不仅仅是他们试图分享的价值观的“神话”观点，以及他们为让他过上更好的生活而做出的牺牲，以及更多成功的机会。更多地了解他们作为真正的父母的身份将有助于了解史蒂夫(Steve)不同寻常的个性的更多方面。
史蒂夫乔布斯 - 有缺陷的人
这本书最棒的地方之一是它展示了史蒂夫乔布斯(Steve Jobs)作为一个人是多么的有缺陷。他远非完美，但他以很少有人能做到的方式取得了成功。他的故事表明，只要对你选择做的事情充满热情，你就能对世界产生多大的影响。
说到史蒂夫乔布斯(Steve Jobs)，这本书表明史蒂夫(Steve)的品质并不完全是媒体（有时甚至是本书的作者）所宣扬的那些，他愿意为了自己的个性和成就(personality and achievements)大肆夸大自己耸人听闻的。在我看来，读完这本书后，我可以说史蒂夫(Steve)的主要优势是：
- 史蒂夫乔布斯(Steve Jobs)是一个不懈的梦想家。他一直梦想着我们希望如何改变世界，并轻松地将自己的信念、呈现给他的想法和对他人失败的观察联系起来。他不断地努力微调他梦想的细节，因此他能够坚定而清晰(conviction and clarity)地谈论它们，让其他人相信它们的重要性和伟大(importance and greatness)。
- 史蒂夫(Steve)是一个伟大的表演者和营销者(showman and marketer)。他的产品发布大多是杰作，总是引起人们的兴趣和(interest and word)口碑。
- 他是一个强有力的谈判者，能够实现许多其他人无法实现的目标，并且在他所做的大多数商业交易中都能如愿以偿。
- 他是一个完美主义者，对自己重要的事情，甚至关心别人认为毫无意义的细节。这使他和他的公司能够开发出在竞争中脱颖而出的产品。
然而，他确实有很多缺点，有些和他的长处一样大：
- 史蒂夫乔布斯(Steve Jobs)冷酷无情，大多数时候对他人的感受、欲望和愿望缺乏同理心。不幸的是，即使是对他非常关心的人，他也表现出这种冷酷无情。
- 他对做出真正重大的决定犹豫不决，有时甚至对自己的行为负责。这方面的一些例子是，他承认自己实际上是一位父亲并为他的第一个女儿负责，决定他是否应该回到苹果公司(Apple)发挥积极作用，或者以后是否应该成为代理首席执行官(CEO)（而不是临时首席执行官(CEO)） )，决定他是否应该听从医生的建议进行手术和治疗癌症等。
- 史蒂夫乔布斯(Steve Jobs)是个控制狂(control freak)。这反映在Apple(Apple)提供的产品和服务（世界上最“封闭”的一些）和他的个人生活中。例如，在他对每一个细节，甚至是洗衣机的(washing machine)类型和品牌(type and brand)都完全满意之前，他会拒绝完全装修和装备他的房子。他这样做了，即使这意味着他和与他一起生活的人都无法轻松获得舒适生活所需的一切。
- 他的饮食和健康习惯(eating and health habits)很不平衡。他们促成了导致他死亡的健康问题比他们应该的更糟。
- 他对世界有非常偏见和个人的看法。这将导致他很容易将竞争对手视为垃圾，即使他们比苹果(Apple)更成功。尽管微软(Microsoft)在许多技术领域占据主导地位并将继续这样做，但他轻松地宣称微软无关紧要。(Microsoft)他还将宣称苹果(Apple)是一家经受住时间考验的公司。这是他的一厢情愿，因为真正考验苹果(Apple)能持续多久和成功的时间才开始，他已经不在了。
判决
如果你是Steve 或 Apple(Steve or Apple)产品的粉丝，并且想了解更多关于它们的历史，你应该阅读这本书。尽管它有很多不完美之处，而且它的写作方式可以改进，但很可能是唯一一本包含如此多关于史蒂夫(Steve)生平的内部细节和信息的传记。尽管我不是苹果(Apple)公司的粉丝，但我一直很喜欢观看和聆听史蒂夫(Steve)的演讲和产品发布。我也非常尊重他的工作和成就(work and achievements)。这本书帮助我更多地了解了他的真实身份，并对他的长处和短处有了更扎实的认识。事实证明，他并不是真正的神。他是我们中的一员……人类！
The Book Steve Jobs Would Not Have Approved: The Biography of Steve Jobs
Rеading the title of this book review - I'm sure you have an ironic smile on уour face. Why would a blog about Windows, for Windowѕ users, review a book аbout Steve Jobs? Because no matter how muсh he berated Mіcrosoft and Windows, Steve Jobs had a great influence on the tech world and contribυted to the exciting & privileged context in which we find оurselves today. Should a Windowѕ user (or fаn) read Steve Jobs's biography by Walter Isaacson? Reаd on to find out.
Why the book is "shit"
While reading the book, I found it ironic how imperfect it is and how many reasons Steve Jobs would have had to tag it as being "shit", if he would have read it:
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Repetition - there are some ideas which are repeated over and over again. After reading them for the third time, they start to annoy you. Here are a few example of such ideas: "the core of Steve's & Apple's philosophy was tight end-to-end integration of hardware and software", Steve's black and white view that people, companies or products are either geniuses/perfection or bozos/suck, Steve had a laser-like attention and focus on priorities, etc.
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Flattery - at times the book has the tendency to inflate Steve's merits and make him sound like more than he was, especially towards the end of the book. While I can understand that Walter Isaacson owes Steve Jobs for being asked to write this book and all the good things that come with it, it would have been better to keep a grounded tone across the whole book, including its end. Reading statements such as "Was he smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius." or how Steve "created a corporation crammed with A players." is a bit too much. I am not saying that Steve did not have his moments of genius, but the way this is expressed in the book is a bit "flashy" at times. Also, regarding Apple, the simple fact that it has become a corporation means it is NOT crammed with A players. This is a huge overstatement and to prove it wrong there are plenty of examples of Apple's failed products, including recent ones like Mobile.Me or the iTunes software itself which is one of the most bloated software products ever.
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Misleading statements - which inflate the merits of Steve Jobs and Apple. Steve Jobs might have actually enjoyed reading them. However, they create a false aura, especially to people who are not that interested in technology and aware of its true evolution. Some of these statements are:
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"The iPhone turned mobile phones into music, photography, video, email and web devices." The author should have mentioned that phones were such devices prior to the iPhone being launched. It is not like the iPhone was the first smartphone ever. Its true accomplishment was that it made smartphones popular, the kind of devices everybody wants to buy. It made this niche more competitive than ever and it fueled great innovation.
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"The iPad launched tablet computing". This statement is again very misleading. Tablet computing existed prior to the iPad. It just wasn't popular and considered to be "the future" of computing, prior to the iPad being launched. Just like the iPhone, the iPad had the merit of making this niche popular, competitive and fueled real innovation.
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"iCloud demoted the computer from its central role in managing our content and let all of our devices sync seamlessly." This statement makes it sound as iCloud was the first product to play this role. This is FALSE. iCloud is simply Apple's solution to a concept developed first by other companies. Also, iCloud was designed for Apple customers, not for computers in general. Other companies have the merit of being the first in making cloud computing solutions for consumers. iCloud was launched in October 2011 while other companies offered solutions much earlier. Just to name a few famous examples: Dropbox started in 2008, Box.net started in 2005 while Microsoft started with Windows Live Mesh in 2008.
Steve Jobs - The flawed book
Don't get me wrong, this book is an interesting read. It's just that there was little to no time spent on making it polished and well rounded, in the tradition of Steve's successful product launches. By reading this book, you definitely get a better view of who Steve was as a human being and about his true life story. There are many ups and downs, just as in Steve's life. When the book starts to get really exciting, then you have passages which slow things down, only for the story get hectic later on. I enjoyed reading about Steve's background and his quest to find his real mother, his troubled youth and adventures with extreme eating habits, his search of spiritual enlightenment and passion for LSD and acid. I laughed at his practical jokes and felt good learning about the way he and Wozniak embarked on the adventure that would later become Apple - one of the most valuable tech corporations in the world. I really did not like how he handled the news of being a father for the first time and how he refused to take responsibility for his daughter. I also felt bad about how stupid he was to ignore his cancer and how much time he took to acknowledge that he needed surgery to save his own life. Most times, the book manages to stir up feelings and the desire to learn more. And that's really good. However, there are a few things I would have loved to learn more about, such as more details about his wife, her personality and her work. There was a pretty good amount of attention given to Steve's previous relationships but not enough depth in covering the woman who actually spent most of her life being at Steve's side - Laurene Powell. It would have been great also to get more details about how Steve was actually raised by his adoptive parents, not just a "mythical" view of the values they tried share and the sacrifices they made to give him a better life than they had and more chances at being successful. Knowing more about how they were as actual parents would have helped understand more facets of Steve's unusual personality.
Steve Jobs - The flawed human
One of the greatest things about the book is that it shows how flawed Steve Jobs was as a human being. He was far from being perfect and yet he succeeded in a way few people do in life. His story goes to show how much impact you can have on the world simply by being passionate about what you choose to do.
Speaking of Steve Jobs, the book shows that Steve's qualities are not exactly those preached by the press (and sometimes even by the author of the book), who was willing to inflate his personality and achievements in a big way, for the sake of sensationalism. In my view, after reading the book, I can say that Steve's main strengths were:
- Steve Jobs was a relentless dreamer. He kept dreaming about how we would like to change the world and easily made connections between his own convictions, ideas that were presented to him and observations of others' failures. He worked continuously on fine-tuning the details of his dreams and therefore he was able to talk with conviction and clarity about them, convincing others of their importance and greatness.
- Steve was a great showman and marketer. His product launches were mostly masterpieces, always generating interest and word of mouth.
- He was a strong negotiator, able to achieve what many others could not and get his way in most business deals he made.
- He was a perfectionist about things that mattered to him and cared even about details that seemed pointless to others. This allowed him and his company to develop products which stood out in a big way from their competition;
However, he did have plenty of flaws, some as big as his strengths:
- Steve Jobs was ruthless and most times lacked empathy towards other people's feelings, desires, and wishes. Unfortunately, he showed this ruthlessness even to people who cared deeply about him.
- He was hesitant about making really big decisions and sometimes even for taking responsibility for his actions. Some examples of this are him acknowledging that he actually is a father and taking responsibility for his first daughter, deciding whether he should return at Apple to play an active role or, later on, whether he should become the acting CEO (instead of interim CEO), deciding whether he should listen to his doctor's advice about going through surgery and treat his cancer, etc.
- Steve Jobs was a control freak. This is reflected both in the products and services offered by Apple (some of the most "closed" in the world) and in his personal life. For example, he would refuse to fully furnish and equip his house until he was fully satisfied by every detail, even by the type and brand of the washing machine. He did this even if it meant both he and the people living with him would not have easy access to all that is required for a comfortable living.
- He had very unbalanced eating and health habits. They contributed to making the health problems which led to his death worse than they should have been.
- He had a very biased and personal view of the world. This would lead him to easily dismiss competitors as being shit even though they were more successful than Apple. He easily declared Microsoft as being irrelevant even though Microsoft dominates many areas of technology and will continue to do so. He would also declare that Apple is a company that withstood the test of time. This is more wishful thinking of his part, as the real test of how long Apple will last and be successful starts only now, that he is no longer there.
Verdict
If you are a fan of Steve or Apple's products and you want to know more about their history, you should read this book. Even though it has plenty of imperfections and it could be improved in the way it is written, most probably is the only biography out there with so many inside details and information about Steve's life. Even though I am not a fan of Apple as a company, I always enjoyed viewing and listening to Steve's speeches and product launches. I also had a tremendous respect for his work and achievements. This book helped me learn more about who he really was and get a more grounded perspective on his strengths and weaknesses. As it turns out, he wasn't really a god. He was one of us... humans!
