Steve Jobs (史蒂夫•乔布斯传)(美国版) 精装 – 2011年10月24日

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史蒂夫•乔布斯本人表示，《史蒂夫•乔布斯传》也涉及到他曾经犯过的错误、失败的经历以及私生活，有些事情是他自认为并不得意的，但没有什么是不可以公诸于众的。尽管史蒂夫•乔布斯给予《史蒂夫•乔布斯传》的采访和创作全面的配合，但他对内容从不干涉，也不要求出版前阅读全文的权利。对于任何资源和关联的人，他都不设限，甚至鼓励他所熟知的人袒露出自己的心声。谈及和史蒂夫•乔布斯共过事的人以及竞争对手，史蒂夫•乔布斯直言不讳，甚至尖酸刻薄。史蒂夫•乔布斯的激情、精力、欲望、完美主义、艺术修养、残暴还有对掌控权的迷恋塑造出的商业哲学一览无余。同样，史蒂夫•乔布斯的朋友、敌人，还有同事在《史蒂夫•乔布斯传》里也为我们提供了一个前所未有的毫无掩饰的视角。

Over the past three years Steve Jobs worked with Walter Isaacson on his biography. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson is drawn from interviews with Steve Jobs, members of his family and key colleagues from Apple and competitors..--Little, Brown press release – 07.10.11
Following discussion online regarding differences between the US and UK editions of Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography, Little, Brown UK can confirm that the page length for the UK edition is 656 pages – the same as the US edition – and that there is no difference between the two in terms of content. --Statement regarding Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography
The saga of Steve Jobs is the Silicon Valley creation myth writ large: launching a start-up in the proverbial garage and building it into the world's most valuable company.
He didn't invent many things outright, but he was a master at arranging ideas, art and technology in ways that repeatedly invented the future.--Walter Isaacson's article for Time magazine

Amazon Exclusive: A Q&A with Walter Isaacson

Q: It's becoming well known that Jobs was able to create his Reality Distortion Field when it served him. Was it difficult for you to cut through the RDF and get beneath the narrative that he created? How did you do it?

Isaacson: Andy Hertzfeld, who worked with Steve on the original Macintosh team, said that even if you were aware of his Reality Distortion Field, you still got caught up in it. But that is why Steve was so successful: He willfully bent reality so that you became convinced you could do the impossible, so you did. I never felt he was intentionally misleading me, but I did try to check every story. I did more than a hundred interviews. And he urged me not just to hear his version, but to interview as many people as possible. It was one of his many odd contradictions: He could distort reality, yet he was also brutally honest most of the time. He impressed upon me the value of honesty, rather than trying to whitewash things.

Q: How were the interviews with Jobs conducted? Did you ask lots of questions, or did he just talk?

Isaacson: I asked very few questions. We would take long walks or drives, or sit in his garden, and I would raise a topic and let him expound on it. Even during the more formal sessions in his living room, I would just sit quietly and listen. He loved to tell stories, and he would get very emotional, especially when talking about people in his life whom he admired or disdained.

Q: He was a powerful man who could hold a grudge. Was it easy to get others to talk about Jobs willingly? Were they afraid to talk?

Isaacson: Everyone was eager to talk about Steve. They all had stories to tell, and they loved to tell them. Even those who told me about his rough manner put it in the context of how inspiring he could be.

Q: Jobs embraced the counterculture and Buddhism. Yet he was a billionaire businessman with his own jet. In what way did Jobs' contradictions contribute to his success?

Isaacson: Steve was filled with contradictions. He was a counterculture rebel who became a billionaire. He eschewed material objects yet made objects of desire. He talked, at times, about how he wrestled with these contradictions. His counterculture background combined with his love of electronics and business was key to the products he created. They combined artistry and technology.

Q: Jobs could be notoriously difficult. Did you wind up liking him in the end?

Isaacson: Yes, I liked him and was inspired by him. But I knew he could be unkind and rough. These things can go together. When my book first came out, some people skimmed it quickly and cherry-picked the examples of his being rude to people. But that was only half the story. Fortunately, as people read the whole book, they saw the theme of the narrative: He could be petulant and rough, but this was driven by his passion and pursuit of perfection. He liked people to stand up to him, and he said that brutal honesty was required to be part of his team. And the teams he built became extremely loyal and inspired.

Q: Do you believe he was a genius?

Isaacson: He was a genius at connecting art to technology, of making leaps based on intuition and imagination. He knew how to make emotional connections with those around him and with his customers.

Q: Did he have regrets?

Isaacson: He had some regrets, which he expressed in his interviews. For example, he said that he did not handle well the pregnancy of his first girlfriend. But he was deeply satisfied by the creativity he ingrained at Apple and the loyalty of both his close colleagues and his family.

Q: What do you think is his legacy?

Isaacson: His legacy is transforming seven industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, digital publishing, and retail stores. His legacy is creating what became the most valuable company on earth, one that stood at the intersection of the humanities and technology, and is the company most likely still to be doing that a generation from now. His legacy, as he said in his "Think Different" ad, was reminding us that the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

Photo credit: Patrice Gilbert Photography

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Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2011
It is difficult to read the opening pages of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs without feeling melancholic. Jobs retired at the end of August and died about six weeks later. Now, just weeks after his death, you can open the book that bears his name and read about his youth, his promise, and his relentless press to succeed. But the initial sadness in starting the book is soon replaced by something else, which is the intensity of the read--mirroring the intensity of Jobs’s focus and vision for his products. Few in history have transformed their time like Steve Jobs, and one could argue that he stands with the Fords, Edisons, and Gutenbergs of the world. This is a timely and complete portrait that pulls no punches and gives insight into a man whose contradictions were in many ways his greatest strength.
--Chris Schluep