Key themes
- Genius and cruelty as simultaneous conditions
- The reality distortion field — and what it achieved
- Apple as a design philosophy and Jobs as its embodiment
About this book
The authorised, unflinching life of Apple's founder; a study in genius and difficulty.
Published in 2011, Steve Jobs was based on over forty interviews with Jobs conducted in the two years before his death from pancreatic cancer. It was an immediate global bestseller.
Discussion questions
- Jobs was brilliant and frequently cruel. How does Isaacson handle this — does the biography justify his behaviour in terms of results?
- The 'reality distortion field' — Jobs's ability to convince people impossible things were achievable — is central to the biography. What is Isaacson saying about the relationship between delusion and innovation?
- Jobs was adopted and struggled his whole life with questions of identity and abandonment. How does Isaacson develop this — and how much does it explain?
- The biography is based on extensive interviews, but Jobs reportedly had no editorial control. How does this access affect what Isaacson can say — and what he may have missed?
- Steve Jobs has been criticised for being too admiring despite presenting so much evidence of difficult behaviour. How do you assess the biography's balance?
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