Inside Steve's Brain
by Leander Kahney
(Click here)
Book Summary Information
Author: Leander KahneyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2008-04-17
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Book Reviews of Inside Steve's Brain
Book Review: Steve's brainstorms
Summary: 4 Stars
There have been plenty of books that tell the story of Apple Computers' origins and the early days, and as correctly pointed out by some other reviewers there has been a lot of press about Steve Jobs and Apple over the years. However, I find it useful and interesting to have many of those stories collected in a single book, especially if it mostly deals with Apple's recent resurgence. Steve Jobs, somewhat predictably, does not feature too prominently in this book. This may be surprising considering that the book's title promises to deal with nothing less than Steve's brain. However, Steve Jobs is notoriously private person and his interaction with the media is very limited. There have been very few interviews that he gave over the years, and those that he did give reveal very little about his own personal life, musings or misgivings. Most of what we know about him comes from people who had closely observed him work, mostly his current and former employees. One such employee is Jonathan Ive, the designer that is the great driving forces behind recent surge of Apple success. He is the designer behind iPod, iMac and a host of other products. The book is very good at documenting how some of these products came about, but it still doesn't reveal too much as much of it remains in the realm of industrial secrets. Each chapter ends with a few bullet-pointed "lessons" that we are supposed to take away from the way that Steve Jobs approaches design and business decisions. Most of these are rather trite and are reminiscent of the self-help manuals. They also detract from the main narrative of the book, but fortunately they are very short and don't really affect the overall message.
To conclude, this is an interesting look at Steve Jobs and Apple, especially over the last ten years or so. If you are not a die-hard Mac fanatic who follows each and every Mac-related story that comes out in the press you will learn a lot about these topics. Even if you are a walking Mac encyclopedia, it might still be fun to read a book that documents much of the recent Mac lore in an accessible and self-contained form.
Summary of Inside Steve's Brain
Steve Jobs has turned his personality traits into a business philosophy. Here's how he does it.It's hard to believe that one man revolutionized computers in the 1970s and '80s (with the Apple II and the Mac), animated movies in the 1990s (with Pixar), and digital music in the 2000s (with the iPod and iTunes). No wonder some people worship him like a god. On the other hand, stories of his epic tantrums and general bad behavior are legendary.
Inside Steve's Brain cuts through the cult of personality that surrounds Jobs to unearth the secrets to his unbelievable results. It reveals the real Steve Jobs-not his heart or his famous temper, but his mind. So what's really inside Steve's brain? According to Leander Kahney, who has covered Jobs since the early 1990s, it's a fascinating bundle of contradictions.
Jobs is an elitist who thinks most people are bozos-but he makes gadgets so easy to use, a bozo can master them.
He's a mercurial obsessive with a filthy temper-but he forges deep partnerships with creative geniuses like Steve Wozniak, Jonathan Ive, and John Lasseter.
He's a Buddhist and anti-materialist-but he produces mass-market products in Asian factories, and he promotes them with absolute mastery of the crassest medium, advertising.
In short, Jobs has embraced the traits that some consider flaws-narcissism, perfectionism, the desire for total control-to lead Apple and Pixar to triumph against steep odds. And in the process, he has become a self-made billionaire.
In Inside Steve's Brain, Kahney distills the principles that guide Jobs as he launches killer products, attracts fanatically loyal customers, and manages some of the world's most powerful brands.
The result is this unique book about Steve Jobs that is part biography and part leadership guide, and impossible to put down. It gives you a peek inside Steve's brain, and might even teach you something about how to build your own culture of innovation.
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