Inside Steve's Brain by Leander Kahney
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(Hardcover)
- Pub. Date: April 2008
- 304pp
- Sales Rank: 165,788
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: April 2008
- Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
- Format: Hardcover, 304pp
- Sales Rank: 165,788
- ISBN-13: 9781591841982
- ISBN: 1591841984
Synopsis
One of USA Today's Best Business Books of 2008-now updated with a new chapter
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 Steve Jobs 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. 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.
This expanded edition includes a new chapter on Jobs's very public health crisis and the debate about Apple's future.
Publishers Weekly
Throughout his storied Silicon Valley career, Apple CEO and Pixar Studios founder Steve Jobs has been labeled, among other things, an egomaniac, a Zen Buddhist, a business mastermind, a sociopath and a music mogul. Blogger, author and Wired News editor Kahney, who has chronicled Apple in previous books (The Cult of Mac), attempts to plumb the depths of Jobs's prodigious mind in this engrossing biography. The author devotes much time to the sensational aspects of Jobs' life, including his demeaning and ferocious interactions with employees, his relentless high-mindedness and fanatical attention to detail, clearly demonstrating how his tyrannical and perfectionist impulses have have shaped the award-winning designs and consumer-friendly products that have made Apple a juggernaut. Though it doesn't penetrate the Mac man's psyche too deeply, and sections on tangential figures like Apple design guru Jonathan Ive and Apple Store visionary Ron Johnson can meander, those searching for a telling portrait of Jobs's management style and its impact on Apple will not be left wanting.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Biography
Leander Kahney is the news editor for Wired.com and primary author of the Cult of Mac blog. He is also the author of two acclaimed books, The Cult of Mac and The Cult of iPod.
Customer Reviews
- Reader Rating:
- Ratings: 13Reviews: 6
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Where's the beef?by ThumbsUp
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January 27, 2010: This is a gushy tour through Jobs' life and history that repeats a number of stories but never strays far from the vapid side of reporting. Every negative about Jobs is carefully balanced against a stronger positive. I was interested to read about the Apple product development methods but while the author seems to have intereviewed some Apple engineers we just get the headlines that everyone already knows - they show Steve lots of prototype and the ultimate success of Apple is due to Steve's passion, intimidation and fanatical devotion to simple user interface. Do you need to pay money to hear that again? The best we can say here is that it is clearly written, and some of the stories are mildly entertaining. Overall: a series of ninth-grade level magazine articles, masquerading as a book, with no real purpose in life except to cash in on the Jobs hype machine.
Great Content -- But Desperately Needs Book Editorby Anonymous
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November 27, 2009: I would like to give the book 5 stars because the content is so good. But Kahney really needed a book editor because Inside Steve's Brain reads like a series of magazine articles. Kahney repeats words, phrases and concepts from previous chapters (articles) -- drove me nuts! Penguin Group US should know better! So, I docked it two stars.
That said, the content of the book is a fascinating look of the development of a business model that is highly dependent on the brilliant, complex personality of Steve Jobs. I was left wondering about Apple's $64K question: Is innovation and integration "hard wired" sufficiently into Apple, Inc. to continue it's wild success without Jobs? This book leads me to think maybe so. Then again... The content also made me wonder whether Barnes & Noble has sufficient control over the integration, delivery and user experience of their ebooks site and Nook -- I don't think so.
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