Steve Jobs: A Biography by Walter Isaacson | US$20.40 | www.barnesandnoble.com
originally set for release on March next year, the official Steve Jobs biography – now officially titled as Steve Jobs: A Biography – is set to be available this November. well, at least that’s what Barnes and Noble is saying. the last check with Amazon, the March 6 date remains unchanged. interestingly, we also see an update to the biography’s cover on B&N’s website, as well as Amazon’s. under the unsurprisingly minimalist cover are 448 pages of content that is based on more than 40 interviews with Steve Jobs, along with interviews with his family and friends. the book is available now for pre-order from both B&N and Amazon for $20.40 a pop (hardcover). join me after the break for a full description of the biography.
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[quote style=”boxed”]Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues this book chronicles the rollercoaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. It is also a book about innovation. At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the 21st century was to connect creativity with technology, so he built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering. Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off limits and instead encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly even foes, former girlfriends, and colleagues he had once fired or infuriated. “I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that,” he said. “But I don’t have any skeletons in my closet that can’t be allowed out.” Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. Likewise, his friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted. He was not a model boss or human being, tidily packaged for emulation. Driven by demons, he could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is thus both instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.[/quote]