The only authorized biography of the late, great Steve Jobs, is, as everyone knows by now, barely three weeks old and penned by Aspen Institute CEO and former Time magazine editor Walter Isaacson. I’m generally skeptical of “authorized” biographies, because they tend to be puff pieces. I’ve been proven wrong on two occasions: Open, by Andre Agassi, and now Steve Jobs. In a complete contradiction to the rest of his secretive existence, Jobs gave Isaacson unprecedented …
Read More
Tag Archives: Walter Isaacson
The Zen Master of Subtraction: Steve Jobs
It’s no secret that Steve Jobs was a practitioner of Zen Buddhism. I believe his teenage sojourns to India not only broadened his perspective, but had everything to do with his eventual design aesthetic, one of clean simplicity and uncluttered elegance, which influenced all of the Apple products developed under his watch. This most famous of Diane Walker’s portfolio of the man speaks volumes. It’s the first photo in Isaacson’s centerbook collection, and shows Steve …
Read More
What A Difference Two Less Letters Makes
I’m just finishing up the terrific Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs. I’ll have a review next week on OPEN…well, not really a review so much as an interpretation. One of the great stories in the book concerns the genesis of the “Think Different” tagline. It was 1997, and Jobs had just returned to Apple after 12 years away. He called Lee Clow, legendary ad man and creative genius of Chiat/Day, and with whom Jobs …
Read More