Walter Isaacson has written a monumental work. Simply titledSteve Jobs (Debate/ Rosa dels Vents), is the only authorized biography of the recently deceased founder of Apple and accurately describes all aspects of the life of the visionary creator of some of the most emblematic consumer technology devices of the 21st century.
To write the book, for almost two years, Isaacson held 40 interviews with Jobs, a character he confesses to having been captivated by, and another 110 with all kinds of people who knew him, such as Bono, the leader of U2; the singer Joan Baez, who was his partner; Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft; or the former vice president of the United States Al Gore.
However, the biography is not kind to the character, who crudely offers his dark sides: "He made a point of being brutally sincere. 'My job is to point out when something is disgusting instead of trying to sugarcoat it,'" "That made him a charismatic and inspiring person, but also sometimes, to use the technical term, an asshole."
The book covers all aspects of Jobs' life. From his birth as an unwanted child and given up for adoption, through his brilliant and conflictive character in adolescence, his use of drugs such as LSD and his passion for Bob Dylan's music, his adoption of Buddhism, the founding of Apple, his expulsion and return to the company eleven years later, or the creation of icons such as the iPod or the iPhone.
Isaacson is a former president of CNN and editor of Time magazine, and currently directs the Aspen Institute. He is the author of biographies of Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger.
It was Jobs himself who suggested Isaacson write his biography in 2004. The journalist and writer rejected it due to his youth. In 2009, Laurene Powell, Jobs' wife, told him: "If you're ever going to write a book about Steve, you better do it now." It coincided with Jobs' second dismissal from Apple.
One of the expressions that appear the most in the book in relation to Jobs is "reality distortion field." The origin of the term is in an episode of the television series Star Trek in which some aliens managed to make humans believe that they were in situations that did not really exist.
Those who knew Jobs attributed this characteristic to his personality, although as Isaacson pointed out to La Vanguardia yesterday in a telephone conversation, the most notable thing about the character is that "he was a romantic and sentimental." The writer explained to this newspaper that this "reality distortion field" that was attributed to him is due to the fact that "at the beginning of his career it served as an ability to inspire people to do the impossible."
"The main lesson of Jobs' life," he noted, "is the importance of the connection between the passion for art and technology." The author maintains that Jobs allowed him to write the biography because he wanted him to seek objectivity: "he did it this way to maintain my independence and give credibility to the book." The reaction of the public who has already read the work has been "very good." "Many people are deeply moved by his death."
The biography exposes unedifying aspects of Jobs, such as the harshness of his treatment with Apple executives and competitors or his belief that the consumption of vegetarian products made personal hygiene unnecessary beyond a weekly shower.
The only Spanish character who appears in the book is King Juan Carlos. Billionaire Ross Perot introduced him to Jobs and the two struck up "an electric conversation." Isaacson relates: "In the end, the King scribbled something on a note and handed it to Jobs. 'What happened?' Perot asked, and Jobs replied, 'I sold him a computer.'
In the last chapter, Jobs explains his motivations. "At times I have been hard on people," he admits, "maybe more than necessary." After describing what he felt the first time he fired an employee, he justified himself: "I decided that my job was to make sure the team was great, and if I didn't do it, no one else was going to take care of it."
In his last days, Jobs gave a unique description to Isaacson: "I like to think that there is something that survives after you die," he commented. "It's strange to think that you can accumulate all this experience and maybe some wisdom and it just disappears, like that." that I want to believe that there is something that survives." After a pause, he added that perhaps death was "like an on-off button." "Maybe," he concluded, "that's why I never liked putting on and off buttons on Apple devices."