a non recommendation

The right tool for the job - perhaps I can save you a bit of money...

 

Earlier in the week I attended a two day event in Manhattan that brings investors and tech industry types together.   I somewhat belong to the later group and the mixing is interesting - particularly the one-on-one conversations you find yourself in that would probably not occur outside this venue. Mixing people up is often brilliant.

 

As four people asked what I thought about Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs it seems reason to write a bit about it.  Usually I stay away from making negative comments about books as I’m not a good writer and it seems wrong to judge someone who is a successful author.  But the book has serious flaws, so here goes...

 

I bought the book with a some misgivings as his book on Einstein biography left me cold.  It was an interesting read, full of details about his life, but Isaacson struck me as an incurious author.  There were technical mistakes (I’m a physicist) and, worse, directions that should have been explored.  It may be just his style and the fact I know the field and had read several biographies (if you have a scientific bent go for Subtle is the Lord by Abraham Pais)¹, but it left me with enough of a distaste that I wish I would have waited a bit before making the a decision about buying it.

 

I won’t give a review, but there are numerous technical and historical mistakes.  Some quotes are incorrect (for example he has Bill Gates noting a certain type of optical media didn’t make sense because it had too short a latency) - something I don’t like to see from a “name” biographer.  Some of these indicate it was a rush job, and I’m sure it was so it could be on the market at the optimal time, but deeper problems lurk.

 

Jobs told Isaacson he wanted him as the biographer as he could get people to talk.  Fair enough.  A remarkable range of people were interviewed and Isaacson appeared to have great freedom.  The problem is that Isaacson wasn’t curious.  He was getting bits and pieces of a larger story and failed to pursue several interesting paths.  The whole book felt like a series of Time magazine articles stapled together.  If he had been curious and followed these leads the book may have given real insight into how Jobs thought and how Apple, under Jobs, functioned.  As it is there is little new information on those subjects.

 

The personal side of Jobs is something that is of interest and perhaps he got more of this right.  Jobs does come over as the nasty self-important jerk many have reported, but I didn’t get any insight on how this was important to Apple and Pixar.  It didn’t seem to go deep enough.  There are aspects of his personality that I have been exposed to in a few meetings as well as one-on-one conversations that were simply missing.  I saw a bit of the nasty side, but not much.  What struck me was how intellectually curious he could be and how he took delight in playing with concepts.  I was struck by his sense of humor and think that may have been part of how he interacted with people. 

 

I wish someone who understood the industry and happened to be very curious had been anointed as the chief biographer.  To do a reasonable job would probably require quite a bit of time after Jobs’ death.  It seems like a lost opportunity.  Hopefully people close to him will write.  I’d love to hear what Jony Ive would say.  In the meantime we'll probably see more tone-deaf pieces like Gladwell's New Yorker essay on the "tweaker" ...

 

The book did serve the purpose of making it as a best-seller and perhaps that was the primary intention.   

 

I can’t recommend it if you are trying to understand Jobs more deeply and particularly if you want to understand the history of Apple, NeXT and Pixar.

________

 

The flaws of the book  did make me think about what Amazon’s Kindle Fire is. 

 

Apple is very good at discovering the core of something and moving towards simplicity.

 

I have a tendency to disregard consumer electronic reviews from industry pundits.  The lens they view the world from is often that of the engineer, which is one of the reasons Apple has been so successful.  Most of Apple’s competitors are primarily engineering companies making it easy for Apple.  Apple moves towards simplicity and the competition doesn't.  Apple has done a lot of things right, but probably not as much as it seems.  Some of their luster comes from the fact their competition is ill-equipped to make great products.  It is good to have incompetent competition.

 

If someone who understands the space comments, I listen.  Marco Arment does understand tech and user experience. His review, combined with notes from a few user experience people, tell me the Fire is an incompetent tablet measured by the bar set by the iPad.  You would do much better spending your $200 on a used first generation iPad.  You probably don't want to gift one.

 

Perhaps the real question is: "what is the Fire?"  It may look like a tablet, but perhaps it isn’t. 

 

The iPad wasn’t really a tablet as envisioned by Microsoft and many who believed Microsoft’s vision dismissed it initially.  It was a collection of functionality that would be useful to someone who is moving around a house and holding something as they would hold a magazine.  It was also initially seen as a consumption device, but it has much more flexibility and is finding new uses.  The iPad is evolving and creating new niches even now.

 

My gut tells me the Kindle is a pure consumption device that strongly ties you to Amazon.  It is a key piece of their evolving platform and, as such, can be somewhat orthogonal to the iPad class of tablet.  Think of it as an Amazon vending machine that you can carry around.  A machine that Amazon gets you to buy.  Pretty neat for them if they can make it work.  At this point it appears there are issues that may render it frustrating as a vending machine.  Amazon will have to address them if they want to grow their platform.  It probably makes sense for them to support iPads and Android devices too - after all, those are just customers coming in through different doors.

 

It will be interesting to revisit this in six months. 

________

¹ If you want to get a sense of how revolutionary Einstein's ideas are I would recommend learning a bit of special relativity if you haven't tackled it.  It only requires high school level math and is is exceptionally clear and logical.  You get a much deeper insight by playing with it rather than just reading about it.

Similarly trying to design a simple interface to something can be an incredible learning experience.  I've done a few and have found it humbling, but I've learned a lot with each try.  

Passive interaction does not lead to depth in a subject. You need to go out and engage in a bit of play.

 

 

Comments

[Brian]

Steve,

I agree with your assessment of the Isaacson bio. You hit the nail on the head with your observation that Isaacson is simply not very curious. He ignores (or doesn't grasp) the historic importance of many issues and developments. This makes the book often very frustrating, if not maddening, for the informed reader.

Another critical review I would recommend is that by John Siracusa on the 5By5 podcast site in the series called "Hypercritical." It is podcasts 42 and 43. Link: http://5by5.tv/hypercritical

[steve]

I don't criticize books often as I'm clearly not a writer, but this almost seems like a lost opportunity to me. I felt he had a responsibility to do a good job. The technical and historical mistakes are glaring and make me doubt the depth of other parts. This could have been an important book historically and even as a business book.

Hopefully, with time, solid works will emerge.

I should have known better after the Einstein book....

thanks for the podcast tip

[Jheri]

I am on my 3rd Kindle. I travel and read a lot and it seemed perfect for me. The screen is so legible it seems close to paper and it is so light. But I haven't used one since March when my second one broke. It was under warranty and was replaced, but I had been using my new iPad and found I could read my Amazon books on it too plus the PDF color articles that didn't work on the Kindle. There are so many other things the iPad does that I don't bring my laptop when I travel. The screen isn't as wonderful as the Kindle, but it is color. I wish the iPad was lighter, but you learn how to read with it quickly. It is so much more flexible that I don't need the Kindle anymore. It is just another gadget in the closet.

I don't know about the Fire, but it has to work a lot better than my iPad to get me interested. Plus it has to run the apps I use all the time. If what you say about the Fure is right, bargain seekers should get a used iPad. The roomies say the next iPad will have a much better screen. If that is true someone can buy my iPad2:)

[Alex]

Looking forward to the new IPHONE 5 to be coming out shortly - and to prove that Apple doesn't operate just on the legendary jobs - but based on the Apple team.