The Second Coming of Steve Jobs

Rating:
Summary: One for the Collection
Review: I'm going to have to re-read this book as a result of some of the glowing comments by the other reviewers. My first take on "Second Coming of Steve Jobs" left me with a negative impression. I know more about Mr. Jobs than most I must admit, I expected to find an indepth biography about a man who shaped our lives in more ways than you'd care to admit. Instead I sensed a bias and a deep dislike from the author for his subject matter. I agree with the other reviewer, I found the writing to be choppy, jumping from one period to another resulting in a blurred and confused picture. You'd think that over the span of 15 years, that Steve Jobs has matured or changed very little. I find that immensely difficult to believe. While it is true Seve Jobs is intense, his vision has not changed and that we average blokes would not begin to appreciate. I don't know about you, but he's changed my life profoundly and I thank him for it. As for Mr. Deutschman of magazine fame, I always thought writers were supposed to be unbias and impartial. Not so with this writing.

Rating:
Summary: For people intrigued with Jobs, it's a solid read.
Review: I'm not a big fan of the writing in this book, but I am, however, a huge fan of Steve Jobs. My girlfriend bought me this book as a gift, and I honestly couldn't put it down (finished it in a day).

But here's the scoop:

-This book has very little flow. It's very abrupt and jumps around a little too much for my liking.

-I thought for a book about Steve Jobs, there was a little too much detail given about the beginnings of the guys at Pixar. There are probably dozens of consecutive pages with no mention of Jobs. That's not cool.

-Some of the stuff that i figured would be referenced later in the book were never, so my "huhs?" when i first saw them were proven correct. Like I said- strange flow. Bits and pieces of things were thrown in for no reason.

So why give the book four stars? Well, in all honesty, the reason I couldn't put it down was because of the information the book provided rather than the layout. If it was 300 pages of bulletpointed facts about Steve Jobs, I'd probably enjoy it just as much.

It's a short read (the type is huge), but it's really entertaining. If you liked Pirates of Silicon Valley, you'll enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes you like him and sometimes you don't
Review: If there is one constant among visionaries, it is their passionate belief in their cause, in fact it is probably the only precondition to being considered one. With that passion must come acceptance, generally of their great faults as well as their vision. In terms of computing for the masses, no one has been able to see further ahead than Steve Jobs, although Bill Gates gets more press.
While at a math conference in 1989, I attended a preview of the Next computer. After the presentation, I turned to my colleague and remarked, "I think we have just seen the future of computing." The Next was of course Jobs' next computer after his forced departure from Apple, which, like the Lisa, was simply too far ahead of its' time to be profitable. Now, the multimedia capability of computers is a given.
Like all cult figures, and Jobs truly is one, he is a very emotional person, with a powerful dark side. His violent tirades, which apparently dwarf those of Larry Ellison, the other notorious bad boy of computing. His occasional childlike reactions to negative conditions are more typical of a teenager than the leader of a major company.
Wrapped in this book, all of the features of the personality of Jobs and his actions leave you transfixed. At times, you despise the man for the brutal, childish ways he treats people. In those sections, he comes across as a thug. His mood swings from good Steve to bad Steve back to good remind you of a psychological study. However, at other times you feel sorry for him. With the advantage of retrospect, you understand that he has not been completely appreciated for his genius. Finally, at all times you admire his chutzpah. Would anyone else have the courage to stand up to Bill Gates and say, "Together we own the desktop market?" While true, the rates were 97 percent versus three percent in favor of Gates.
In a time of dynamic change, Steve Jobs is one of the most dynamically changeable personalities. Given the score to date, only he will go down as someone who reached the level of cult figure among the makers of the computer revolution. There are many reasons for this, most of which you can read in this book. His passion and actions remind you of other historical figures, not all of which are remembered with fondness.

Rating:
Summary: A Not So Insanely Great Job on Jobs
Review: If you want juicy tidbits about personal moments with Steve Jobs - then this is a good fast read - if you want any insight into Steve Jobs - this is a even faster read because there isn't any. Don't buy this book if you want any depth - analysis - insight - anything other than personal moments with Steve Jobs.

This biographical thing (let's not say a book) is a mish mash of accounts of Steve Jobs actions and non-action. There is the tyrannical BAD STEVE and the benevolent GOOD STEVE - but then there is the horrible writing of the author and lack of any direction - or any support to the conclusion of the book.

My Positive Note: The one good thing I would have to say about this book is all the history on Pixar and Next that I didn't know about....other than that....stay away and wait until someone comes out with a book that Steve Jobs can at least admit has some interesting - fairly portrayed points about his life or he writes his own book.

Rating:
Summary: New Perspective
Review: It's great to see a different perspective on Jobs. So many books are either too nice to him, or too mean. This one is much more balanced than most, and has testaments from all sorts of people in Steve's life, and covers the bases as well as is possible without Steve participating. The best part is that it really focuses in on a portion of Steve's life that is often ignored in stories about Apple and Steve- NeXT and Pixar.

Rating:
Summary: unhip, non-apple-using, business writer reviews visionary
Review: It's offensive to read a straight business reporter "interpret" a creative hippy visionary with quirks. Yes, you get "facts", but you have to translate them and read between the lines (like we independent thinkers always have to do with consensus stuff!).

Jobs deserves a great freak writer, not this FORTUNE hack! There'll be a great book bio of Jobs eventually, but this ain't it. Yes, lot of "data', I admit.

For example, natural food eating is considered bizarre. Yes, Jobs went to extremes, but how can you tell from this writer? No perspective.

I sleep on a Japanese futon--one guess what Deutschman would say about me...

Another key omission in this book is a virtually complete deletion of anything about computers! The Mac might as well be a toaster oven. I can't stress enough how misleading this is for the reader unfamiliar with computers in general, or Apple specifically--to say nothing about the difference between Apple and the PC, which eludes the majority of PC users!

Lot's of gossip and soap opera, though--only insiders have a chance to determine anything about this material, which ain't me.

Steve Jobs is a "nine fire" in Japanese astrology (search for: "nine star ki:). He's probably a 3 in the enneagram. Check Jobs out this way and it can help dissecting Deutschman's "hack job" research. Plus you should know the difference between a mac and a pc or don't even bother.

Rating:
Summary: Veganegomaniac!
Review: Loved the book.
Even after reading it, I still love Steve, too.
All that insanely great genius energy is fun to watch!
Wish they all could be like Steve Jobs.

Rating:
Summary: Hope Jobs writes his book one day
Review: Must admit I thought this book would be harder on Steve Jobs than it turned out. All the pre-published rumors and ?efforts to stop it made me think it would be real anti-Jobs. While I wouldn't like the book if I was Steve Jobs, I must say that Deutschman brings makes some aspects of the Jobs story quite positive in my mind. He paints a complex individual who truly has accomplished a lot in such a short time. I do hope that someday Steve Jobs tells the story from his view.

Rating:
Summary: Mother, this is Steve Jobs!
Review: My 86-year-old mother doesn't have an ATM card but she can use her VCR. She follows the stock market and asks me about Netscape and Yahoo, Intel and 3Com. The family agrees she's sharper than all of us together. So I'm sending her The Second Coming of Steve Jobs for two reasons. One it's the best read I've had in a while. Secondly it's a biography of an interesting man.

Deutschman is a terrific writer who zooms through a lot of esoteric Silicon Valley information in plain English. If you like to read biographies of Marie of Roumania, Edward Prince of Wales, Graham Greene, Madonna or any other public figure, you're going to like this book. It's a great story full of drama. Sure it tells some new anecdotes for computer devotees, professionals and groupies. Sure Jobs is the rock star of technology. But above all he seems to be a formidable charasmatic personality who contributed substantially to shaping our behavior at the end of the twentieth century. Time will tell if that's just a beginning, or if he's reached his peak.

Meanwhile his life is over-endowed with great stories and this book spins the tale. The man goes from working class to millionaire in three or four years; he goes from hippie zen boy to romantic dashing lover to family man in fifteen years (how many other forty-five year old men have reached that point?); he has already managed the invention of major hardware, software and manufacturing businesses; and he's developed an entire culture and way of life.

For me, three quarters through the book in one read on a rainy Monday, Deutschman offered two memorable observations. One refers to the fact that if Jobs had done a deal with IBM for the Next OS, we'd all be in a different place today. The other is that Jobs' personality is closest to a televangelist. I didn't know that piece about Next and IBM and it struck me as one of the weird turning points in computer history and made me sad for the clunkyness we struggle with on PCs today. Deutschman portrays Jobs' intensity as a personality; his changeability; his growth and maturing; and his inevitable conflicts.

I heard Deutschman speak about his book a few weeks ago and was expecting it to really trash Jobs. But it doesn't. It's a wonderful piece of a man's life. Perhaps we should compare it to The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy's great story of a rise and fall of a single human being.

Rating:
Summary: Good source for PIXAR history
Review: My rating, 3 starts, why? The author belives Jobs is Good.

But besides that, I finally could understand how Jobs get involved with Pixar, that was the reason the book was worth for me.