‘Becoming Steve Jobs ‘ was released today and authors Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli claim to have written an accurate depiction of the tech icon. The Official Steve Jobs book by Walter Isaacson wasn’t well received in the blogosphere nor by the people that knew Steve Jobs most intimately. Brian X. Chen and Alexander Alter of the New York Times reported ,
“Mr. Isaacson’s best seller did a tremendous disservice; to the Apple chief, Mr. Cook said in the new book, written by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, and excerpted in the April issue of Fast Company. It didn’t capture the person,” Mr. Cook said. “The person I read about there is somebody I would never have wanted to work with over all this time.”
Jony Ive, Apple’s longtime design chief, added his criticism of Mr. Isaacson’s biography last month in a New Yorker profile. “My regard couldn’t be any lower” for the book, he said, noting that he had read only parts of it.
Eddy Cue, Apple’s chief of software and Internet services, endorsed the new book on Mr. Jobs on Twitter last week: “Best portrayal is about to be released — Becoming Steve Jobs (book). Well done and first to get it right.” Apple’s iBooks account also tweeted last week that “ ‘Becoming Steve Jobs’ is the only book about Steve recommended by the people who knew him best.”
Not only are Apple executives praising the book, but Daring Fireball’s John Gruber who got an advance copy of the Book wrote:
“The book is smart, accurate, informative, insightful, and at times, utterly heartbreaking. Schlender and Tetzeli paint a vivid picture of Jobs the man, and also clearly understand the industry in which he worked. They also got an astonishing amount of cooperation from the people who knew Jobs best: colleagues past and present from Apple and Pixar — particularly Tim Cook — and his widow, Laurene Powell Jobs.”
I have read the Watler Isaacson book and am currently reading ‘Becoming Steve Jobs’. Already it seems to have given more insight into the man and the reason Steve Jobs was successful, not just the controversial. Walter Isaacson’s biography of ‘Steve Jobs’ big failure was that it didn’t capture the reasons why Steve Jobs was so successful. It focused on his outrageous stories and personality quirks; not his strength. The podcast Hypercritical Espisode #42, by John Siracusa does a good job explaining why that first book was such a disappointment. There are a lot of smart people that seem to think that this book got it right. I hope so and look forward to finishing it. Look forward to my review.