Thomas Q. Brady on Walter Isaacson’s ‘Steve Jobs’

Thomas Q. Brady’s criticism of Isaacson’s biography is spot-on:

When I say “analysis,” I’m not talking about psychology. There’s plenty of that. Isaacson seems to enjoy pointing out that Jobs never really overcame the pain of knowing that his parents gave him up for adoption. But all Isaacson’s armchair, Psychology Today thinking rendered from the source materials was a self-absorbed, immature, emotionally unstable control-freak.

There are two reasons that’s a complete shame.

  1. We already knew that about Steve Jobs.
  2. I know lots of people that could be described that way (we seem to have been breeding them in the US over the last couple (few?) decades), and none of them started a company in their garage that became one of the most valued corporations in the world.

What made Jobs different? This isn’t really answered.

Isaacson got the self-absorbed hypocritical asshole right, but the world is full of self-absorbed hypocritical assholes.

★ Friday, 2 December 2011