Steve Jobs By Walter Isaacson

As the title suggests, this is a book about Steve Jobs, the man who started up Apple. It's a big book, and there is a lot of things said in it.

The biographer at the beginning points out that he talked to a lot of people as well as Jobs, and Jobs tried his best to be frank about a number of incidents. Of course, the biographer does admit that he may have fallen victim to Jobs' "reality distortion field" like so many others. Nevertheless, he does say that Jobs is not a model human being or boss.

Jobs was most certainly a Jerkass, and he claimed that it's who he was. It is just as likely that he thought it was the only way to make it in the big bad world and that he felt that he was a lord much higher than the peasants surrounding him. There were signs of him being a Jerkass Woobie, however.

I need to state that I have used Windows computers all my life, and that I like Windows, if only because Microsoft and Windows are more accessible to Video Games than Apple and its Macintosh. With that said, the book does make it clear that Apple has a lot of Doing It for the Art on its side, and that they were able to pull off devices that Microsoft is unable to catch up with.

I thought it was interesting what the book had to say about Toy Story and how Katzenberg of Disney tried making Woody a Jerkass who pushed Buzz Lightyear out the window saying "It's a toy-eat-toy world!", pushed toys off the bed and said "Hey, Slinky! Help me out here!" and when Slinky hesitated, Woody said "Who said your job was to think, spring-weiner!" prompting Slinky to say "Why is the cowboy so scary?"

Fortunately, Steve Jobs proved that Executive Meddling does not scare him in the slightest!

Has anyone read this book?

Boy, there's a lot of tropes that could be applied to this book!

• Black-and-White Morality: Jobs adhered to this sort of morality. A person was either a hero or a bozo, and a work was either the best thing ever or a piece of $#!+. At least one person hinted that Jobs might have bipolar disorder.

• Doing It for the Art: Steve Jobs was, first and foremost, an artist. He never cared about money so much as making a piece of art he could be proud of.

• Even the Guys Want Him: Jobs could inspire this from time to time. He inspired this in John Sculley, which made things awkward, considering that Sculley was married!

• Fallen Creator: Yes, Jobs fell victim to this dreaded concept and that happened when Apple threw him out. He went on to form a company called Ne XT (which Apple eventually acquired), and became the CEO of Pixar. Ironically, he managed to redeem himself when Apple apparently had no alternative but to ask him to come back!

• Ho Yay: It seems that this was going on between Sculley and Jobs. Too bad for Jobs it didn't last.

• Jerkass: Oh, yeah! Just ask anyone who has spent a significant amount of time with him. They'll tell you the same.

• Jerkass Woobie: There were signs of this, especially when he ranted at one point that "You have no fucking idea what it's like to be me!" That would indicate that he wasn't very happy with himself.

• Loads And Loads Of Characters: Given that this book is about on a Real Life person, and Real Life contains at least 6 billion people, this trope should be in effect!

• Manipulative Bastard: Yes, he was! The other tropes should tell you the consequences of this.

• Narcissist: Yep! One of his old girlfriends said that he practically defines this! However, unlike the portrayal of narcissists in fiction, Jobs wasn't all bad.

• Never My Fault: Jobs usually had this sort of mentality for a number of things. A big one was how he felt betrayed by John Sculley after Jobs was thrown out of Apple. However, he ignored the fact that Sculley was supposed to keep him in line, and Jobs mistreated, manipulated and used him for no good reason. It's no wonder that Sculley turned on him.

• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Steve Jobs was the red one, and Steve Wozniak was the blue one.

• Small Name, Big Ego: This is not an attempt at Flame Bait, this is fact! This is what caused him to be thrown out of Apple. He did become a big name later on in his life, but Your Mileage May Vary on whether his name matched his ego by then or not.

• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: John Sculley's wife gave this to Jobs when she went to chew him out over his mistreatment of her husband. She told him to look at her, and he gave her his stare (could be a Kubrick Stare). She turned away, saying "Never mind. When I look in people's eyes I usually see a soul. When I look in yours I see a hole, an empty space, a dead zone." Harsh.

• Übermensch: Jobs never read Neitzsche's work, but Jobs was very much this. He followed his own rules and truly believed that the normal rules did not apply to him.

• What the Hell, Hero?: Many people had to do this with Jobs. It never quite stuck, but they had to try to make sure he didn't derail himself.

edited 4th Jan '12 6:06:31 AM by TiggersAreGreat

I'm not sure how serious you are about some of those...

edited 4th Jan '12 1:52:09 PM by silver2195

What do you mean? Which ones are you referring to?

Man! Today I attempted to make a YKTTW on Steve Jobs. First I find out that articles on people like Steve Jobs are a free launch. So I think, hey, no problem! I can just copy and paste the stuff on a page that has his name on it! Unfortunately, it turns out that the page is locked. Maybe the people in charge of TV Tropes are afraid that making an article like that would be Flame Bait and a big cause of Edit War. Am I wrong here?

edited 5th Jan '12 3:01:05 PM by TiggersAreGreat

Yes, the page is locked because many people have strong opinions on Steve Jobs; and the mods don't think that it will stay civil.