Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs doesn’t go on sale until Monday, but advanced copies have been delivered to the New York Times, Associated Press and Huffington Post, all of which have been dribbling out telling insights and factoids about Apple’s former CEO.
We’ll be getting our own copy of the book — simply titled Steve Jobs — on Monday. Until then, enjoy these surprising peeks into the life and psyche of the 21st century’s most famous, if not celebrated, CEO.
Steve Wanted to go ‘Thermonuclear’ on Android
Jobs was livid when HTC introduced an Android phone that shared a number of iPhone features in early 2010. An excerpt from the book:
“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said. “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.” He told Google’s Eric Schmidt, “I don’t want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.’’ [AP]
Interesting to note: Jobs’ vendetta is still going on full force — just look at litigation battles between Apple and Samsung over patents owned by Apple. One of the most recent developments could be seriously detrimental to the Android platform. An Australian judge issued a temporary injunction banning the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab in Australia because it infringes on two patents held by Apple relating to multitouch. Because multitouch is such a broadly defined technology, the injunction could impede any Android product release in Australia.
Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. Image: Barnes and Noble
Steve Expected to Die Young
Jobs confided to former Apple CEO John Sculley that he believed he would die young, and therefore needed to accomplish very much very quickly in order to make his mark on Silicon Valley history.
“We all have a short period of time on this earth,” he told the Sculleys. “We probably only have the opportunity to do a few things really great and do them well. None of us has any idea how long we’re going to be here nor do I, but my feeling is I’ve got to accomplish a lot of these things while I’m young.” [Huffington Post]
Jobs’ now famous 2005 Stanford commencement speech expanded on his views of life, death and our limited time on earth. At that event, he said, “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”
Steve Became an Expert on Cancer Treatment — If Only Too Late
Despite pleas from friends and family, Jobs initially declined surgery to treat his cancer, waiting nine months before going under the knife. As the book reports: “The big thing was that he really was not ready to open his body,” Jobs’ wife, Laurene Powell, said. “It’s hard to push someone to do that.”
However, when Jobs finally did come around to traditional medical treatments, he did so with all the intellectual penetration of Apple product development. Or so reports the book:
“When he did take the path of surgery and science, Mr. Jobs did so with passion and curiosity, sparing no expense, pushing the frontiers of new treatments. According to Mr. Isaacson, once Mr. Jobs decided on the surgery and medical science, he became an expert — studying, guiding and deciding on each treatment. Mr. Isaacson said Mr. Jobs made the final decision on each new treatment regimen.” [NYT]
Jobs became one of only 20 people in the world to have all the genes of both his cancer tumor and normal DNA sequenced — a project that cost $100,000 at the time. The innovative treatments Jobs received would soon turn cancer into a “manageable chronic disease,” a doctor told him. Jobs told Isaacson that he felt that he was either going to be one of the first “to outrun a cancer like this” or be among the last “to die from it.”
Steve Was Intent on Setting Up Apple For Future Success
Acutely aware of his own mortality, Jobs wanted to ensure Apple remained strong in his absence.
“Hewlett and Packard built a great company, and they thought they had left it in good hands,” Jobs told Isaacson. “But now it’s being dismembered and destroyed. I hope I’ve left a stronger legacy so that will never happen at Apple.” [AP]
Jobs worked diligently to groom top talent, according to The Wall Street Journal, after his initial cancer diagnosis. Indeed, Apple reportedly has a program called “Apple University” that began in 2008 and acts like an MBA program to pass on Apple culture and business ethos to top executives — ensuring that Jobs’ ideals will live on long after he’s gone.
Steve Didn’t Think Apple Was Ready For Apps
The book shares that Jobs at first “quashed the discussion” when Apple board member Art Levinson attempted to persuade him that mobile apps would be the next big thing.
Apple board member Art Levinson told Isaacson that he phoned Jobs “half a dozen times to lobby for the potential of the apps,” but, according to Isaacson, “Jobs at first quashed the discussion, partly because he felt his team did not have the bandwidth to figure out all the complexities that would be involved in policing third-party app developers.” [Huffington Post]
Steve Was, Yeah, Sort of a Hippie
Jobs’ early experiences with LSD in the 1960s, along with a character-forming trip to India, are well documented. And it seems the effects of these experiences reverberated through the rest of his life decisions.
Jobs said that he tried a number of different diets, including solely of fruits and vegetables. When he named Apple, he told Isaacson he was “on one of my fruitarian diets.” Jobs had just returned from an apple farm. He believed the name sounded “fun, spirited and not intimidating.”
Jobs also said LSD “reinforced my sense of what was important — creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.” [AP]
The Beatles were one of his favorite bands, and he always hoped to get the iconic group’s music on iTunes. This was eventually accomplished in late 2010.
New York Times, Huffington Post and Associated Press
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