Every genius has paranoia-the biography of Steve Jobs

Because of the global popularity of iPhone and iPad, Apple's brand has not only meant technology products, but also set off a new concept and trend of consumer electronic products. People began to like this series of products with elegant design, simple interface and convenient use. Apple is synonymous with exquisite, easy-to-use and elegant electronic products, just like LV and Prada are to luxury bags. Apple's products are like magic, which makes many people who have used them not want to change other brands, while those who have not used them are rushing. Jobs, the soul figure behind these products, has attracted more attention and has a large number of followers and admirers.

The biography of Steve Jobs was written by Walter Isaacson, a famous biographer, and was also personally appointed by Jobs before his death. One feature of walter isaacson's biography is that he is loyal to the facts and hardly expresses his own views. So before deciding to write, he first asked Jobs to promise that he would not ask for a sample book before publication, and Jobs agreed. After the death of Steve Jobs, it was sought after and topped the best-selling list. Not every best-selling book is a good book, but this one is really worthy of the name. The book is 1 * * * 6, words and records too many details about Jobs, which makes this book not as hearty as some biographies, but there are many trivial things, but it is really because of these trivial plots that we can know a real person behind the infinite scenery in more dimensions.

The book is very long, and it is difficult for me to separate any thematic modules from it because of the author's narrative method, so apart from what we are familiar with, such as Jobs's passion for products and his sensitivity to business, I have selected several aspects that impressed me.

Now we often say a word called overbearing president. Jobs is a typical overbearing president, but his focus is not on the president, but on "overbearing". No matter to subordinates or friends, companies or products, he wants everything to work in his ideal way. If not, he will be extremely irritable, angry and even swear. It is hard to see words like politeness, modesty and thoughtfulness in him, and he doesn't think he needs these qualities.

Of course, Jobs is a man of great taste and talent. Standing in the distance, we will only stay in such an impression, but it is another matter to associate and cooperate with him. Most people who worked with Jobs thought Jobs was great, but it was not pleasant to work with him.

Jobs's heart is very pure, and because of this purity, his world is black and white. Just like his attitude towards the product, if it is not an excellent product, it must be a piece of shit without any middle ground. The same is true for people. In Jobs' eyes, you are either a genius or an idiot and don't exist in ordinary people. In his pursuit of excellent and perfect products, he can't stand any "garbage" and any "idiot". Because of this, for most people, he is a very difficult person, irritable and mean. He never hides his dissatisfaction, nor is he subtle. Anything he doesn't like will be pointed out on the spot, and anyone he doesn't like, no matter who the other person is, will be humiliated on the spot. But also because of this, he will show his good temper, which he seldom shows, to the person he likes, or the person he thinks is a genius.

When he was about a teenager, Jobs became fascinated by Zen Buddhism in the East. When he was a student, he began to follow some Zen communicators in the United States. Since then, he has started meditation practice and strict vegetarian diet. Later, I came to India to spend more than 8 months as an ascetic monk with the same obsessed friends to follow an inner intuitive experience. Speaking of vegetarianism, there is a joke. For a time, Jobs insisted on strict fruit-eating, and he also asked for "fruits picked by virgins in the moonlight", which troubled his family very much.

The influence of meditation on Jobs, like vegetarianism, runs through his whole life. It is reflected in his life that he advocates minimalist life extremely, and in his products that he only makes a few exquisite products. Now we know that Apple doesn't have many products. There is only one mobile phone called iPhone, and there is only one tablet called iPad. But at the end of last century, Apple was imitating SONY's strategy and developing a wide range of products and series for consumers to choose from. That's why Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 and cut down 7% of the production line, turning losses into profits in one year.

Life-long meditation practice and strict vegetarianism are a way for Jobs to pursue intuitive experience, which has great influence on him personally and Apple. What we know about Apple's products is that it's complicated and simple, but it's not easy to do it. It is the extreme concentration and only attention to the essence of things brought by years of meditation that makes it easier for Jobs to grasp the core of things when building products, and only focus on the core. This kind of concentration makes him dare to delete all kinds of things that he thinks are redundant.

If you have no idea about meditation, you can refer to one of my previous reading notes, Meditation, Improving Your Concentration.

The word "reality distortion field" is the first time I have seen it in this biography. It comes from the movie "Star Trek", especially when aliens build a new world through spiritual power. Here, it describes a special magic of Jobs, that is, the aura he carries can make things around him change according to his wishes. It sounds fantastic, in fact, it's a bit like a sentence: when you really want to do something, the whole universe will help you.

Steve Jobs' reality distortion field used his terrible eyes, eloquent expression and his urgent desire to distort the facts to achieve his goal. Many people who have felt the force field of Jobs will say: Sometimes I think it is completely impossible, but when Jobs stood in front of me and told me that it would be possible, I believed it inexplicably and finally realized it.

Jobs's reality distortion field works most of the time, but there are exceptions. After Steve Jobs was diagnosed with cancer, he refused to listen to the dissuasion of doctors and his family, insisted on not having surgery, and tried to treat the disease with a strict vegetarian diet, which delayed him for half a year and missed the best time for surgical treatment. It is a pity.

I've been reading this book off and on for a month. Its brilliance comes from two aspects. On the one hand, Jobs himself makes people curious. On the other hand, walter isaacson's biography makes you feel that you are reading more like a rigorous academic work than a literary work, which makes the characters more realistic than simply deified. He will mercilessly reveal the advantages and talents of the characters, and will also mercilessly expose their personality defects. There is too much content in this book, so it is especially recommended that friends who like reading biographies or are curious about Jobs have time to read it.