Biographies come in two flavors: authorized and unauthorized. Authorized bios are often part of the carefully managed package that is a public figure. They often have tasteful, sedate covers and are packed with facts and figures. They also often lack the allure of their flashier, more seductive unauthorized siblings.
Steve Jobs, which was released today, is a hybrid. There’s the cover, a somber photo meant to subtly recall the origin of the word “icon,” those straightforward, long-faced depictions of Byzantine and Orthodox Christian saints. Inside, however, is one of those wild tell-alls, complete with an illegitimate birth, drug use, and unmasked ambition. And it’s told by the subject himself.
Having received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and a million retellings of his life by everyone but him, Apple founder Steve Jobs approached Walter Isaacson, the president of D.C. think tank the Aspen Institute, about taking a long walk with him. That’s where Jobs proposed that Isaacson write his biography. “I had recently published one on Benjamin Franklin and was writing one about Albert Einstein, and my initial reaction was to wonder, half jokingly, whether he saw himself as the natural successor in that sequence,” Isaacson wrote in an essay in Time magazine. “His passions, demons, desires, artistry, devilry and obsession for control were integrally connected to his approach to business, so I decided to try to write his tale as a case study in creativity.”
Jobs’ biography may break records as the most popular tech biography of all-time, but it’s not the only one by far. As we celebrate the life of Steve Jobs, we also take a look at some of the other tech legends that have graced book covers, including one exec who’s employee calls him “an instrument of God.”
Steve Jobs
Even though the bio was just released today, many might feel as though they’ve already read it. Unlike an Apple launch, details, not rumors, have been circulating for weeks. But at nearly 700 pages, there’s still plenty to tell. Which is exactly how Jobs wanted it. When Isaacson asked Jobs why he’d chosen him as his biographer, he said, “I think you’re good at getting people to talk.” Jobs left Isaacson to it, his only review or input was regarding the cover art. When Jobs saw and disliked a proposed cover image, he asked to take over the process. The result is the Helvetica-headlined black-and-white photo of him by graphic designer turned photographer Albert Watson. It might seem like the most minor of concerns regarding a biography, but a few chapters into Steve Jobs, when talking about Apple packaging, Jobs says, “When you open the box…we want that tactile experience to set the tone for how you perceive the product.”
iWoz
Before Isaacson’s book was named Steve Jobs it was going to be called iSteve. The title was still up for grabs since the other Steve who had founded Apple went with his nickname for his bio, iWoz. Steve Wozniak’s tone in the book is simple, honest, and open. It details Woz’s recollections of his father, a Lockheed engineer, who, at one point, took weeks and weeks to teach him about atoms at a patient, basic level so that a seven-year-old could comprehend the complexities of a resistor. The tales of the early days of Apple and Silicon Valley feel like they’ve been told over dinner, because they were to co-author Gina Smith at Pearl’s in San Francisco and the nearby Hick’ry Pit. On the cover, former Apple chief evangelist Guy Kawasaki says: “Every engineer—and certainly every engineering student—should read this book….It is, in a nutshell, the engineer's manifesto.” The words are undoubtedly the highest praise to Woz, who talks about his father teaching him to be an “engineer’s engineer:” “I so clearly remember him telling me that engineering was the highest level of importance you could reach in the world, that someone who could make electrical devices that do something good for people takes society to a new level.”
One Click
Jeff Bezos’ biography also releases this week. Not only is it being overshadowed in the media, but on Bezos’ own site, Amazon. The Jobs bio is number one. One Click is in 847th place. Richard Brandt, who wrote The Google Guys about Sergey Brin and Larry Page, is the author. But we’re thinking for bios of the Google guys and the man who brought us one-click, we might want to instead read something written by infamous Google engineer Steve Yegge who’s worked for them all and has a way with words. Yegge misused the very product he was slamming, Google+, and made what was supposed to be an internal Google post public. He uses a good portion of his 4,500-word “Stevey’s Google Platforms Rant” to talk about Bezos, the "Dread Pirate" who "makes ordinary control freaks look like stoned hippies" and "most definitely does not give a shit about your day." In a follow-up public (this time on-purpose) post last week, Yegge forewent a traditional mea culpa and instead said he was going to start sharing some Amazon stories to “paint a more balanced picture,” starting with “Amazon War Story #1: Jeff Bezos.”
Ghost in the Wires
The tale of a convicted hacker, cracker, and phreaker who spent three years on the lam and was believed by the law to be able to "start a nuclear war by whistling into a pay phone" isn’t a run-of-the-mill autobiography. It’s the real-life story of Kevin Mitnick, who used Ghost in the Wires to set the record straight from the much-disputed book Takedown by John Markoff and Tsutomu Shimomura. Mitnick doesn’t deny his crimes, but he does provide context. The foreword is written by fellow phone phreak Wozniak while the book itself is co-written with William L. Simon. Simon collaborated with Mitnik previously on The Art of Deception and The Art of Intrusion, both of which revealed hacking techniques. His better-known work is another bio, iCon, an unauthorized telling of Jobs’ life story. iCon was met with such hostility by Jobs that all books by its publisher John Wiley & Sons, including its tech-filled “For Dummies” series were banned in Apple stores.
Inside Intel
In 1998, when Tim Jackson wrote a biography of Intel co-founder Andy Grove entitled Inside Intel, the company was grabbing headlines for chip speed, antitrust allegations, and Grove’s innovation-focused management style. Grove had outlined his approach himself in the book Only the Paranoid Survive: "Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction…Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive." Jackson was no stranger to running a company himself, starting up online auction service QXL.com a year after the book was published. Whether he culled business tips from Grove is unknown, but someone who did was Jobs. In Fortune, Grove recalled pulling Jobs aside for an impromptu lecture after an outburst: “ ‘You’re incredibly arrogant. You don’t know what you don’t know.’ His response was, ‘Teach me. Tell me what I should know.’ ”
Mark Zuckerberg: Creator of Facebook
The Accidental Billionaires (basis for the movie The Social Network) isn’t the most graphic telling of Mark Zuckerberg’s story. That distinction goes to the comic book Mark Zuckerberg: Creator of Facebook. It was written by freelance journalist Jerome Maida and penciled by Sal Field, and sold out in days. A new edition with expanded content will be coming out in January. Publisher Bluewater Productions says the comic book splits the difference between the Zuckerberg that donated $100 million to public schools in Newark and "the cold-blooded businessman who walks over people to get what he wants."
The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison
The title The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison and its subtitle/punch line “*God Doesn’t Think He’s Larry Ellison” sounds like it would fall under the camp of unauthorized biography. It’s actually an authorized retelling of the Oracle founder’s life. Author Mike Wilson covers Ellison’s obsession to compete with Bill Gates and the devotion of former employee Rick Bennett, who called Ellison “an instrument of God,” “an important figure in the life and mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,” and “nontrivially involved in a full one third of the mission of Mormonism” because Oracle’s database software helps Mormons keep track of those they baptized posthumously.
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