“Becoming Steve Jobs” is a book co-written by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli that has received some great reviews. Back in March of this year they came to the Apple Store in SoHo, NY (just a couple blocks from where I work) to talk about their book.
I wish I could have been there in person for the event, but Apple recorded it and made it available as a free podcast. The hour long interview was hosted by John Gruber of Daring Fireball and I highly recommend watching it. Here’s one interesting quote from Brent Schlender:
“One of the funniest things that I have drawn from all this experience of learning even more about him and going back over these tapes, and seeing the different behavior patterns at different times of his life is that there is a lot of consistency all the way through too. Yeah he grew and he changed, but there are certain themes that have come to make more sense to me. And one is really articulated well by Jony Ive when he talks about the reason Steve was always so blunt, was that he thought it was a disservice to sugarcoat things for somebody. In fact it was selfish to sugarcoat things when you’re telling someone that they’re not doing their job well. If you sugarcoat it you’re trying to make them like you, and that’s not the point. The point is to get the job done. And that’s the way Steve thought. He just could not be sentimental very much when it came to dealing with the products. Yeah he could go way overboard. He could be mean-spirited. But there was a consistency to this. It wasn’t that he was trying to tear somebody down. It was that he was trying to get better work out of them. If they couldn’t do it, then they should leave, so he could find someone who could. Not because he didn’t like them, but he didn’t like their work. And so it makes more sense to me now, and it’s made me more blunt to tell you the truth.”
Listen to the Podcast
Go and listen to it for yourself. The free podcast is available as video or audio.
Buy the Book
If you want to buy “Becoming Steve Jobs,” the ebook and audiobook are available on iBooks as well as other retailers. Disclosure: If you make a purchase using my iTunes links, I may earn a commission (which helps support me).