by Jason Snell
Steven Levy: ‘The war over who Steve Jobs was’
Speaking of “Becoming Steve Jobs,” here’s some interesting perspective from Steven Levy:
Isaacson’s eponymous biography of Jobs became a publishing phenomenon, selling over a million copies and making Isaacson himself somewhat of a celebrity. But privately, those closest to Jobs complained that Isaacson’s portrait focused too heavily on the Apple CEO’s worst behavior, and failed to present a 360-degree view of the person they knew.
Only now, over three years later, has their dissatisfaction become public. In a February New Yorker profile, Apple’s design wizard Jony Ive conspicuously insisted that, while sometimes withering, Jobs’s harsh criticisms of his employees’ work were not personal attacks, but simply the result of impatient candor. As for Isaacson’s book, Ive was quoted as saying, “My regard couldn’t be any lower.”
From Macworld (he was a monthly columnist in the early ’90s) to Newsweek to Wired, and including his books “Insanely Great” and “The Perfect Thing,” Levy is one of the very best writers to have covered Apple.
[via Viticci]