Two thousand years ago,
a Greek biographer named Plutarch found himself labouring in a messy workshop
filled with forgotten objects, precious relics, testimonies, alibis, and the
unverifiable. He was tackling the stories of Alexander the Great and Julius
Caesar. To bring some order to the chaos, Plutarch decided he would leave the
exacting details of his heroes' exploits to the historians, and concentrate on
what made these men people. After all, he was writing about lives not
histories. Plutarch wrote,
A short saying, or a jest, shall distinguish a person's real character
more than the greatest sieges or the most important battles. Therefore, as
painters in their portraits labour the likeness in the face, and particularly
about the eyes, in which the peculiar turn of mind most appears, and run over
the rest with a more careless hand; so we must be permitted to strike off the
features of the soul, in order to give a real likeness of these great men.[1]
Plutarch skipped over
distracting events that ruined neat line of his narrative - just as Steve
leaves the plates off his roadster to preserve its elegance. A frail 1880s copy
of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives sits on top of an impossibly balanced pile
of paperbacks in the corner of my cramped rental. I am wondering if Plutarch
was ever sued for libel by Julius Caesar’s estate. Author Leander Kahney said
he took out a million dollar defamation insurance policy just in case Steve
didn't like his biography, Inside Steve’s Brain (2010). Considering
Steve’s reputation, you can understand why Leander covered his a..s. All
books published by John Wiley & Sons were pulled from the shelves of Apple
stores one month before their unauthorised biography, iCon was released.
John Wiley probably had two reactions: Big friggin' deal - no one goes to
an Apple store to buy a book anyway; and thanks for the free publicity, Steve.
The book’s co-author, Jeffery Young was less than casual about Steve's tantrum.
''This guy is out of control. I'm just a little guy. I'm just one of many guys
Steve has destroyed over the years."[2]
Classy author, Walter
Isaacson, is putting the finishing flourish on Steve’s first authorised
biography. The former managing editor of Time Magazine has already
written biographies about Kissinger, Ben Franklin, and Steve's hero,
Einstein. His latest subject will have a lot to say about how his story is
spun. Walter’s book is destined to be more hagiography than
biography. Omitted from the author’s bio on the book’s jacket is the fact that
both Wally and Steve’s wife sit on the Teach
For America board of directors.[3] New
York Times says, "Cooperation with Mr. Isaacson could be a sign that
Mr. Jobs has emerged from his recent health battles with more of an interest in
shaping his legacy."[4] The
opening lines of Walter’s bestselling biography of Ben Franklin
demonstrates
that Steve’s story is something he has visited before:
His arrival in Philadelphia is one of the most famous scenes in
autobiographical literature: the bedraggled 17-year-old runaway, cheeky, yet
with a pretence of humility straggling off the boat and buying three puffy
rolls as he wanders up Market Street.[5]
Within ten days of New
York Times rumour, The Huffington Post ran a competition inviting entrants
to design the cover. One reader suggested that the biography’s title be iSaySo.[6]
Steve has previously demonstrated,
not only his desire to rewrite his own history, but also rewrite the history
The United States of America so that it can dovetail nicely with his own view
of himself. One of the coolest myths about Steve is the idea that he was a
child of the sixties zeitgeist. Unfortunately for him, he actually grew up in
the tacky seventies - a fact that can't be refuted no matter how many Bob Dylan
albums he owns. Nonetheless, in an interview in the documentary, Triumph of
The Nerds, Steve never lets an irksome fact get in the way of a good story:
Remember
that the Sixties happened in the early Seventies, right, so you have to
remember that and that's sort of when I came of age. So I saw a lot of this and
to me the spark of that was that there was something beyond sort of what you
see every day. It's the same thing that causes people to want to be poets
instead of bankers. And I think that's a wonderful thing. And I think that that
same spirit can be put into products, and those products can be manufactured
and given to people and they can sense that spirit.[7]
The “sixties happened in the early seventies”? Really, Steve?
My girlfriend walks
around the house talking on her iPhone. The image used to be farcical in the
eighties when only Wall Street brokers were rich enough to own a cell phone.
These days even the guy who lives in his car has a Nokia.
My phone rings. I
let it bleat for beat or two more than usual, then I pick up. It’s my son.
“I know you’ll hate
this, but I just bought a MacBook Pro.” I laugh. I’ve been keeping him up to
date with my progress on this book since I started three years ago. A little
defensively, I say, “I don’t hate Apple. I think they make lovely
products for people who have too much money and the luxury to throw it away on
something that will be obsolete in six months.” He laughs at the predictable
cynicism that is my signature. My son is also aware that I have a jokingly
slapped an apple sticker on my ugly and treacherous (but dirt cheap) Lenovo
laptop. I follow up with a compliment, “I’m just glad you turned out successful
enough to be able to afford the best things, mate.” Six years ago, my son bought
me an iRiver, rather than a more expensive iPod. It still works unlike my girlfriend’s
QE2 version iPod – the battery died last year.
Both Steve and my son share
the selfsame opportunistic and entrepreneurial spirit. Both spent
their childhoods rifling through garage sales searching not for toys, but goods
they could fiercely bargain for, and resell for exorbitant sums of pocket money.
I remember his excitement when he discovered a deluge of Apple computers out
the back of his school. It was only when he tried to use them, did he discover
why they were giving them away. He also began to understand why all Australian
schools had switched to Windows. He recently made a killing reselling iPhones
on eBay. He used the profits to pay cash for a new car. Not bad for an
eighteen-year-old. He tells me that he’s trying to print out flyers for his
latest business enterprise, but he can’t figure out how to use Apple’s printing
software. We have all been long time Windows users. He gave up on the Mac and
decided to do his printing at the local copy centre. We both laugh. I love that
he so industrious, but he works on too many things at once. Lacking my own
personal point of reference, I quote from his kindred spirit, “Steve says ‘It
comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong
track or try to do too much.’ He said that to Business Week in
2004". My son’s response, “Firstly, what the hell is Business Week,
and how do you remember all this exact stuff? You always say his first name
like you know him or something.” I laugh again, “Yeah, I know, I know.” I
remember something The Bible said about “Out of the mouth of babes”.
My girl finishes her
call about the same time as my son and I. “Hey, show me that iPhone a second,
Hon?” I ask. She hands it over. I place it next to my Android-loaded
Xperia X10. “Mine’s bigger,” I smile. Completely aware I am playing a juvenile
game. Her retort, “Yeah, but mine is cooler”.
I channel Bill with a
faux smug answer, “That doesn’t matter.”
[1] Plutarch (2001) Parallel Lives. (J. Dryden, Trans).
In A.H. Clough’s (Ed.), Plutarch's Lives Volume 1. New York:
Modern Library.
[2] Hafner, K. (2005, April 30) Steve
Jobs's Review of His Biography: Ban It. New York Times.
[3] Elmer-DeWitt, P.
(2011, August 16) A Peek at Steve Jobs Book jacket - Front, Back, and Spine
[blog]. Apple 2.0. Retrived from: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/16/a-peek-at-steve-jobs-book-jacket-front-and-back/
[4] Stone, B. (2010, February 15) Jobs Is
Said to Assist With Book on His Life. New York Times.
[5] Isaacson, W. (2004) Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.
[6] Bosker, B. (2010, February 25) Steve
Jobs’ Biography: Design the Cover of Steve Jobs’ Book [Blog]. Huffington
Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/25/steve-jobs-biography-desi_n_473864.html
[7]
Oregon Public
Broadcasting.
(Producer). (1996). Triumph of The Nerds:
The Rise of The Accidental Empires [DVD].
