Steve Jobs

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Steve Jobs built Apple on a single, unbending conviction: control everything. Not just the software or the look of a device, but the chips inside it, the operating system, the store where you bought it, even the exact shade of beige on the case. That end-to-end control is what let Apple ship products that felt whole in a way rivals never matched — the iPod wasn’t just a music player but hardware, software, and the iTunes Store working as one. The same refusal to accept anything less than his vision made Jobs brutal to the people building it. He called employees “assholes” and their work “shit,” and could burn days arguing over the roundness of a corner. The genius and the cruelty came from the same place.

Walter Isaacson on SummaryShelf

Steve Jobs