The "My Best Passage in Steve Jobs Biography" Thread

[SteinMaster]

I was reading Steve Jobs biography today on my iPhone. I thought to myself how wonderful it was to be reading about his life on a product he developed. What a great read so far. I also thought about starting a thread with some of the memorable passages from the book. I am just starting Chapter 6 and since came across this:

"I came of age at a magical time. Our consciousness was raised by Zen, and also by LSD." Even later in life he would credit psychedelic drugs for making him more enlightened. "Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there's another side to the coin, and you can't remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important - creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness..."

Funny to think Apple products were inspired by Zen and LSD trips.

 

[W1MRK]

Never tried it but my parents said it opens up your mind. Lets hope though that this passage does not encourage anyone towards illegal and dangerous activity

 

[Shrink]

Ah, the 60's. College, grad school, weed, acid, peyote....

I remember...uh...remember...uh... remem...

 

[SteinMaster]

Never tried it but my parents said it opens up your mind. Lets hope though that this passage does not encourage anyone towards illegal and dangerous activity

Yeah. I'm not a proponent of drug use either. I was a little surprised at some of the behavior. I guess some weaknesses come with greatness.

 

[*LTD*]

Thank you, Dr. Hoffman!

*Hugs iPad*

 

[Liquorpuki]

I'm on Chapter 18 and I've already lost track of how many times Steve Jobs has cried.

Seriously though, great read. Shows the guy's flaws as well as what made him great

 

[bearbear]

I'm on Chapter 18 and I've already lost track of how many times Steve Jobs has cried.

Seriously though, great read. Shows the guy's flaws as well as what made him great

I lol'd at this because I was thinking the same thing. There must be a couple dozen times where he cries.

 

[Dragula22]

There's a passage that describes Steve loving a bootleg of Beatles writing Strawberry Fields Forever.

He describes how painstakingly they change one note at a time to arrive at a final version, and how the recording made it seem like they were mortals.

Does anyone know where I can listen to this?

 

[RawBert]

I'm loving this book.
I laughed so effin' hard when I read he washed his feet in the toilet.
Earlier today I was totally amazed when reading how he told Sculley that he knew he would die young.
It's crazy... I hadn't cried since I was a kid. Until October 5th. Now I've gotten a little choked up several times while reading this biography. Even when reading about the intro of the Mac.
I feel like Seinfeld when he finally expressed one emotion, then Pandora's Box was opened. Ha!

 

[MorphingDragon]

My favourite passage was the one with the words.

You know the one I'm talking about.

 

[dndlnx]

I've had good experiences, and bad experiences with psychedelics. LSD as it turns out, more bad than good.

It's not something that I recommend everyone does.

 

[Peace]

I'm not advocating drug usage but the 50's and 60's were a lot different than now. Almost all creativity was inspired by some kind of mind altering substance. I would recommend against the usage of it now.

If it weren't for those times we would probably not have all the gizmos we have now.

I took LSD over 300 times from the early 60's to the late 90's but mostly in the 60's. I had a few bad times but do I regret the experience ?

Not a bit.

 

[Mord]

I'm not advocating drug usage but the 50's and 60's were a lot different than now. Almost all creativity was inspired by some kind of mind altering substance. I would recommend against the usage of it now.

If it weren't for those times we would probably not have all the gizmos we have now.

I took LSD over 300 times from the early 60's to the late 90's but mostly in the 60's. I had a few bad times but do I regret the experience ?

Not a bit.

I'm curious why you'd recommend against the usage of it? I could understand not advocating it given it's the type of thing you should really decide for yourself but you admit you don't regret it yourself?

It seems illogical and only really makes sense if you seem to believe that you're special and/or lucky for having had a net positive experience that you do not regret?

LSD stigma has always bothered me, I've personally always seen it as akin to life just compressed and intensified, sometimes you can have bad experiences and sometimes they can be a bit mentally scarring just with LSD it can really hit a lot harder, very occasionally to the point of inflicting PTSD.

I think the substance has a lot detracted from it due to the stigma that surrounds it and given the psychosomatic nature of the experience this essentially turns the stigma into reality. It's why psychedelic drug trials these days never use LSD, always psilocybin or other drugs without the same reputation but that have substantially similar effects. People don't have all the negative associations, they don't fear flashbacks or psychotic breaks or any of the more ridiculous lies that seem to float around like strychnine, it getting stored in your spinal fluid and it causing people to think they can fly.

I was pleased and not too surprised that steve was open about his youth in his biography, I found the passage mentioning his visit to stanford amusing, the way he asked students if they were still virgins (had they found love?) and if they had taken LSD (were they willing to think literally differently?)

My guess is he was merely looking for his own people, I'm glad he seemed to find them over the years.

 

[sammich]

"You know, Gina, Apple is like a ship, " Amelio answered. "That ship is loaded with treasure, but there's a hole in the ship. And my job is to get everyone to row in the same direction." Smith looked perplexed and asked, "Yeah, but what about the hole?"
...
"When Larry relayed this story to me, we were in this sushi place, and I literally fell off my chair laughing," Jobs recalled.

ROFL.

 

[imotionb18]

I'm loving this book.
I laughed so effin' hard when I read he washed his feet in the toilet.
Earlier today I was totally amazed when reading how he told Sculley that he knew he would die young.
It's crazy... I hadn't cried since I was a kid. Until October 5th. Now I've gotten a little choked up several times while reading this biography. Even when reading about the intro of the Mac.
I feel like Seinfeld when he finally expressed one emotion, then Pandora's Box was opened. Ha!

I'm just finished the Enter Sculley chapter last night. Very powerful stuff.

After a weighty, uncomfortable pause, he issued a challange that would haunt me for days. "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?"

 

[cambookpro]

Just finished it. Best passages, or funniest at least, was when some kid aksed him to sign a keyboard, but Steve said he only would if he could remove the keys that were added after he left Apple. So he got out his car keys, and removed the cursor and function keys, and then signed it and gave it back.

 

[Demosthenes X]

These are some of my favourites that I highlighted on Kindle while reading...

He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology, so he built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering. He and his colleagues at Apple were able to think differently: They developed not merely modest product advances based on focus groups, but whole new devices and services that consumers did not yet know they needed.

He was not a model boss or human being, tidily packaged for emulation. Driven by demons, he could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and passions and products were all interrelated, just as Apple's hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is thus both instructive and cautionary, filled with lesson about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

"I know it's possible I will die and leave Laurene with a half-built boat," he said. "But I have to keep going on it. If I don't, it's an admission that I'm about to die."

"I wanted my kids to know me," he said. "I wasn't always there for them and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did."

When the talk turned to tablet computing, some expressed a sense of triumph that HP had suddenly given up the field, unable to compete with the iPad. But Jobs turned somber declared that it was actually a sad moment. "Hewlett and Packard build a great company, and they thought they had left it in good hands," he said. "But now it's being dismembered and destroyed. It's tragic. I hope I've left a stronger legacy so that will never happen at Apple."