Reading Reflection No. 1
The book I chose to read was "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson. I imagine it is the book most people in this course select to read, but I was genuinely interested as I am a huge tech nerd.
1. What surprised me the most about Steve Jobs that I had not realized earlier was the sheer quantity of times he tried and failed and did different things. Before reading, I mostly knew Steve Jobs as "the iPhone man" that everyone recognizes with his famous turtleneck. As I read chapter after chapter of different products or companies he worked for, created, or attempted to "make big," I realized that "the iPhone" we all knew and loved him for was, in reality, one of the last things on a huge list of accomplishments and failures. Jobs faced more than a handful of failures (the Apple III, Macintosh TV, etc.), and instead of allowing himself to be defined by them, he persevered and instead came to be known for his successes (iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc.).
However, what I admire most about who Steve Jobs was his vision, creativity, and ability to pick himself up time and time again. As quoted, "If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away." As individuals, we are all prideful of ourselves. Steve Jobs was certainly proud of himself, and at times maybe even a little too proud. However, as Walter Isaacson highlights with this quote selected, Jobs had the ability to put his pride and who he was aside to respond to the rapidly and ever-changing markets as necessary. This ability Jobs had to do so allowed him to be on the forefront of creativity in the segment he was competing in.
What I least admire about Steve Jobs was his treatment of employees. While this certainly improved later on in Apple's life as a major company, I did not know how bad it was until reading this book. The fact that an employer would refer to their own employees as "***holes" for honest mistakes or for not meeting his extremely high standards certainly creates a demoralizing work environment. As a people-person, I believe leaders are meant to bring out the best in people through positive reinforcement. Seeing as his behavior was part of the reason he was let go from Apple, I can certainly understand their decision at the time in order to maintain a more positive work environment.
2. I think that the core competencies Steve Jobs most exhibited was creativity and attention to detail. I read that Jobs once took two days to decide if the corners of a computer case needed to be rounder. This small example really serves as a commentary on Job's persona overall. I believe that unbridled creativity on its own would not have been enough to get Jobs to where he was. It was through discipline and extreme attention to detail that Jobs was able to transform that creativity into something concrete.
3. The most confusing part of the reading for me was understanding the entire predicament with the neXT computers. I don't think the book did a great job making the situation easy to understand. I understood that it was Job's new company that Apple later purchased, but I don't think the book explained sufficiently the reasons for its failure. On top of this, when I learned that not even Jobs knew exactly who the "neXT" customer was, I was even more confused.
4. If I was able to ask Steve Jobs (if he was still alive) two questions, they would be the following:
a. Has Apple continued to follow the vision that you had while you were CEO?
b. Considering your use of the "reality distortion field", how do you think the balance should be between elevating a product through building a 'new reality' around it vs. focusing on actual improvements to the product itself?
5. If I had to determine what Job's stance on hard work was, I think it would be that hard work beats failure every time. That even with failures both ahead of you and behind you, only hard work can let you overcome them. He demonstrated this philosophy with his life work, always working even harder AFTER his failures! And I have to agree that it is a great philosophy to have.
1. What surprised me the most about Steve Jobs that I had not realized earlier was the sheer quantity of times he tried and failed and did different things. Before reading, I mostly knew Steve Jobs as "the iPhone man" that everyone recognizes with his famous turtleneck. As I read chapter after chapter of different products or companies he worked for, created, or attempted to "make big," I realized that "the iPhone" we all knew and loved him for was, in reality, one of the last things on a huge list of accomplishments and failures. Jobs faced more than a handful of failures (the Apple III, Macintosh TV, etc.), and instead of allowing himself to be defined by them, he persevered and instead came to be known for his successes (iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc.).
However, what I admire most about who Steve Jobs was his vision, creativity, and ability to pick himself up time and time again. As quoted, "If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away." As individuals, we are all prideful of ourselves. Steve Jobs was certainly proud of himself, and at times maybe even a little too proud. However, as Walter Isaacson highlights with this quote selected, Jobs had the ability to put his pride and who he was aside to respond to the rapidly and ever-changing markets as necessary. This ability Jobs had to do so allowed him to be on the forefront of creativity in the segment he was competing in.
What I least admire about Steve Jobs was his treatment of employees. While this certainly improved later on in Apple's life as a major company, I did not know how bad it was until reading this book. The fact that an employer would refer to their own employees as "***holes" for honest mistakes or for not meeting his extremely high standards certainly creates a demoralizing work environment. As a people-person, I believe leaders are meant to bring out the best in people through positive reinforcement. Seeing as his behavior was part of the reason he was let go from Apple, I can certainly understand their decision at the time in order to maintain a more positive work environment.
2. I think that the core competencies Steve Jobs most exhibited was creativity and attention to detail. I read that Jobs once took two days to decide if the corners of a computer case needed to be rounder. This small example really serves as a commentary on Job's persona overall. I believe that unbridled creativity on its own would not have been enough to get Jobs to where he was. It was through discipline and extreme attention to detail that Jobs was able to transform that creativity into something concrete.
3. The most confusing part of the reading for me was understanding the entire predicament with the neXT computers. I don't think the book did a great job making the situation easy to understand. I understood that it was Job's new company that Apple later purchased, but I don't think the book explained sufficiently the reasons for its failure. On top of this, when I learned that not even Jobs knew exactly who the "neXT" customer was, I was even more confused.
4. If I was able to ask Steve Jobs (if he was still alive) two questions, they would be the following:
a. Has Apple continued to follow the vision that you had while you were CEO?
b. Considering your use of the "reality distortion field", how do you think the balance should be between elevating a product through building a 'new reality' around it vs. focusing on actual improvements to the product itself?
5. If I had to determine what Job's stance on hard work was, I think it would be that hard work beats failure every time. That even with failures both ahead of you and behind you, only hard work can let you overcome them. He demonstrated this philosophy with his life work, always working even harder AFTER his failures! And I have to agree that it is a great philosophy to have.
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