The War Over Who Steve Jobs Was

“He could be a jerk, but never an asshole.”

The War Over Who Steve Jobs Was — Backchannel — Medium - Steven Levy

At that point, one wonders whether the difference between the two perspectives is a matter of spin. Yet from my own perspective of knowing Jobs for almost 30 years, I have to say that there is indeed something that Schlender and Tetzeli bring to their portrait that was missing in Isaacson’s. For sure, the direct quotes in the authorized biography rang true as being pure Steve. But only in Becoming Steve Jobs do I recognize the complexity and warmth that I saw first-hand in Jobs, particularly in the last few years of his life.
The official thesis of the book is that during Jobs’ so-called “wilderness” years, between his being fired from Apple in 1985 and his return in 1997, the prodigal co-founder gained management wisdom, patience and even a measure of tact, all of which helped him take the company to unprecedented heights. Far from a novel observation, this has long been the conventional wisdom. But never has this narrative been so carefully developed as in Becoming Steve Jobs.