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Inside Steve's Brain
cgjherr writes "There are management insights to be learned from Steve Jobs? You're nuts. The only things you can learn from Jobs is how to drive people nuts. Or at least, that's what I thought up until I read 'Inside Steve's Brain.' Turns out, there are things to learn from Steve's obsessive perfectionism. Certainly I wouldn't copy every aspect of Jobs' management style. Doing that will likely get you fired, or at least reprimanded, in most companies. But there is some stuff to be learned from how Jobs designs products and analyses the market, and that's the view that Leander Kahney gives us access to." Keep reading for the rest of Jack's review.
Inside Steve's Brain
author
Leander Kahney
pages
304
publisher
Portfolio
rating
10
reviewer
Jack Herrington
ISBN
1591841984
summary
A look inside Steve Jobs' management style at Apple and Pixar
Chapter one covers in some detail Jobs and his relationship with Apple, both before he left and after he came back. He talks about exactly what steps Steve took to revive the company and restore the morale of the employees. As with all of the chapters it ends with a summary of what Leander thinks are the takeaways from each of the anecdotes.
Chapters two and three; Despotism and Perfectionism, talk about the two traits that most often associated with Steve. In Despotism Leander offers some stories about just how in control Steve is of every aspect of development at Apple. And Perfectionism, well, that's self explanatory. Though you'll probably find some things you don't know about exactly where Jobs gets his design and style influences.
Chapter four and five, Elitism and Passion, dig into how Jobs cultivates that magical Apple touch. He works his people inside the company and inculcates a sense of pride and perfectionism in the Apple brand. And he works the customer base through innovative advertising that promotes the ideals and the brand, even when the product was inferior when he first took over. In the short Passion chapter Leander talks about how he builds a wider sense of world changing responsibility in the company and through his products.
The sixth chapter, Inventive Spirit, cite several examples of how Jobs used his relentless management style to refine products, and most interestingly the Apple Store. He went so far as to develop a prototype store in warehouse at the edge of the Apple campus, and how he was willing to completely scrap the design of the store when it wasn't exactly right, costing him months of time.
The seventh chapter provides a complete case study on the development of the iPod and Jobs' role in that effort. It's intriguing to see how, while there had been MP3 players in the market already, Steve and his team were able to stand back and look at the larger picture of the iPod in it's complete product ecology.
The final chapter, the Whole Widget, covers what I think is the most important lesson to be learned from Apple; that they take care of the entire product cycle. Where other vendors take care of just one piece, the hardware, the software, the network, Apple takes care of everything. If there is a problem with an Apple product you take it to the Apple store and they fix it.
Leander Kahney is the same guy who wrote "The Cult of Mac" and "The Cult of iPod". He knows his way around Apple. He has a clear grasp of the history of Apple in the large and the evolution of their key products. His insights prove that he also has good working relationship with some of the people on the ground in Apple.
There are certainly some interesting anecdotes about Steve in this book. But it would be a mistake to look at the book as just some psychoanalysis of one man. Steve doesn't make all of the products himself. The developer and designers at Apple do. It's the culture of the company that Jobs' controls, but the people who work there are motivated by it and produce within it. What you really learn here is just how passionate these folks are about finely tuning everything about their products, their services, the whole deal. It's inspiring.
You can purchase Inside Steve's Brain from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Chapters two and three; Despotism and Perfectionism, talk about the two traits that most often associated with Steve. In Despotism Leander offers some stories about just how in control Steve is of every aspect of development at Apple. And Perfectionism, well, that's self explanatory. Though you'll probably find some things you don't know about exactly where Jobs gets his design and style influences.
Chapter four and five, Elitism and Passion, dig into how Jobs cultivates that magical Apple touch. He works his people inside the company and inculcates a sense of pride and perfectionism in the Apple brand. And he works the customer base through innovative advertising that promotes the ideals and the brand, even when the product was inferior when he first took over. In the short Passion chapter Leander talks about how he builds a wider sense of world changing responsibility in the company and through his products.
The sixth chapter, Inventive Spirit, cite several examples of how Jobs used his relentless management style to refine products, and most interestingly the Apple Store. He went so far as to develop a prototype store in warehouse at the edge of the Apple campus, and how he was willing to completely scrap the design of the store when it wasn't exactly right, costing him months of time.
The seventh chapter provides a complete case study on the development of the iPod and Jobs' role in that effort. It's intriguing to see how, while there had been MP3 players in the market already, Steve and his team were able to stand back and look at the larger picture of the iPod in it's complete product ecology.
The final chapter, the Whole Widget, covers what I think is the most important lesson to be learned from Apple; that they take care of the entire product cycle. Where other vendors take care of just one piece, the hardware, the software, the network, Apple takes care of everything. If there is a problem with an Apple product you take it to the Apple store and they fix it.
Leander Kahney is the same guy who wrote "The Cult of Mac" and "The Cult of iPod". He knows his way around Apple. He has a clear grasp of the history of Apple in the large and the evolution of their key products. His insights prove that he also has good working relationship with some of the people on the ground in Apple.
There are certainly some interesting anecdotes about Steve in this book. But it would be a mistake to look at the book as just some psychoanalysis of one man. Steve doesn't make all of the products himself. The developer and designers at Apple do. It's the culture of the company that Jobs' controls, but the people who work there are motivated by it and produce within it. What you really learn here is just how passionate these folks are about finely tuning everything about their products, their services, the whole deal. It's inspiring.
You can purchase Inside Steve's Brain from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
"iPod in it's complete product ecology."
OOPS.
"If there is a problem with an Apple product you take it to the Apple store and they fix it."
Fiction.
It's just not true. Ask them to figure out why your iCal isn't syncing with your dotMac or "MobileMe" account, and see how far you get with that. I was told to email for support.
Ummm...he was the one who led Apple into failure initially.
Really? I seem to recall him not being a part of the company as it slowly slid down the toilet. Hence the "when he came back" portion - he was off doing his own thing with NeXT. Between '85 and '97, he wasn't a part of Apple so I don't really see how it was he who led the company to failure... Or are you referring to the industry-wide sales slump in '84 which led to the power struggle that saw him leave Apple? Industry-wide is hardly his fault...
As a proprietary software vendor, Apple gives you (and supports them on their platform) more Open Source applications then that other major proprietary desktop OS who rejects them flat-out if that is any cancellation.
The Apple II had colour. I believe it was one of the first home computers to support it. At the time Apple's logo was a rainbow coloured apple to emphasize this.
Here's an interesting article from a few months back. Among other things it talks about Jobs' "hero-shithead roller coaster" in which subordinates or developing products often flip from "insanely great" to "shit" depending on his mood. Apple seems to be a highly sought after employer among geeks, but is it really worth that, if you're unlucky enough to be on Steve's radar?
The trouble with Steve Jobs
Well, then why don't you buy iWoz (ISBN 978-0393330434). I have both and preferred iWoz. It's a good read but the author tends to eulogise a bit... http://www.amazon.com/iWoz-Computer-Invented-Personal-Co-Founded/dp/0393330435/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216234368&sr=8-1 -Chris
Putting syrup in coffee is some form of blasphemy.
Jobs had one skill that was VITAL to Apple that Woz didn't: charisma. Much as I admire and love Woz, there is no way that Apple would have went anywhere had Jobs not been there to sell it.
I have to agree. I saw a video of Woz at a Commodore-64 anniversary event for a computer museum. He was rude to Jack Trummel (Commodore's CEO who organized the 64) during the audience Q&A phase. He may have been just joking in a sarcastic way, but it came across poorly. It was an interesting exchange though about "for the masses versus the classes". It should have been the 64's day in the spotlight. He should have praised it and waited for an Apple history event to brag about Apple. Not then and there.
Table-ized A.I.
you say you have a graduate-level degree?
You do know that here in America, they give out MBAs (supposedly a "graduate" degree) to anyone with a pulse, a way to pay tuition, and an asshole, don't you?
That is all.
Steve Jobs got where he is because he never worked for anyone else-- he's never been homogenized inside the corporate zoo.
Jobs worked for HP and Atari before Apple, although not for long.
Umm. Jeff B. did work for other companies...
From Wikipedia: "After graduating from Princeton, Bezos worked on Wall Street in the computer science field. Then he worked on building a network for international trade for a company known as Fitel. Later on Bezos also worked in computer science for D. E. Shaw & Co.."
Great job title.
And my postman's a customer-focussed peripatetic supply-chain-enablement engineer. He wins "postie of the month" awards quite frequently.
Well, at least you've demonstrated an ability to be a dick. Perhaps you can bring up your research skills next?
About 90 seconds with Google leads me to the details of a packaging Master's program, a history of that school going back 50 years, a long Wikipedia page on the topic and job listings under that title.
Remember: even if your main goal is to be an asshole, knowing even a tiny bit about the topic can help. You want to be an ass, not just look like one.