Posts tagged Steve Jobs

Yesterday, I went to hear Walter Isaacson talk about his new biography of Steve Jobs at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. He was signing books, but since I read the book on my iPad, I asked him to sign my iPad (with his finger, of course)… and he did.  Some interesting comments from the talk: Isaacson said the major takeaway from the subjects of his biographies—Einstein, Franklin, Kissinger and Jobs—is that smart people are a dime a dozen, and many don’t amount to much: “You have to be creative, not just smart.” Einstein believed that “Imagination is more important than knowledge” and Jobs admired “The crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.” Isaacson said that while our leaders are promoting science and engineering education, we shouldn’t put these subjects on a pedestal above the humanities. The life of Steve Jobs, Isaacson said, shows the importance of both the sciences and the humanities. Isaacson really liked Malcolm Gladwell’s article arguing that Steve Job’s “sensibility was editorial, not inventive.” The event reminded me just how important bookstores are as public spaces; while I usually buy my books online, and increasingly buy ebooks, I sincerely hope that Barnes and Noble doesn’t fall the way of Borders.
Yesterday, I went to hear Walter Isaacson talk about his new biography of Steve Jobs at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. He was signing books, but since I read the book on my iPad, I asked him to sign my iPad (with his finger, of course)… and he did.  Some interesting comments from the talk: Isaacson said the major takeaway from the subjects of his biographies—Einstein, Franklin, Kissinger and Jobs—is that smart people are a dime a dozen, and many don’t amount to much: “You have to be creative, not just smart.” Einstein believed that “Imagination is more important than knowledge” and Jobs admired “The crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.” Isaacson said that while our leaders are promoting science and engineering education, we shouldn’t put these subjects on a pedestal above the humanities. The life of Steve Jobs, Isaacson said, shows the importance of both the sciences and the humanities. Isaacson really liked Malcolm Gladwell’s article arguing that Steve Job’s “sensibility was editorial, not inventive.” The event reminded me just how important bookstores are as public spaces; while I usually buy my books online, and increasingly buy ebooks, I sincerely hope that Barnes and Noble doesn’t fall the way of Borders.

Yesterday, I went to hear Walter Isaacson talk about his new biography of Steve Jobs at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. He was signing books, but since I read the book on my iPad, I asked him to sign my iPad (with his finger, of course)… and he did. 

Some interesting comments from the talk:

The event reminded me just how important bookstores are as public spaces; while I usually buy my books online, and increasingly buy ebooks, I sincerely hope that Barnes and Noble doesn’t fall the way of Borders.

Steve’s final words, hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times.

Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them.

Steve’s final words were:

OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.

Mona Simpson

(Source: The New York Times)

Everybody knows by now that Steve Jobs was the son of an immigrant, a Syrian grad student who came to the United States in the 1950s. What fewer have noted is that had Jobs’s father tried to set up residence in the United States after grad school in 2011, he might never have received a visa, and Steve Jobs would never have been born.
Eric Schurenberg 
I always thought of myself as a humanities person as a kid, but I liked electronics,” he said. “Then I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaroid, said about the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of humanities and sciences, and I decided that’s what I wanted to do.” It was as if he were suggesting themes for his biography (and in this instance, at least, the theme turned out to be valid). The creativity that can occur when a feel for both the humanities and the sciences combine in one strong personality was the topic that most interested me…
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Abdulfattah “John” Jandali is a casino manager outside Reno, so he knows about odds.

And he must wonder sometimes: What are the odds of a Sunni Muslim immigrant from Syria producing two dazzling American talents, a son who transformed the world of technology and a daughter who lit up the world of literature, and ending up estranged from both?

Maureen Dowd

(Source: The New York Times)

My day in a picture: I spent a large part of the day blogging about the opening of Twitter’s new NYC office, but Steve Jobs’ death left me with a heavy heart.

My day in a picture:

I spent a large part of the day blogging about the opening of Twitter’s new NYC office, but Steve Jobs’ death left me with a heavy heart.

Exit the King: How did Steve Jobs become a wizard among muggles? And what will Apple do without its willful inspiration at the helm?